As an employer, one of the biggest threats to your business is employee theft and according to the National Retail Association, it is more common than most people think.

As much as 80% of employees are likely to commit theft during their employment and according to a global study, employees steal an average of $1890 (compared to a shoplifter’s average of $438).

So how does it happen?

Employees are more likely to commit theft because there is the illusion that they won’t get caught and usually they have greater insight into what employers care the most about. It’s common to think that disgruntled employees are more likely to commit such crimes but in most circumstances, it is the employees who are struggling economically. Below is a diagram that accurately depicts the fraud triangle, an idea that highlights the three pinnacles contributing to employee theft.

The types of theft committed by employees can include:

• Stealing products: As straightforward as it comes, usually employees will swipe products from stockrooms by either not counting them correctly as they come in or hiding them in the trash.
• Gift card theft: This can be difficult to detect and is becoming a more prevalent method of theft. Employees may provide customers with a blank card or they may issue false refunds and keep the loaded one for themselves.
• Sweethearting: More common in department retail stores, sweethearting is where employees do not ring up their friends and family for their items.
• Skimming: One of the most common types of theft in the workplace, skimming is diverting funds by either taking cash off the top of each cash register or miscounting it as it is being moved. Generally smaller non-noticeable amounts of cash is missing.

How can I prevent theft in my workplace?

Theft prevention starts at the beginning of your business journey. By being proactive about it you are less likely to experience theft within your workplace. There are a number of ways you can prevent employee theft, here are 3 simple ways you could start with:

1. Be involved

As a business owner or manager, one of the first ways you can prevent theft is to be involved in the sales process. If you are involved in the process there is less chance of there being any discrepancies or fraudulent transactions. It also gives you a good opportunity to learn more about your customers so you can improve their experience or expand your business.

2. Make the consequences clear from the get-go

As you onboard employees, make it clear that there are certain behavioural expectations they must adhere to and what the consequences are for not adhering to them. Presenting your incoming employees with your code of conduct and behavioural expectations at the beginning sets a precedent, as well as an internal checks and balances system should you not be involved in the sales process for any reason.

Additionally, regular review of these policies and internal training sessions on sensitive issues continues to remind employees that this is a safe environment and removes the likelihood of employee-based theft.

3. Show genuine interest in your employees

Happier employees are just better employees. When people feel valued at work they are less likely to commit a crime and consequently more likely to upsell or refer customers to your business.

Ways to make employees feel valued can include:

• Better pay and a better environment to work in
• Providing professional development and training opportunities
• Offering promotions within before advertising externally
• Setting aside time to recognise employee achievements such as 5 years at work or 100 sales made in a day
• Offering bonuses after busy periods to recognise workers

Invest in Your POS Systems

The biggest way you can prevent theft in your workplace is to invest in a modern point-of-sale system.

Acumen POS systems are custom-built to match the needs of your business and have built-in POS security. POS Security allows businesses to set an employee hierarchy via user levels and can specify actions for each role (i.e. Manager can have a refund code).

Acumen also comes with over 200 standard reports that include daily inventory tracking, daily sales, employee sales and miscellaneous activity reports. These reports allow you to stay on top of all of your goods and services, track all sales and ensure high-performing employees are scheduled during busy periods. The miscellaneous report also provides you with insight into common miscellaneous transactions or inventory miscounts that have occurred so you can rectify the issue before it becomes a detriment to your business.

Interested in upgrading your POS System to prevent employee theft? Give us a call and we will happily set up a demo. 

Your POS system is one of the fundamental pieces of technology that you rely on to run your business. As we have become more technology-reliant, the POS System has become more powerful; storing customer information, providing you with auto purchase suggestions, managing your inventory and delivering digital receipts via email and SMS.

It is the last thing you would want to be in a vulnerable situation such as a data breach or hack, as it possibly contains hundreds of pieces of personal information such as credit card details, names and birthdates.

So when was the last time you updated your POS System and reviewed user access?

What is POS Security?

POS Security is a measure put in place to prevent unauthorised transactions, malicious activity and data breaches. It is a necessity in all modern-day POS Systems for known and unknown threats. With POS Security, businesses can provide customers with a safe environment where they feel comfortable purchasing, and providing personal information.

POS Security generally is equipped with several features including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention software. A good security system will also go beyond the basics by including multi-access level software and remote access to the system.

As data breaches and hacks become more prevalent, it is incredibly important to have up-to-date POS Security in place. This ensures your customer’s safety, provides peace of mind and protects your assets both physical and intellectual.

How much will it cost my business if I don’t update my POS System?

In alarming news, according to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute, breaches (data and physical) can cost anywhere from $25,000 to $4 million depending on what information, stock or technology was stolen and how sensitive it was.

With new laws recently being passed (following the Medibank and Optus breach) about how to secure and store your information, now is the time to update your POS System.

Acumen’s Top Tips To Maintaining A Secure POS System

Update Regularly

One of the best ways to ensure your POS system is secure is to review and update it regularly. At Acumen Computer Systems, we recommend reviewing user access and enforcing password updates once a quarter.

By reviewing your POS System once a quarter you will:

• Notice discrepancies in stock earlier and be able to put measures in place to prevent theft.
• Be able to remove and update user access depending on the employee’s status
• Try to reduce any cyber weaknesses within your system.

Don’t make POS (basic user) a manager

One of the most common mistakes in retail is leaving one POS System as a POS Manager which everyone has access to. This opens your business up to stock being stolen, miscellaneous transactions and unauthorised discounts or charges. It also leaves all of your company’s data unsecure for anyone to access, which can be extremely detrimental to your business.

Instead, you should employ a multi-level security access system which enables employees of higher management to be able to process refunds, cash sales and order stock when needed. From there, ensuring that at least one employee with additional access is on shift is the best way to ensure a secure business.

If you haven’t already, create access levels

Acumen POS is embedded with multi-level security to limit the access of customers and employees. These are designed to provide the right employees with the right access to ensure they can continue to do their job functions. With these access levels, you can ensure your employees don’t have access to information that may cause harm and that you continue to provide streamlined and customised services to your customers.

Acumen POS Security

At Acumen Computer Systems we pride ourselves on custom-built POS systems with advanced security systems. Our POS security allows you to take full control of your POS system by ensuring that no employee has greater access than necessary.

It is a good idea to regularly review the access levels and update passwords as soon as you can to avoid vulnerability but if you require assistance, training or support throughout this process please give us a call to see how we can assist.

Prior to the wonders of technology, there were a lot of risks involved in purchasing and dead stock was a potential outcome. In the worst cases, it would leave businesses with a lot of product and a loss of profit. However, as the customer changes purchase decisions at a moment’s notice, our inventory management system can react accordingly. This enables businesses to improve their profit margins, and pricing structures and have faster reactions to changes in purchase behaviours.

What is Dead Stock?

Dead stock is inventory that is unsellable. Usually, it is because businesses have made or ordered too many of these items, but dead stock can include damaged items, expired goods and leftover seasonal stock. These items generally also have a low-profit margin.

How can I prevent dead stock?

Dead stock can be preventable with the right inventory management system in place. With integrated POS systems, businesses are less susceptible to inventory errors and can maximise their customer base and cash flow so they can continue to grow. At Acumen, our integrated POS and inventory management system provides our customers with real-time data on customer trends and profit margins to assist businesses in their purchasing decisions. And the system also has embedded POS reports to help businesses better manage their stock and cash flow.

So what are some best practices? 

Best Practices for Your Inventory Management System

1. Invest in Intuitive Software

Not all inventory management systems are built the same. Some, even in 2022, still require 90% manual input and are simply a storage box of your data. With an integrated EFTPOS system you are investing in intuitive software that predicts customer buying trends and updates stock and raw materials as each purchase order goes through. This results in less wastage of products and no more estimating how much you need.

Intuitive inventory management systems also make stocktaking a breeze and help businesses to grow and expand to multiple locations.

Go Mobile with AcuScan

Acumen has recently launched a mobile scanning application that allows you to scan and look up your products remotely. It works seamlessly with your Acumen POS and inventory management system and provides real-time updates of how much stock is on hand and how much you have left to sell. This is particularly useful for businesses that have a lot of moving parts and potentially make new products or kits using the raw materials available.

2. Utilise Smart Pricing Strategies

The second way that you can avoid liquidating stock is through smart pricing strategies. Determining how to price a product can be challenging, but with an inventory management system, you can track customer behaviours and measure profit margins to accurately price new or incoming products. By doing so, our customers have been able to avoid using Flash Sales as a means to make money and instead have developed a loyal customer base that is happy to purchase products at regular retail prices.

3. Review Reports

POS reports can be the missing piece to your stock issues. They provide an overview of everything that is happening within your business and certain reports can identify where stock is being wasted or where the business is losing money. With over 200 standard reports in the Acumen POS system, there are three particular reports we want to draw your attention to.

• Top 50 Gross Selling Products
  This report shows the top 50 products sold over a selected time period and ranks the products by their gross profit. It allows clients to quickly see what is performing well within their business and is a good indicator of if new products are a success.
• Stock Value Report
  Your stock value report shows businesses how much stock they have. Within this report, you can see the average cost of each item and the total value of the stock left on hand. It can help you understand where the dead stock might be or what is currently slow-selling and allow you to come up with a strategy to remedy the situation.
• Exceptional Items
  Exceptional item reports provide insight into products that are not sold often. Within these products, some might have a high gross profit margin because it’s a high ticket item but more importantly, it clearly identifies the products with lower profit margins that are not selling. This report will also provide recommendations on how to best manage the inventory of this product and insight into if products are potentially being undersold or sold under the wrong barcode.

4. Look For Ways To Upcycle Or Recycle

While we can try to avoid dead stock using our intuitive inventory management systems, it is not always possible. As business owners, the best tool in your toolbox is creativity. In the coming years, customers will be extremely eco-conscious and continue to pursue sustainability measures with corporations. This can make it incredibly difficult to just “dump products”. If the product isn’t expired and is just not selling well, look at ways you can remarket the product, recycle the product or use the product in a different manner. Some suggestions include turning waste fabrics into tote bags, donating seasonal items to a local charity and selling the working spare parts from damaged items. If you are struggling to come up with ideas, ask your customer base what they would appreciate.

Acumen & Inventory Management Software

Acumen Computer Systems design and develop tailored POS Systems with an advanced inventory management system that facilitates business growth and success. If you are experiencing an excess of dead stock or feel like your inventory management system isn’t assisting your business growth, get in touch with our team by filling in the form below.

The holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also the busiest time of the year for many retail businesses and their suppliers. For a holiday season to run smoothly, preparation is vital. One of the most important elements when it comes to being prepared is your point of sales system, as it can be the key to real-time inventory data, customer accounts, employee productivity and sales.

By preparing your POS system for the holidays, you are setting up your business for one of the most successful holiday sale seasons. Here are some helpful hints to help you get started in preparing your point of sales system for the holiday period.

1. Set up your sales and surcharges as early as possible

With an integrated POS system, sales and holiday surcharges can be inputted as soon as they are confirmed. This makes it extremely easy to be prepared for the upcoming holiday season.

When you set up sales prices in advance, your system will automatically discount prices that are on sale during the designated period, and it will alert your store managers as to when you need to order more stock.

By automating your surcharge for selected days, you are helping streamline the sales process for your employees, so there are fewer mistakes made and a greater amount of customer satisfaction.

2. Check your Historical Data

With your POS reports function, you are able to review year-on-year data to forecast customer behaviour and sale trends. The historical data can form the baseline for what to expect in profit margins this holiday season. Other benefits to reviewing the year on year trends in advance include:

• Identifying top-selling and low selling products during this time to optimise stocktake.
• Establishing days of the year where you see an increase in online and in-person customers to determine opening hours.
• Optimising holiday rosters for employees per year on year trends.

3. Update Stock Levels

During the holiday season, the last thing you want is to have low stock or run out of your best-selling items. With the pandemic and constant shipping delays, getting stock to your store on time can be harder than usual. Nowadays, Point of Sales systems are not just cash registers but comprehensive responsive inventory management systems that provide real-time stock updates. It helps business owners identify what is in stock and what they need to order. With an Acumen POS system, you can get updates when top-selling products are running low in stock and automate purchases to assist with inventory management.

4. Be Secure

Your Point of Sales System should have an element of security to it. The last thing you want to happen is for an employee to be mis-scanning a high-value product. With an Acumen POS system, you can delegate different levels of control to different types of employees, making it more secure than your typical point of sale system and assisting you in keeping things in control during the holiday period.

Before Boxing Day, it would also be a good idea to review and refresh company procedures, including price disputes, refunds, and inventory issues, so you and your employees are completely prepared for the holiday season.

5. Personalise your Holiday Specials

Customers love businesses that engage with them on a deeper level. Omnichannel engagement is a significant drawcard for repeat holiday buyers and continued customer retention. With an integrated POS system, you can automate emails, marketing offers, receipts and invoices that are entirely personalised to the customer, their company and their interests. By adding this level of personalisation to your internal documents, your customers feel appreciated and are more likely to engage with your business during the busiest times of the year.

6. Make sure everything is online

Following the pandemic, online shopping is very common, and industry experts expect eCommerce to overtake traditional retail during this year’s holiday period. If you don’t already have an online store, make sure to provide your customers with an online inventory guide and direct them to call you if they wish to enquire. If you have an online store, an integrated POS system can sync all sales made online to sales made in-store and allocate inventory accordingly so that every customer and employee has real-time access to what products are available. Recently Acumen Computer Systems helped Ted’s Cameras set up a custom POS system so they could streamline their inventory management and better fulfil their customer’s orders.

7. Set up integrated EFTPOS

If you are a growing business, a simple retail system may not be the best option over the holiday period. An integrated EFTPOS system is designed to mesh with your business processes to provide a streamlined experience of customer sales, inventory management and accounting processes. Most importantly though, it encourages contactless payment, making it safer and more hygienic for everyone involved in the sale.

Plan and prepare for your holiday season with Acumen

If you are planning for a big holiday season, get in touch with our team today about installing and setting up an integrated POS system. Acumen Computer Systems provides custom solutions for a range of businesses, including Ted’s Camera and De Grandi Sports, and we pride ourselves on being 100% local and Australian-based. Call us on 1800 228 636.

After spending the last two years in an uphill battle with COVID, businesses are finally returning to normal. However, normal looks a lot different than what it looked like in 2019. Everyone has changed the way they work, the way they purchase and the way they sell their products so that they can reach the maximum audience. But is reaching the most amount of people the metric that will change your business? With a new financial year upon us, now is the time to consider how to future-proof your business.

What is future-proofing?

Future-proofing is the evolvement of your business to meet your future demands. It is thinking ahead about how your business will succeed and what challenges may arise. By anticipating these challenges you are able to minimise the shock and potential stress it will place on the business and you are able to improve your customer’s experience.

What can I do to future-proof my small business?

1. Diversify your assets

You might have heard this on Shark Tank, but a business is more than just one product or service. It is also more than your Instagram profile or your brick-and-mortar store. In order to meet future demand, you need to diversify.

Diversification can look like a range of things including launching new products, introducing flexible working situations, or streamlining processes through new technologies, such as integrated POS. The key to successful diversification is to:

1. Start Small.
2. Listen to your key stakeholders. 

By following these two steps you can ensure that there is no major impact to your business and that you are continually improving and growing.

2. Rethink past strategies

One of the most common traps businesses fall into is this “If it’s slow, let’s have a sale.” When you are considering future-proofing your business, evaluate your past strategies and consider if they have been successful recently. This evaluation will provide critical data that will structure your business in the future.

So what if my sales strategy is not working? Well, that is an obvious sign that your business has attracted all that it can through that pathway and now is the perfect time to engage in new ways to attract new customers. Some of the most recent evolvements we have seen include:

• Businesses jumping on TikTok to promote services and team culture
• Individual Zoom Webinars instead of Trade Events
• Updating their technology to connect their online store to their brick and mortar store.

3. Start working on future demands

As your business begins to expand and diversify you should start working on those anticipated trends and develop preliminary strategies. Be creative with your ideas and use your imagination in this stage because those ‘out of the box’ ideas can really pay off.

If you are stuck and don’t know where to begin, you can investigate ways to optimise your current processes and if there is any new technology that might be essential in the future. Then you can follow up by observing your customers’ behaviours and how they interact with new processes and new technology.

Observing and interviewing your customers can be an incredibly valuable step as it provides you with a clear indication of what is working, what is not working, what they like and what they try to steer clear of.

4. Think about the risks

A good way to future-proof your business is by identifying concerns and risks that may present bigger challenges down the road. Ask yourself, your management team and your employees; Where are the gaps in the business? What is a challenge you struggle with right now?

As a business owner, it is important that you watch out for influencing factors and that you don’t become too reliant on a single resource. According to PWC there are four types of risks businesses will face if they fail to future-proof their business they are:

1. Reputation
2. Human and Organizational Resources
3. Financial
4. Compliance

One of the biggest risks we have seen during the pandemic is the decrease in available human resources and the increase in demand and over-reliance on singular human resources. Relying on our employees puts additional stress on them meaning they can burn out quicker and you could be in this constant hiring cycle as people continue to leave. As you grow and future-proof your business, remember to check in with employees and see how you can help and support them.

5. Use data to influence decisions

One of the greatest insights into the performance of your business is through your sales and marketing data. Data is extremely useful in identifying trends, predicting customer behaviour and assisting in sales. While it is best practice to have this all collated onto one dashboard, many businesses have yet to complete this task and are missing vital information that could further their business exponentially. By updating your technology and procedures over a 12-month period you can not only grow your business but prevent your business from being surprised by market trends and better yet prepare for them.

Small things you can do to future-proof your business

Get Personal

While not a new tactic, personalisation is one of the most effective ways to get your customer onside and continue to grow your business and gain insights into customer behaviours. Simply by adding their name to the start of the email or receipt, remembering what they have purchased to provide helpful hints or suggestions for what’s next is a great way to get customers’ support. In short, be obsessed with helping your customers.

Protect your employees: strong work values

By defining company culture and enforcing strong work values you are able to create an environment where employees love coming to work. There is no right or wrong way to instil workplace values but it is important to keep your business objectives, growth plans and employees at front of mind when developing them. In general, employees want structured positions, transparency and an environment that fosters new ideas and creativity.

Automate!

It is no longer a nicety to have automation as part of your business. If you can automate processes in your business you should. 47% of people feel more positive about a business if they experience some or a fully automated process when purchasing a product or service. By automating processes in your business there is less likelihood of human error and you can also improve productivity in the workplace.

Make sure you are getting the most out of your POS.

Right now, Australian businesses are on the hunt for how they can evolve and one of the ways they will be able to is through integrated Point of Sales. Acumen Computer Systems designs and develops tailored solutions for retail, trade and wholesale businesses. Investing in the right technology can help your business go further than you imagined. If you are looking for a way to future-proof your business give our customer acquisition team a call today!

Retail stores rely heavily on their inventory, and as a business owner, you are concerned about the best way to oversee your products, assets, equipment, supplies and raw materials. In the past, the best way to monitor and maintain inventory may have been by using a spreadsheet, but there are many challenges that are present with this method.

An integrated inventory management system is the most efficient way to combat this challenge, but what does that entail?

What is an Inventory Management System?

An inventory management system is a combination of software and hardware designed to assist with the process of controlling and tracking stock. It supports businesses by providing real-time updates about their inventory, regardless of whether they are in-store or working remotely. An inventory management system should not be confused with a warehouse management system. However, it may be included in your inventory management system.

Types of Inventory Management Systems

There are two types of inventory management systems, periodic inventory and perpetual inventory. Both have their own advantages.

• Periodic inventory management relies entirely on stocktaking. It involves employees counting stock regularly (every 3 months) to verify the stock and the accuracy of the sales figures.
• Perpetual Inventory Management is a system that updates as orders are received, and products are sold and delivered. Often these systems are used in department stores to streamline the backend process and assist with in-transit and picked products.

Which type of inventory management system is better for me?

Determining what inventory management system is better for you can be decided by which you consider more important: margin of error or effort.

A periodic inventory management system works best for small businesses that have minimal and easy-to-index inventory. Outside of that, perpetual is the best system to choose as it encourages a hands-off approach while providing all the necessary information about products and stock levels, as well as up-to-date records about purchased and sold goods.

When to implement an Inventory Management System

One of the biggest decisions is deciding when you need an inventory management system or when to update your inventory management system to one that better suits your business model. As you would know, the worst time to consider implementing a new piece of software is during your peak selling period, but there are some best practices when it comes to choosing the right time.

1. Costs are increasing

   Human resources, products, and raw materials are expenses that continue to grow as your business expands. It can be a major expense if you don’t properly manage it or identify new ways to optimise your business. By implementing an inventory management system, you can reduce the tasks your employees will need to conduct on a daily basis and optimise your storage solutions and inventory to more efficiently meet the demands of your customers.

2. Growth is slow

   Something customers love is a fast turnaround and quick responses. If employees are required to go to the back to see if something is in stock or have to write out receipts and product reports can be a glaring sign that you need a new inventory management system and that you are missing out on some valuable customers.

3. Stock accuracy is essential

   One of the biggest reasons you should consider a new inventory management system is if it is becoming increasingly difficult to find and sell products. A perpetual inventory management system such as Acumen will provide you with real-time and accurate data about your inventory from any device.

Benefits to having a POS-Integrated Inventory Management System

Inventory management is essential to the success of your business as it determines what products are sold and when you sell them. Efficient businesses utilise their inventory management systems to maintain their customers, provide real-time updates and improve their sales process by meeting the demand of products. There are an array of benefits as to why you should consider an integrated POS system such as:

1. It reduces the labour

   An integrated inventory management system automates tasks that are typically done by hand. These include stocktaking, cycle counting and processing orders. By implementing an inventory management system into your business, you improve employee efficiency and allow them to better serve customers.

2. No more dead stock

   With live updates on what is selling and what is not selling, you have a clear idea of dead stock and sales trends which allow you to make more effective purchasing decisions. With an integrated POS, you can create automatic purchase orders for products that sell in high volume or sell quickly to ensure you always have stock.

3. Improves cash flow

   Improving your inventory processes will save time and money and improve your cash flow. An inventory management system has extensive reporting features, allowing you to understand how your stock sells and how quickly it is processed. As you optimise this process, you improve the cash flow by spending money on products that sell and have a high-profit margin. You also save money on employee expenses.

4. Cross-promote products

   When an inventory management system is kept updated, it is the perfect addition to your point of sales as it can assist with upselling, cross-selling and service reminders. When buying a table, your employees will be able to suggest the perfect set of chairs or suggest a supporting coffee table to match, improving how quickly things are processed and improving what is sold and when.

5. Keeps customers happy

   When things are processed quickly and businesses are able to keep promises such as delivery dates and stock levels, customers are more likely to come back and remain loyal to your business. An inventory management system assists with that as it is able to provide live stock updates and talk to your Point of Sales to determine appropriate delivery dates and processing times.

Choosing the right Point of Sales

Every business is built differently and has processes that are unique which means you need a Point of Sales system and inventory management system that is created and tailored specifically to your business. At Acumen Computer Systems, we have experience in developing custom, complex point of sale systems for businesses across Australia. Our team is completely locally based and can provide real-time support for all of your challenges.

Point of sale systems are essential in running a business, and despite its simple name, it is a lot more than just the place where you sell your products. A POS System can be responsible for inventory management, accounting, employee management and much more to help you grow your business. Every business is different, so the question you need to be asking when considering POS systems is What do I need in a POS System to functionally help run my business?  And after you have thought about everything the POS system needs to do, the next question should be How will these features help my business grow? 

At Acumen Computer Systems, we develop standard and custom point of sale software for a range of growing retail businesses and have done so for over 25 years. We understand that sometimes it can be challenging to determine what your business needs your POS System to do, so here is a list of 6 must-haves when considering investing in a new Point of Sales.

The 6 Essential Features of the Best POS Systems

1. Quick Product Look Up

One of the most essential elements of a POS System is an easy product lookup that features commonly sold products and services as a single button on the screen. This is a time-savvy tactic that allows your employees to efficiently process sales and upsell customers.

Additionally, you should also be able to find your entire and most up-to-date product catalogue through the search function on your POS system. An easily navigated search system is vital to your business’s success as it can assist your employees in ringing up sales with accuracy and maintaining good customer service.

When looking at the navigation for a POS system to suit your business, a general rule of thumb is one with the fewest amount of clicks to add to sales will be the most beneficial.

2. Multiple Payment Methods

As we continue to develop new technologies, the way your customer is paying is changing. Now more than ever, mobile payments are the preferred method of payment. While you cannot discount cash, you need a system that is able to process different types of payments such as gift cards, trade credit, Apple Pay, and AfterPay.

The more flexibility you have in payment methods, the better it is for business, as you won’t be turning anyone away.

3. User Accounts

Unless you are the sole operator of sales, inventory and accounting for your business, you will need separate user accounts within your pos system. Believe it or not, this is not a standard feature in pos systems. User accounts allow businesses to manage multiple stores and hundreds of employees while maintaining a high level of security to protect your business.

Here are some of the critical benefits of user accounts:

• Employee Productivity

By having separate user accounts, you can track employee productivity and determine the highest-selling employee and when they sell the most. By understanding these metrics, you will be able to better organise your roster, so your best employees are on during peak time, and in off-peak time you are conducting other business activities such as stocktaking. With each unique login, you are also able to reward outstanding employees and pinpoint issues to address them if they should come up.

• Built-In Security

With separate user accounts, you can add security to your pos system so that only designated people can access certain information or perform actions such as refunds. These user accounts also come embedded with unique passwords and PIN codes, which further protects your sales process from miscellaneous sales, dishonesty, theft and other human errors that may occur.

• Set Accurate Sales Goals

With built-in user accounts, you have accurate data on how well your employees are able to sell your products and services. Therefore, you can forecast accurate sales goals and hold your team accountable in meeting and exceeding those goals each week.

4. POS Reports

Reporting tools are essential in any modern-day business, and they shouldn’t be excluded from your POS system. With Standard POS reports, you are able to see how your sales are going, which products are selling and when they are selling and which products are slow to sell or not selling. You can also determine recurring seasonal trends and where there may be gaps in your business. It allows you to accurately forecast your business growth and your profitability.

At Acumen, we have over 200 standard reports to choose from, and you are able to customise and build your own POS reports so you can see all the metrics you want to be able to see in one report.

5. Inventory Management

A POS system without integrated inventory management capabilities should be considered archaic. The best POS system will have an inbuilt inventory management system that syncs online orders with a brick-and-mortar store so that you can stay up to date with the status of your products.

Historically inventory management tasks such as stocktaking, spot counts and order and purchasing have been the biggest headache for retail stores. With an integrated POS system, there are fewer human errors, and some inventory management tasks can be done anywhere, including at home or on the road.

The inbuilt inventory management system allows you to better manage your business and success.

6. Multi-Store Management

One of the greatest features that a POS system can have is the scalability model, which allows you to seamlessly integrate your POS system software as you expand to new stores or new terminals within the same store. With a multi-store management system, the amount of set-up and work to run your POS system will be greatly reduced and more centralised to ensure the best functionality.

A multi-store management feature also allows you to manage and optimise your inventory across all your stores and factories, centrally adjust pricing structures when needed and customise the product lookup to meet the needs of each store. It is one of the best features to have in your POS system so you know it will grow at the same time your business does..

Considering a New POS System?

If you are considering a new POS system with all of the best features but need even more to meet the demands of your daily business needs, give us a call. Acumen Computer Systems specialises in developing POS software to meet the needs of complex retail stores so they can better deliver their products and services. We are locally based in Geelong, so you can talk directly to the people that have built your POS system.

Want to know more? Get in touch now. 

As businesses continue to become more customer-centric, it is important that we keep up with the way people are communicating and where they communicate. Text messages have increasingly become a popular way of communicating, so why don’t businesses utilise them? Usually, because it is another manual task they would have to complete. At Acumen Computer Systems, one of our new features in our POS systems is our SMS integration, which can help you reach your customers without the added hassle. 

What is an SMS Integration? 

An SMS integration is an automated, templated messaging system you can customise and segment to send messages to your customers. Our integration is run through our reports system so it is accessible and easy to use. Simply enter your customised message into the text box or utilise our report designer to build predefined templates to use when these messages need to be sent. The messages are fully customisable to your needs and your customers buying behaviours.  These text messages can also send updates, account notifications and time-sensitive information to you and your customers. 

The overall goal of implementing an SMS integration with your POS system is to personalise each transaction or interaction with your customers.

Why do you need an SMS Integration? 

SMS integrations have many uses to a business. Not only do they remove human error and increase efficiency by being automated but they can boost your business exponentially. Here are a few things to consider. 

Segmented, Targeted and Precise

With an SMS integration, you can utilise your contact list and send out information in bulk that will be relevant to your customer’s needs. With an Acumen POS System, you can group your customers by their buying behaviours, demographics, industries or you can customise the groups to be relevant to your business. An SMS integration allows you to send targeted information to your groups and because it is a fully customisable integration you can choose when they are sent, what the message is, and the call to action all in one system. 

Multichannel Experience

Particularly within this pandemic, it is likely that your customers do not just communicate with you through one channel. They like your social media posts, they call you to troubleshoot, and they may purchase from your online shop. All are ways of communicating and an SMS integration brings new channels that customers can engage with your business. It initiates actions quicker, such as paying invoices and provides your customers with another communication channel where they are able to connect with you. Optimised one to one engagements are one of the best ways to increase customer engagement and satisfaction. 

Greater Visibility 

An SMS integration not only sets you up for customer communication but can mean you have greater visibility to your customers and they remember you more easily. Most people spend about 2 hours on their phone every day socialising. So by sending them an SMS reminder about an invoice, or sending them a code to your latest sale, they are more likely to take action then if you were to send them an email.  With greater visibility, you are more likely to see repeat customers that are engaged and tuned into your brand. 

Further Data on Your Customers

An SMS Integration can help drive traffic to your business, and tell you more about how your customers interact with your website. With an SMS integration, you can add tracking links to evaluate what actions are taken and what messages are most effective via SMS. It may even give you more insight into when they will need reminding about certain actions they need to take like paying an instalment. With this new data, you are able to streamline your communication with your customers to be more valuable, personal and effective for your business. 

Acumen SMS Integrations

While this is a new feature to Acumen’s POS System, our clients have been taking full advantage of it. Some of our clients have used SMS Integrations to help further their business and customer engagement by:

• Sending confirmation messages
• Sending personalised marketing messages
• Building and managing customer relationships
• Providing updates and notices to relevant groups

But there are many more ways you can utilise an SMS integration such as building loyalty groups with special discounts and providing receipts via SMS. 

Currently, Acumen have three available providers for our SMS integration that run through our report system; 

• SMSBroadcast 
• Direct SMS
• WelCorp 

Choose Acumen 

Acumen POS systems are customisable to your needs and we provide ongoing support to make sure the POS system drives your success. Our POS Systems go beyond the point of sales and include stock management, inventory and reports. At Acumen, we are committed to making sure you have a product that can handle all of your business needs but is still easy to work with. SMS integration is just one feature of our system. If you need to update your business system or include a new POS System to your business, consider Acumen Computer Systems and get in touch with us about how we can help you. 

Acumen Computer Systems is excited to announce the launch of our AcuScan designed to revolutionise the way businesses count stock and run their businesses. One of the most common challenges our customers experience is the labour intensity of scanning and counting products every month.

Currently, one of the only ways our clients are able to complete stocktaking procedures is via a barcode scanner which, while pretty progressive, is quickly going out of date in the technology world. Barcode scanners have many benefits like the ability to scan long barcodes and fast scanning but essentially, you are scanning blind, which can cause problems later if items are inputted incorrectly.

Acumen has remedied this issue (and more) by launching a mobile-first application, AcuScan. It is not only the future of Acumen, but it is the first of its kind to hit the market that is available on all devices and platforms (i.e. Apple, Google, Samsung).

What is AcuScan?

AcuScan is a mobile tool designed to help in assisting businesses to streamline any form of stock counting and checkup duties. In the future, we also hope this app will assist with pricing strategies and day to day business activities as well. AcuScan is natively written and uses the latest technology and software for both iOS, iPadOS and Android to assure optimal performance. We have written AcuScan using the latest technologies to ensure its robustness and future proof moving forward.

As one of the only Australian owned and made stocktaking and lookup tools on the market, we intend for this application to be a big success amongst our clients.

Benefits of the AcuScan Mobile Tool

• Reduce Human Error: Scan products and have relevant information synced from your POS helping you to check the SKU codes, reducing the likelihood of products being miscounted or mistaken for other products.
• More Efficient Stocktaking: Being mobile allows you to check stock levels while on the go, generate stock count lists or just check supplier names for products.
• Check-in with your Acumen Data and Provide Updates Accordingly: AcuScan allows businesses to provide live information to their customers about stock availability, minimum purchase orders for bulk buying, product pricing and costs plus more. All while retaining your Acumen user security preferences.
• Assists in purchasing decisions: AcuScan can scan products in-store and provide employees with product information that can be considered vital to purchasing decisions, such as: What products do I have matching the term “Hammer Claw”? Do I have any on a purchase order? When is that purchase order due?
• Inexpensive: As we continue to develop in this technological world, hardware is becoming more out of fashion and more expensive, but with AcuScan we hope this cost will be significantly reduced, allowing more employees to perform stock counts for a fraction of the cost of one barcode scanner, ultimately saving businesses hundreds of dollars.

Frequently Asked Questions about AcuScan.

Who will be able to use it?

Anyone can download AcuScan today and try out its basic stock counting and sharing functionality. Furthermore, Acumen users will be able to successfully link it up to their current Acumen System to access additional features such as product search and viewing product details.

What functions does the initial release of AcuScan have?

In the first release of our application, users who download the app will have immediate access to:

• Load in barcodes and related quantities to a list via the camera or manually.
• Share this list with anyone via email, message and many other applications.
• All you need to do is download the app from your relevant app store.

Acumen users who wish to integrate their data with the AcuScan app will have access to their full product list, including search and display functions enabling them to accurately find and identify products during sales and stocktaking. These display functions will also provide employees with information on:

• Stock levels including at different branches.
• Product information including variations, styles and images.
• Prices.
• Minimum and maximum order quantities.
• Last stocktake date.
• Product item lookups (Item class).
• View all item codes related to an item classed product code.

When integrated to your Acumen system, users will also be able to directly load items to the BCR function of Acumen. All you need to do is capture in barcodes using your smartphone.

Will it come with Login and Security Capability?

Yes, we’ve developed AcuScan to ensure it will still have the same hierarchical security set-up where pricing and products are only displayed if they have the appropriate access. This means you can continue to keep business functions secure while increasing the efficiency of your business processes.

How will it integrate with current systems?

AcuScan will seamlessly integrate with your current Acumen Point of Sales system for a consolidated approach to business success and point of sales. All user accessibility features are also brought over to AcuScan to assist with company processes.

How accessible will it be for businesses?

AcuScan is integrated completely with your Acumen System and can be used across all participating branches. Using our unique QR Code setup system, as a user you can have access to your Acumen data in a matter of seconds. To get your Acumen system set up with AcuScan give us a call on 1800 197 165.

Download today:

Apple App Store – https://apps.apple.com/au/app/acuscan/id1514360224

Google Play Store – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acumen.AcuScan