Point of Sale and Inventory System

1.0 Introduction

A Point of Sale and Inventory management is a step up of cash register. It is a simple accounting system. Point of Sale and Inventory system keeps track the information entering in the company. Point of Sale systems makes marking down prices and recording the markdowns easy. Instead of going through a mountain of receipts at the end of the day, the Point of Sale system calculates the markdowns automatically as sales occur.

Point of sale (also called as POS or Checkout) is the place where a retail transaction is completed. It is the point at which a customer makes a payment to the merchant in exchange for goods or services. At the point of sale the retailer would calculate the amount owed by the customer and provide options for the customer to make payment. The merchant will also normally issue a receipt for the transaction.

The Point of Sale in various retail industries uses customized hardware and software as per their requirements. Retailers may utilize weighing scales, scanners, electronic and manual cash registers, EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of sale)terminals, touch screens and any other wide variety of hardware and software available for use with Point of Sale. For example, a grocery or candy store uses a scale at the Point of Sale, while bars and restaurants use software to customize the item or service sold when a customer has a special meal or drink request.

The modern point of sale is many times called as the Point of Service because it is not just a point of sale but also a point of return or customer order. Additionally it includes advanced features to cater to different functionality, such as inventory management,Customer relationship management, financials, warehousing, etc., all built into the Point of Sale software.

2.1 Background of the Study

The first Point of Sale systems were rolled out by IBM (International Business Machines) in the 1970s. Early IBM backed mainframe systems had “dumb” terminals...