It is not very often that we walk in to a store or business that has an old cash register any more. The fact of the matter is, with the advent of barcodes and barcode scanning taking hold in the early eighties, cash registers have been replaced with point of sale (POS) systems. POS software is the most important software a business can own when it relates to sales and marketing.

With a litany of choices in the marketplace, all of whom claim to have the best POS Software for a business, regardless of size, it is important to take note of the critical success points your POS software will have to deliver upon. Asking all the important questions about your company will allow you to put your best foot forward when selecting a POS software package. Some of the questions that really need answering up front include:

• How does your business receive payments?
• Are you required to ship product to customers?
• Will your POS software integrate with your accounting software?
• Do you need to be able to take payments?
• Does your business have a lay-away plan?
• Can you receive product from vendors into the POS software directly?
• What types of tender do you handle? Purchase orders, credit cards, cheques, money orders?
• Can you set automatic order points for stock?
• Is there any specific needs of your business or of your industry vertical from your POS system?
• What reports can you generate from your software?
• Is sales staff paid commissions?
• Does your POS software include a CRM component?
• Will you be using mailing lists that require labels to be generated?

Other important considerations may be that your business assembles kits put together from several products, or that you rent products that require a daily charge and a deposit to be taken. Does your company have a service department that requires you to issue a service ticket and hold a product that isn’t your inventory? Can you handle foreign tender? Before you begin selecting a POS software solution for your business, know your business as intimately as you can so there is no confusion when it comes to implementing your POS solution. If you are just setting up your business, it might be a good idea to ask around to other companies with a similar business model or offering, what they use and why. Talking to the sales consultants at your POS supplier to find out what they have for POS software that will meet all of the needs you have and provide for expansion if needed should also be on your list of things to do.

Other important issues may be that you intend to use your POS software for an online business, which has to be able to handle card-absent transactions and provide secure back-end processing. All sorts of questions will shape the choice of POS software that fit your business well, and finding the right choice may be a bigger task than you thought. Before you get to drive today’s modern day cash register, you should probably be certain of all of your needs before shopping!