The cash register was invented in 1879. It was invented by James Ritty and his brother in Ohio. The brothers named it “Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier.” Ritty was a saloon owner who was worried one of his employees was stealing money. Since that time the cash register has not changed all too much, it still serves as a simple machine to calculate sales with a drawer to store cash and change.

However, if you’re still running your business with a basic cash register it may be time to consider upgrading to a modern POS system to save yourself time, money and accounting headaches. We’ve compiled a list of the most common reasons business owners switch from a cash register to a retail point of sale software system.

1. Simplicity

The first benefit of using point-of-sale systems is that your life is going to get a lot easier. In fact, the whole point of one of these systems is to make the day-to-day running of your business simple and straightforward. In addition to being able to make sales pretty much anywhere you go, you’ll also be able to track everything that goes along with your business. This includes things like inventory, sales, and expenses.

A POS system can also be set up to give you various alerts, including when something needs to be reordered or when the inventory of a specific item is getting low. In fact, many modern POS systems can be set up to automatically order additional product from your distributor when you run low. When you look at all of the features that come with one of these systems, you’ll see that it can save you a lot of time and money.

2. Mobility

With a POS system, you’ll have an increase in mobility. The traditional register systems are very bulky and not easy to move at all. With these systems though, you can take them wherever you need to. Not only does this mean that you’ll be able to move freely around the store, to ring sales, check inventory or special order product for a customer.

Since you can take it wherever you want, as long as you have a credit card reader that can connect to your device, you can make sales on the go. This is especially helpful for those who go to various places to sell their goods, such as conventions or trade shows. When you upgrade from a cash register to a POS system you will no longer be limited to accepting only cash and your inventory will update the same way it would if you were in your store.

3. Better Customer Service

Customer service is one of the most important parts of running every business. Since the customer is what can make or break you, you want to make sure you give them what they want as much as possible. Having a more updated and simple point of sale system for your small business means you’ll be able to help your customers better because you won’t have to learn all kinds of complicated processes with an older system.

You’ll also be able to get through transactions quicker and give customers more options, such as the emailing of receipts. You can also make it possible for customers to provide feedback after they make their purchases. This will give you a good idea of what you’re doing well and what you could work on. Keep in mind that every customer might not give a rating, but it’s nice to have the option available.

4. Price Management

Another great benefit of upgrading to a POS system is better price management. It can be hard to keep track of the product prices in the store, especially if you have more than one location. With one of these systems, you’ll be able to track and manage the price for the entire time you offer the product. This is extremely important because you want to make sure you are still profitable and keeping up with the new pricing trends of various products. For example, you want to make a profit, but you don’t want to charge too much more than other places because people won’t buy the product from you. With this system, you’ll be able to determine the price that meets both of these requirements.

The great thing is that you can download the point-of-sale app to your device and look at it regardless of where you’re at. If you wanted, you could use an iPad POS system. An iPad point-of-sale system makes it so that all your information will be available on one device.

5. Inventory Tracking

Unlike a traditional cash register, a POS system will provide you with thorough inventory reports. As a result, you’ll be able to see everything you need in relation to the inventory of your business. This includes things like how many of a certain item you have, which items are out and need to be reordered and the last time you ordered various products.

Keep in mind that many other systems don’t offer these capabilities, and the POS systems will save you so many hours when it comes to inventory management. Not only does this save money, but you can also delegate employees to perform other tasks that need to be completed around the store since you don’t have to worry about entire workdays going to inventory-related tasks.

6. Real-Time Reporting

Using this type of system gives you the ability to see real-time reporting. Not only does this include inventory, but you’ll also be able to keep an eye on things like sales, expenses and profits. With this feature, everything will update multiple times a day as you run your business. This means you should be able to get a pretty decent picture of what’s going on at the end of business hours.

The great thing about this type of monitoring is that you should be able to see the information on your tablet regardless of where you’re at. This makes it helpful for when you are at home and need to look over the information and see how the business is doing.

7. Easier Accounting

One final benefit of upgrading to a POS system is that it makes accounting so much easier. Instead of having to spend countless hours inputting inventory, sales and purchase orders manually into a spreadsheet, the POS will keep track of everything for you, automatically. You can then prepare reports using integrated reporting, or if you prefer you can export the numbers into an accounting system such as QuickBooks. Automating the accounting process not only saves you and your employees time, but it also greatly decreases the chances that errors will be made.

Not sure which POS solution will be right for you and your business? Let’s talk commerce.

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