There are a lot of decisions to make when you set up a new business, and one of the most important is your point of sale software. You will be interacting with this software every time you make a sale, and it touches nearly every part of your business, from inventory to bookkeeping. Get this decision right and you can save hours of time and piles of cash. Get it wrong and you will lose time and money while fighting with your software. Here are some key things to think about when research your POS software.
Easy to Use
You will be using this software a lot, and so will all of your employees. This software will be involved in every customer transaction, and the speed and smoothness of those transactions will have a lot to do with whether customers come back for more. Your point of sale software needs to be easy and intuitive to use. If you need to spend hours to teach yourself how to use the basic features or to train your staff in how to use them, you’re going to waste a lot of time. You’ll also risk confusion and lost sales. If a software package isn’t easy to use, move on to other options.
Forward-Looking
Technology changes so fast that you have to be sure your software will keep up. The best point of sale software packages are already looking toward what comes next, maybe before you even hear of it. When you research software packages, look for signs that the developers are keeping in touch with new trends and developments in payment systems. When a new payment method starts being popular, you want to make sure you’re ready to use it right away. The right point of sale software will have you covered.
In-Depth Reports
All point of sale software should have basic reporting features to give you sales and inventory data. But deeper levels of reporting can help you analyze your business in new and profitable ways. If you have reports which show you data about your margins and pricing effectiveness, you can tweak your pricing for maximum profit. Finely-grained data about sales will show you what is selling best when so you can plan for the future, and it can also show you what product lines are not performing well and need to be changed or dropped. Having good data is vital to solid growth.
Security of Data
Your customers entrust you with their personal financial data, and you need to make sure that data is kept secure while you process transactions. Your own financial data is just as important to protect. Your point of sale system needs to take security very seriously. Make sure that strong encryption is used on all data and that customer credit card numbers are not stored in the system. The developers of your system should stay on top of security developments and release updates as soon as possible in response to any potential security problems.
