Cloud Point Of Sale is the latest technology to Point Of Sale Technology. Ever since its release, Cloud POS has grown to heights with ever-growing demand due to its ease of use. All traditional POS technologies were seen to be erased away from the business industry throughout the world and every new business preferred having a Cloud Point Of Sale.
However, there are still many businesses that are either using manual labour as a point of sale system (cashiers) or use traditional offline POS.
This guide is to help such businesses make the right decision for their business.
Risks In A Cashier and Offline Point Of Sale System
Cashier
The most traditional point of sale system still used by many businesses is the cashier system.
This involves a cashier sitting at the checkout table, where they manually put the prices of all the items in an order in a calculator, calculate the total price, and list the sale in a paper register.
The paper register usually involves total revenue, credit sales, and items sold.
This method is the poorest method to use in retail. Even for small businesses, the cashier method raises many risks to a business.
The most common ones are as follows:
- Firstly, the cashier should be a trusted person. This needs the owner’s availability on the premises at all times
- The calculation of the amount to be charged is very prone to error. Any arithmetic errors can lead to a bad brand image and lost money
- The paper register is a loose record that can be lost or damaged easily. This record is also very difficult to use by different users
- The record for credit sales is easily malleable and can easily be lost between pages
- Lastly, inventory records are simple and incomplete. There is no knowledge of how much inventory is in the store at a given time
- To generate reports of the business, many labour hours are needed to calculate figures and data
- There is no flow of communication or any form of connection between any branches
Offline POS System
During the initial rise in POS usage in retail businesses, the most popular product was the Offline Point Of Sale Software.
This POS software was installed on the computer of the business, on its premise. Users at the checkout can open this software on the computer, run the program, and process sales.
This was a big innovation tackling almost all problems that were risen when using the cashier POS system, however, with the change in times, Offline POS is now an outdated Point Of Sale System.
Here are the main risks of using Offline POS:
- Owners need to be present at the premises to use or make use of data in the POS software
- All business data in the Offline POS is stored in the hard drive of the computer. Any malware, virus, or physical damage can make the business lose all its data
- Any updates
- The Offline POS needs constant electricity support. In case of any power issues in the software, the POS system is unusable
- All work related to the business needs to be done on premise. No data can be transferred or viewed on any other device
- If the business has other branches, every branch would have its own POS software. There is no flow of communication between these software
- A business can’t generate reports in totals. Each branch will generate only its own report. To understand the performance and position of the business as a whole, managers need to manually total the figures to arrive at a complete report
- Any software updates to the Offline POS needs to be manually installed by the ERP Provider support team. During installation, the Offline POS will not be operable and sales cannot be processed through the POS
Cloud Point Of Sale – A Need for Retail Businesses
After reading the above risks of different point of sale systems used traditionally, you must have recognized the need for an updated POS system that tackles these problems.
Here are the 3 main reasons why Cloud Point Of Sale is the only answer:
Remote Access to POS Database – Cloud Point Of Sale
The main benefit of Cloud Point Of Sale is in its name. Cloud Access.
Cloud Access ensures multiple users can access the POS software remotely at any time and from anywhere around the world. The POS is attached to a unique URL, accessible by login credentials, different for each user.
Branches can use this feature to integrate the whole business into a single Cloud POS. The Cloud Point Of Sale will contain all data relating to all branches under the business’ name. Alternatively, branch-specific data can also be easily accessed.
Lastly, owners can have full control over the business from any place. Owners can view their business operations remotely on any device. This data is updated with Real Time technology, as such a sale made in Australia will be shown in Germany in a matter of seconds! The same procedure goes for ERP Reports generation.
Complete Security Over Business Integrity With Cloud Point Of Sale
POS Database contains almost all information relating to the business. This is helpful in many ways to all users, however, it also raises a privacy concern.
This information could easily get in hands of an unauthorized user, could be destroyed, or lost.
However, with Cloud Point Of Sale, none of these concerns is a problem.
Secure POS software always needs login credentials to be accessible. This eliminates the chance of any unauthorized user accessing the database.
The data is saved securely on a Cloud Server. No damage to POS hardware or store can make the data be lost or destroyed.
Moreover, as Cloud Point Of Sale takes sales processing into its own hands, there is no risk of cashier theft. All amounts of sales are recorded in the POS software and can easily be reported and reconciled against the cash register.
Reduced Maintenance Costs and Better Mobility – Cloud Point Of Sale
As Cloud Point Of Sale saves data online, the business is made more efficient and easier to manage.
There are very few maintenance costs now attached to the business. The cloud POS software can easily be updated online and everything there is to manage the POS can be done remotely.
Additionally, with the POS database featuring remote access, users can easily access the software with complete mobility.
The Cloud Point Of Sale software can be accessed during any meeting or decision making time where all figures, reports, and data can be used to communicate with a stakeholder,
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