Retailing without a modern POS system in this age is almost an impossible task. The retailing industry has been ever competitive and to have a competitive advantage in these times, technological improvements are important to maintain a good business. For organized management and better sales, good POS software can help a retail business greatly; however, for people who are unfamiliar with tech, it may seem difficult at first. Shifting towards technology is an important step, but change can look scary at first. However, to help you set up your Retail POS System, we guide you through the steps easily so that you can start selling efficiently ASAP!
How to Add Items to Your Retail POS System
The first thing you’ll need to do is to inform your POS software of the items you sell. Note, at first it may be a little effortful for some people, however, it will get easier once you’re set up and that will be worth it. The ultimate goal of a Retail POS System is to smooth things around checkouts.
On the left of the dashboard, you’ll see some menu categories leading to different pages. Your first step should be to click on Items and then click on Add Item. This will bring you to a page where you can fill in all the details you want for an individual item.
Fill out the form shown by adding necessary input into their respective fields. Here are descriptions of some fields you may get confused about:
- Bar Code: A Bar Code number helps your item to be easily identified later through a Barcode Processor. When passing items through a sale, this Barcode will identify the item scanned through the reader and will show you the specific item.
- Unit: You can add a unit to your items based on the scale they’re sold at. For example, if you have a small pouch of Ketchup (400g) and a big pouch of Ketchup (800g), you can assign a unit to those items i.e. 400g and 800g, or Small and Large.
- Purchase/Sales/Tax Rate: Purchase Rate is the amount you purchase the item for. Sales rate is the amount you sell the item for. Tax Rate is the rate of tax that will be charged on the item. Tax Rates can be added through Settings > Taxes > Add new Tax.
- Categories: These help your items to be further classified. If later you need to view all the items you have in the ‘Household category’, you can easily do so. Moreover, if you need a category-wise sales report, this could help you understand what category items are your best sellers.
- Supplier: You can choose to add which supplier sells you this item. This can help you understand your relationship with the supplier later on.
- How to add supplier(s)
Additionally, you can check on the following tick boxes based on your needs. If you need the item to be displayed on the POS, check that. If this item is a batch or a deal, check the respective box.
Once everything is done, simply click on Add. Repeat this process for all items of sale you have in your inventory. You can view all the items you’ve added by clicking Items from the menu and heading over to List Items. Here you’ll see all your items. You can choose to edit them, delete them, or print their barcodes for checkout processing through barcode POS hardware.
Alternatively, if you manage inventories of many items an easier way to do it is through an Excel file. Here’s how to do that.
How to Sell Your First Item Through A Sales POS System
Once you’re done with items, you can almost start processing business sales through the point of sale solution. To roll in your first sale simply head on to the Sales category from the menu on the right side of the screen, and click on Sell. A checkout screen will now be available on your cloud point of sales. This screen is what a retail operator would mostly deal with.
One of the features of the CIS Retail POS System that makes it stand out in the market to be the best POS provider is the emphasis on a simple and easy-to-use interface. As you can see, the UI clearly shows all the menus and options to the user, such that anyone can easily get the hang of the point of sale system easily.
From the selling screen, to process a sale you simply have to choose the items from the list available below. Easily browse through the items by scrolling, or search them from the item search bar, or you can click on the Barcode Scan bar and make use of the POS hardware barcode scanner which scans your item and automatically identifies it. All the selected items will be shown in the cart on the right side of the screen. The cart is customizable and easy to use so that there is no risk of errors. Below the cart, all the accounting related to the sale will be shown. If you choose to give a discount on the sale, you can either type in the rate of discount or the amount of discount you are providing. If you want to delete the cart for some reason, click on the Discard Sale option below in blue. Else, if everything looks okay, click on Pay.
From here on, CIS Retail POS System makes the cashier’s job as easy as any POS software can. The total payment will be shown above. Choose the payment method from the options of Cash, Card, Party (Credit Sale), or Split. Enter the amount of the customer below Cash Tendered. The Return Cash bar shows how the change you need to return to the customer. You can choose to add any remarks on the sale which are shown on the receipt and then press Pay or Pay & Print (prints sale receipt/invoice). This is the last step, which brings up the digital invoice on your screen, and you can now process other sales similarly.
Congratulations! You just processed your first sale. Now you can easily manage all your retail business’ sales through the CIS Retail POS System. For more information, guides, or to purchase the right POS system for you, head on to CISePOS Retail.