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How to Select the Best Retail POS System

Managing Retail and Restaurant Sales using Open Source Software

Ricky Bracken

June 12, 2009

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Small and mid-size business owners need a Retail POS platform that is capable of managing payment transactions, inventory and purchasing management, pricing, sales and product promotions for single and multi-store locations.   In addition, small and mid-size business owners need a system that can provide procurement management, warehouse management, project and service management, production management, sales management, customer relationship management (CRM), financial management and accounting and Business Intelligence (BI). 

The open source community has created an outstanding  Free POS System  for retail stores and restaurants.   Merchants can download the software free of charge and pay a third party a small fee to install and configure.  The system is full customizable and based on the proven MVC (Model, View, Control) and MDD (Model Driven Development) development frameworks.

Software Highlights:

Master Data Management - includes products, categories and subcategories, images, procurement management, warehouse management, restaurant areas with table layouts, user and role management

•    Correctly centralize and organize key data points
•    Guarantee adherence and tracking of important business processes
•    Organize inventory and products by attributes for easy management of similar items
•    Available in multiple languages
•    Support multiple currencies

Sales, Refund and Cash Management – includes the editing and printing of receipts, product search, tax management, bar coding, discounts, promotions, and payment acceptance

•    Edit multiple receipts from one or many terminals at the same time
•    Allow for multiple payment methods including cash or card present transactions, and those requiring EMV standards, PCI standards, and Chip/PIN
•    Easily integrate the POS with third party peripheral systems
•    Effectively manage refunds
•    Seamless integration with the  Planetauthorize payment gateway 
•    Manage your retail, restaurant and Internet store using a single Planetauthorize Payment Gateway Account
•    Includes a business merchant account

Warehouse Management - Product properties, product movements, inventory count, product receipts

•    Seamlessly manage multiple warehouses
•    Keep your inventory up to date
•    Real-time stock tracking
Reports and Charts – Real-time sales reporting and sales forecasting
•    Monitor the state of your retail business
•    Get the information you need... on time
•    Improve your decision-making process

Restaurant Module - reservation management, customizable restaurant areas, occupation management

•    Manage customer your reservations
•    Personalize the different restaurant areas for easier identification
•    Get insight into your restaurant occupation levels, in real-time
•    PDA Restaurant Ordering Capability

Security - Roles, users, access restrictions

•    User management with defined access levels
•    Manage multiple roles and user profiles
•    Protect sensitive data
•    Embedded support for integrations with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications
•    Scalable to support configurations ranging from one terminal, to multiple terminals per store, to multiple terminals in multiple stores

The open source community offers all the rich functionality demanded by leading retailers, including sales, refunds, daily reports, cash management and warehouse management and payment acceptance and processing.

For more information visit us online at http://www.planetauthorize.com.

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