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There are a lot of different ways to set up a POS system. This guide will walk you through the 6 steps we recommend for setting up your first point-of-sale system in an existing business or as a personal cash register in your home.
The “how to create a pos system in excel” is an article that will help you set up your own point of sale system. It includes 6 steps and some helpful tips.
Setting up a POS system for a new small company may be as simple as downloading an app. Professional POS installation may be required for more complicated enterprises. For most small businesses, however, the POS setup procedure will fall somewhere in the middle, involving a few days of DIY data input, hardware setup, and configuration settings.
Budget, company size and kind, system capabilities, and hardware compatibility all have an influence on how your POS system is set up.
In six easy stages, you can set up your POS system, including inventory, customer data, and staff accounts:
1. Select a Point-of-Sale System
First and foremost, you should choose a POS system that can meet your specific company requirements. Because POS systems use various kinds of hardware at various price ranges, it’s critical to evaluate your budget.
Examine Industry-Specific Characteristics
Begin by determining the POS tools and features you’ll need for your company:
- Inventory management: Keep track of inventory as it sells in real time, including variations such as sizes and colors, and reorder things as required. Inventory management functions will be pretty extensive in the top POS systems.
- Retailers must be able to take e-wallet payments, shop credit, refunds, and other payment mechanisms such as PayPal in addition to cash and credit cards.
- Multichannel: Retailers that sell online or at events want a point-of-sale system that can link to many sales channels.
- Create customer profiles with contact information and purchase history for use in email marketing and loyalty programs.
Retailers should use a Vend-like industry-specific solution. It contains inventory and barcode management in depth, as well as ecommerce connections and CRM or loyalty capabilities.
- Create floor layouts for your dining room to keep track of customers and available tables, including their waiters, orders, and the length of time they’ve been seated.
- Menu management: Enter menus for various meals, days of the week, and special discounts such as happy hour, along with price and recipes.
- Inventory control at the ingredient level: Keep track of stock levels as you sell and create each meal.
- Divide checks and tipping: Servers may split checks in a variety of ways and allow visitors to leave tips.
- Create customer profiles with contact information for customer relationship management.
- Allow consumers to make pick-up and delivery orders and pay for them online.
Restaurants need a POS with table mapping, tableside ordering, and a kitchen display system, such as Toast (KDS).
- Integration with third-party booking software: Manage room reservations or connect with third-party booking software.
- Organize events and manage the leasing of ballrooms and meeting rooms.
- Guest feedback and surveys: After each guest’s stay, send and collect surveys.
Hotels need a POS (or Property Management System – PMS) with reservation management, payment processing, and retail and restaurant sales options, such as Hotelogix.
- Manage your calendar, enable consumers to make appointments, and sync appointments with your payment processor using appointment management.
- Many service companies, such as spas and salons, must also conduct retail purchases.
- Allow clients to form accounts and make appointments through the internet.
- Some service providers, such as mechanics, cleaning companies, and contractors, must provide bills for appointments.
To handle appointments and online bookings, customer accounts, retail sales, and invoicing, service providers require a POS like Square Appointments.
The finest POS system for your business should have all of the features you want at a reasonable price, be simple to use, offer prompt customer service, and be able to scale with your company’s growth.
Take into account hardware and compatibility issues.
If you’re a well-established company, you’ve probably already invested in additional gear and software to help you run your day-to-day operations. When it comes to setting up your POS system, you want one that will work flawlessly with the rest of your technology, so be sure to double-check compatibility before you buy.
If you’re starting a new company, be sure it’s one you’re comfortable with. If you use an iPhone and are acquainted with the iOS operating system, an app-based POS that operates on iPads may be the ideal option for you. Consider a browser-based POS system if you prefer a desktop PC.
Is it Better to Rent or Lease POS Hardware?
Leasing a POS system may seem to be an appealing alternative. It has fewer upfront expenses and continuing fees, plus you get to keep the gear after you’re done. Renting gear, on the other hand, does not necessarily save money in the long term, and purchasing your own equipment allows you more freedom and flexibility.
There is a third alternative if you wish to own your POS system but require lesser upfront fees. Payment plans or installment payment options are available from certain POS firms, allowing you to pay for the goods over time while still owning the hardware.
2. Choose between a professional installation and a do-it-yourself project.
After you’ve decided on a POS system, you’ll need to set up both the hardware and software. It comes down to your resources and availability when deciding whether to install the POS system yourself or hire an expert. While hiring a professional installation comes with a price tag, doing it yourself necessitates technical knowledge and enough time to devote to the task.
As long as you have all of the essential hardware on available, you can set up a POS system in a matter of minutes. More intricate or unique solutions may need more time and experience; in these cases, a professional installation may be required.
When Should a POS System Be Installed Professionally?
Professional installation is an excellent choice if your budget permits it. This is particularly true for small organizations that need a great deal of customization, integration, and add-ons. Larger companies with several locations will also wish to hire a specialist.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Hiring a Professional
When Should You Install a POS System on Your Own?
If you don’t have the funds to hire a professional, you can consider doing it yourself. In fact, some point-of-sale configurations are so basic that you won’t even need a pro.
If you’re just starting started, for example, you’ll probably be able to plug and play. Because there aren’t as many adaptations for a single-location small company as there are for a chain shop or a big restaurant, setup is easier. Furthermore, many POS systems come with extensive content libraries and support resources to assist users in getting up and running.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Installing a POS System Yourself
3. Create a system for managing your inventory.
After you’ve selected and installed your POS system, you’ll need to figure out how to manage your inventory. Inventory monitoring is one of the most important functions of a POS system, whether you’re a merchant or a restaurant. Almost every point-of-sale system involves inventory management. If you have a bigger company, you’ll probably need a more advanced system—some companies even employ third-party connections to link inventory management software to the POS.
Import Your Purchase Orders
To start, Import Your Purchase Orders. Depending on how you’ve been tracking products before implementing your new POS system, this might mean uploading data from an Excel spreadsheet or turning an integration with your existing third-party software on. While many POS systems can handle this process automatically, it’s still a good idea to do a manual review after importing to ensure the data looks clean.
Businesses may upload CSV files to import product data in bulk into retail POS systems like Vend.
If you hire a professional to setup your system, part of the process usually involves setting up your stock list. Some POS systems enable you to manually input individual goods, however bulk product data entry is not supported. Before signing up with a POS provider, be sure to inquire about how this procedure works if you have a significant inventory.
Organize Your Items
It’s time to add extra information for each SKU after your inventory data is in the POS system.
- Set stock levels based on the number of products you have on hand.
- Sort each item into product categories. Some firms additionally provide seasonal categories or indicate where items are stored in the shop or in the stockroom.
- Add descriptions to each product to make it easier to find and identify it.
- Add any further identifying information that is required (like vendor name, barcode and SKU information, wholesale pricing, and retail pricing and markup)
Make sure all of the automations around your inventory data are in place once you’ve entered all of your product data. Most importantly, double-check that settings are proper so that when a product is sold, the system immediately changes on-hand stock levels. Some POS systems also let you set up low stock alerts, which send you an email or a report when in-stock products fall below a given threshold.
Lightspeed Retail allows customers to add a lot of information to each product page in order to monitor and report on it.
4. Customer Data Import
You’ll need to import your client data once you’ve set up your items. You’ll want to import an existing customer database into your POS system, even if it’s only a list of first names. A simple Excel spreadsheet or CSV import may be handled by many systems. Update each customer profile with any accessible information, such as email address, phone number, physical address, age, employment, and purchase history.
Create Customer Segments and Profiles
You’ll want to categorize your clients once you’ve added them to your database so that you can give them targeted, tailored promotions. Based on commonalities, identify high spenders, regular consumers, and other significant customer groups.
Some POS systems can automatically categorize your highest-spending consumers and most regular visitors and create data. You may also make lists depending on the things that each consumer purchases.
Set up Marketing Automation Campaigns
Create automated marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) campaigns using your customer segments. Email marketing, loyalty programs, social media promotions, and consumer feedback collecting are all built-in functions in certain POS systems. Other marketing platforms may be integrated with popular third-party solutions.
The following are examples of POS marketing programs that are simple to set up:
- Email receipts with contact information, social media handles, and discount or promotional information: Many POS systems allow merchants to personalize email receipts with contact information, social network handles, and coupon or promotional information.
- Send an automatic email or text message when a consumer makes a purchase with a survey about their experience.
- Points-based loyalty program: Many POS systems allow you to set up a points-based loyalty program in which consumers receive points for every purchase they make.
New customer welcome emails, birthday discounts, and reminders to return may all be part of more elaborate automated marketing programs. Many POS systems also integrate with Facebook and Instagram, allowing you to make, share, and even promote social media posts directly from your POS.
Square POS includes a feedback poll in customers’ email or text message receipts, allowing companies to quickly review and react to customer comments.
5. Create user accounts and permissions for employees.
You’ll need a POS system that allows for employee profiles and authorization if you have a team or employees. After you’ve built up your inventory and customer data, you’ll need to create employee accounts. Begin by establishing yourself as the account’s administrator and owner.
Consider the sorts of employee roles and permissions you’ll need next. If you own a retail business, you may just need an associate and a manager—one to handle sales and customer data, and another to handle returns, voids, and inventory adjustments. Restaurant workers, such as waiters, bartenders, and managers, may need a variety of responsibilities and access levels. Assign the proper permission levels to each position.
After you’ve set your employee roles and permissions, make an account for each member of your team and assign them to the proper position. Each employee should have their own login so that you can simply monitor sales and generate performance reports. When a single person is allocated to each transaction, it’s also a lot simpler to resolve concerns with register or inventory inconsistencies.
Many POS systems provide time-tracking capabilities or scheduling add-ons, allowing you to log employee hours for payroll purposes. Some systems may also create payroll reports and feature clock-in and clock-out facilities for workers.
6. Educate employees on how to use a point-of-sale system
Training your personnel is the last stage in setting up a POS system. Because your business tools are only as good as the people who use them, it’s critical to get the most out of your investment by investing in quality training.
Make an appointment with the POS provider for a training session.
For new teams, your POS software vendor should give some type of onboarding. A video walkthrough, small group or one-on-one sessions, or even on-site training are all possibilities. Inquire whether your service supplier also provides training for new employees.
You may utilize a mix of online libraries, knowledge bases, guidelines, FAQs, and video tutorials to teach prospective new recruits with most POS systems.
Create and distribute a manual.
You’ll want to have technical documentation that’s readily available once the crew has been taught on how to utilize the POS system. Keep printed documentation in the staff room, make notes in your workplace communication system, and make sure all new recruits are trained on how to use the POS.
Keep an eye out for ongoing customer service.
After you’ve gotten your POS up and running, you can run into technical issues, so find out what kind of technical help your POS supplier provides. Support is sometimes offered with every product, while other times it is only available with higher-tier packages. You should also figure out how to contact customer service (e.g., phone, email, ticketing system, live chat, etc.) and when they are available.
Conclusion
The resources you have available, the sort of POS you’re installing, and your small company requirements all influence how to set up a POS system. You have the option of installing your POS yourself or hiring an expert to do it. To construct a control center for your company, import data for inventory management, customer profiles, staff management, and other critical business activities.
Learn how to utilize your POS system to handle day-to-day operations now that your POS setup is complete.
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