Point of Sale

Point of sale or POS is the term used to describe the devices used to record transactions in a store – generally sales. It is the modern day 'cash register' and is based on a computer system, 'though the actual styles are many and varied. The point of sale might be at a checkout - as in a supermarket – or situated on a counter, as most retail stores tend to do. There might be just one point of sale in a store, or several, as in a department store.

All POS systems look different. Although the basic composition is the same, systems will vary greatly, depending on the environment it is being used in; the type of information that is required to be gathered or recorded; the type of look the store is after and, of course, the amount of money a store wants to spend on the set up. Systems will range from a very basic cash register-looking type, through to more complex, high-end systems with touch screen facilities instead of keyboards.

The function of the point of sale in a retail store, is to process transactions and collect and record raw data about that transaction. A transaction can be a sale, a refund, to generate or redeem a credit note or a gift voucher, to process a layby, or simply to record a customer's details in the store's data base. The data that is collected at the point of sale, is usually about the item or items being sold/returned. Often, most of this data will be automatically generated by the computer after scanning the barcode, or it may be keyed in or entered in manually by the person operating the POS.