Billing (POS) machines are essential for generating invoices and performing other key operational tasks, regardless of the sector or the scale of the business: a small retail store, a large but single-outlet department store, an enterprise business, a warehouse, a manufacturing unit, or a restaurant.
Hence, selecting the right billing system, including a robust POS terminal and complementary peripherals, is a major operations management decision. This is because, without the right, ideally the best, POS hardware, ensuring business efficiency and scalability can be challenging.
However, the market is full of a diverse range of POS terminals and peripherals, making it difficult for entrepreneurs—uninitiated in the know-how of billing (POS) machines—to build a tech suite best-suited to their business scale and expansion. To help entrepreneurs overcome this operations management obstacle, in this blog, we will examine how the right billing setup can be chosen based on the type of business, i.e. its sector and size. We will also consider expansion plans while deliberating on the POS setup.
It is fair to assume that small operations often deal with a space crunch. Hence, a slim, modular, and peripheral-rich billing setup is ideal for ensuring end-to-end operations management—ranging from billing and inventory management to report generation and Analytics—without taking up too much space.
Apart from a robust POS terminal, billing setups include peripherals such as barcode scanners, barcode/ invoice printers, cash drawers, secondary/ customer-facing displays, line displays, POS boxes, programmable keyboards, and swipe readers.
In small-scale operations, including retail stores and restaurants, where stationary billing setups suffice, businesses don’t need to invest in any other POS hardware, apart from the ones mentioned above.
However, operations where mobility is key or the business owner wants to maximise the space by doing away with a cash counter, all-in-one mobility devices, -also known as mobile POS- such as mobile POS tablets, prove invaluable.
Some businesses that don’t necessarily require a cash counter are small cafés, kiosks, pop-up shops, and home-based setups. Often, POS tablets come with:
Another advantage of mobile POS devices is that they have a smartphone-like interface, thus ensuring that users don’t require extensive training. The mobility devices also need a low initial investment to hit the ground running.
However, a peripheral-rich billing infrastructure, with a POS terminal, is necessary where operational complexity increases, requiring:
Industries, such as warehousing, manufacturing, and logistics, where mobility is key for inventory management, billing, and inventory tracking and audits, also require mobility devices like POS tablets. Usually, these businesses would be categorised as mid-sized, if not large-scale enterprises.
In these heavy-duty environments, the need for computational power is also high. Thus, POS boxes can be game-changing.
Like small businesses, departmental stores or any business operations, franchise, or single outlet, spanning a large area, also need:
When it comes to mid-sized or large-scale restaurants, mobility devices and Kitchen Display Systems (KDS) can amplify the operational efficiency by instantly generating KOTs without the staff having to walk all the way to the kitchen. For efficiency-boosting in fast-paced retail stores or QSRs, adding kiosks alongside billing (POS) machines is also vital because they enable self-service/checkout.
Given that ERP software compatibility depends on the POS hardware, it is important to consider the processor of the devices before investing in them. The processor must support EPRs offering multi-user access. Also, on large operations floors, fingerprint readers are critical for controlling user access.
Another key point to be mindful of is that the processors are capable of extensive computation, as is the case for creating complex business reports.
Although mid-sized and large businesses such as retail or restaurant chains are likely to have a larger budget for POS hardware, balancing between efficiency and affordability remains key for ensuring that the budget is scalable across outlets.
While it is pertinent for small businesses, too, opting for a dependable POS vendor with good after-sales service is non-negotiable for large, high-footfall businesses to uphold their customer service quality.
Curious to know more? Contact us now, and one of our executives will get in touch with you as soon as possible!
POSIFLEX is a leading provider of innovative point-of-sale (POS) solutions, known for delivering reliable, high-performance hardware and comprehensive support.
