The Importance of Proper Inventory Management

POS or PoS is an acronym for Point of Sale a term that is descriptive of a retail shop or retail store, its check-out counter and the location where the purchase transaction between the cashier and the customer is completed. Point of Sale can also mean the actual hardware and software that is the component of POS systems. The hardware may consist of cash register systems, touch screen display monitors, barcode scanners, receipt printers, scales and pole displays. The software may include inventory management programs, sales and stock retrieval programs and other software that are common to service oriented, retail and manufacturing businesses.

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The point of sale system has come a long way from the old crank type mechanical cash registers used during the first half of the century. These old cash registers recorded data on paper tapes or journal tapes and required some kind of transcription for the information to be converted into an accounting based report. This type of mechanical register evolved into an electrical driven unit but still had the same old system of printing out accounting reports.

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It was in 1973 that a new breed of cash register was created. These new point of sale systems were computerized registers able to transmit business transactions to a personal computer, providing a daily transactions summary printout.

During the 80s and the 90s a new addition to the intelligent cash register was produced. The credit card processing machines. This invention made it easier for consumers to pay for the goods and services purchased.

Today Point of Sale systems incorporate various forms of business operations and transactions of purchased goods and services.

One of the most important components of a PoS system is inventory management. Inventory management is the process of efficiently overseeing the constant in and out flow of products or items of an existing inventory. Any miscalculations could mean disastrous results for the company.

Balancing the various task of inventory management means knowing the basic aspects of the system. Be aware of the supplier’s timetable in processing orders and delivering them. Know how long an inventory item would stay in the inventory list and when to place an order for fresh stocks.

Inventory management is not limited to managing the delivery and the movement of goods to and from the warehouse, but also the movement of those materials as they go through the various stages of the store’s operation. This is known as goods or work in progress inventory. This is merely tracking materials as they are used to create finished goods.

The tracking of goods enables inventory managers to adjust ordering and releasing materials or products to prevent stock inventory from becoming to high or to low.

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