Business owners must use every tool available to them when making decisions about sales and inventory. Any company making use of a point-of-sale system will find they have a valuable tool at their fingertips in the form of POS reporting. Reports provided by this system allow the owner to obtain detailed insights regarding how the business is performing. In addition, they provide an overview of sales data along with inventory tracking details. With this information, the owner finds they can improve their product selection, know which promotions perform best, and what changes they need to make to grow their business. However, knowing which reports they should run is critical. Consider the following when making this determination.
The Benefits of POS Data
Data generated by a POS system benefits the company in a variety of ways. It allows the owner to find ways to improve daily operations within the organization while minimizing waste. In addition, employees spend less time engaging in administrative work and find their revenue increases, as the entire organization runs more efficiently. If you still struggle to understand the benefits of the data generated by a POS system, seek POS system help at Korona.
What Are POS Reports?
Point-of-sale systems collect data, and this data can be useful in driving business decisions. The reports organize this data into formats that make it easy to examine different areas of the business. A company can learn which employees maintain the best sales records or which products are flying off the shelves.
Business owners love having access to this information in real-time. Furthermore, a person can access this information anywhere as long as they have access to the internet. The system collects information that can then be filtered to meet the needs of the business owner at that specific time.
The Benefits of POS Reports
POS reports provide numerous benefits. They do so thanks to the amount of data that can be collected by a system of this type. The following serve as a few of many reasons a company should run POS reports.
Staffing Decisions
The reports help when it’s time to make staffing decisions. An owner can determine which employee is excelling in a specific area and ensure their talents are being used to benefit the company. The system becomes of help when scheduling employees to ensure clients receive the best service at all times. These serve as only a few examples of how POS reporting makes staffing decisions easier.
Purchasing Decisions
As with staffing decisions, purchasing decisions become easier thanks to POS reports. The system tracks inventory and alerts the business owner to items that sell quickly and those that sit on the shelf. This eliminates all guesswork from the ordering process while automating routine tasks.
Business Insights
Any company operating multiple locations must track sales for each location. Using a POS system makes it so effortless, as the system tracks information by location. The business owner isn’t forced to make decisions company-wide but can do so for each branch.
Marketing
Customers often determine the success or failure of a business. Any organization that fails to reach new customers while retaining existing ones won’t survive. The POS system collects data that helps companies improve their outreach efforts while ensuring these efforts target the desired audience. Today, many POS programs include customer relationship management software that provides information on customer demographics, purchasing habits, and more.
Future Growth
POS reports help companies create and maintain loyalty plans designed to retain existing customers. In addition, the reports provide information on how many people are returning customers and how many are shopping with the organization for the first time. A lack of new customers suggests changes are needed in marketing efforts. Few repeat customers indicate changes need to be made in the product selection or customer service.
Helpful POS Reports
POS systems allow users to select from a range of reports depending on their needs. However, most business owners find they lack the time needed to run every report. For this reason, they prioritize those that will provide the most helpful information. The following five reports should always be run, as they are beneficial for businesses of all sizes.
General Analytics
Most POS systems include an analytics dashboard or offer a general summary report. Every business owner needs to make use of these general analytics tools, as this is the easiest way to see the data collected by the system. If users have a choice, the POS dashboard serves as the better option simply because it provides real-time information regarding the company’s current state. However, the information found in a summary report remains similar, regardless of which option the owner selects.
Using this general summary report, a business owner gets quick facts about net sales, how many transactions are occurring during a particular period, outgoing costs, and more. The report contains data that spans different aspects of the business, allowing the owner to see areas of concern. The owner can then investigate the problem further by running more complex reports. Furthermore, this report becomes of great help when a business wants to share information with partners who only require a general overview of the state of the company as opposed to more in-depth information.
Inventory
Companies must track inventory to know which items are running low and need to be ordered, along with those that are sitting on the shelves. During this process, the business owner finds they can identify areas of waste and takes steps to minimize them. Furthermore, inventory tracking measures reduce employee theft.
An inventory summary report provides the owner with an overview of current inventory without the need to visit the stockroom. However, this serves as only one inventory report business owners need to run. An inventory valuation report allows the owner to see how much money they have sitting in products waiting to be sold. Reorder reports alert employees to order items that are running low on the shelves.
Certain POS systems allow for specialized reports. Companies need to look into these programs to see if they will be of benefit. For example, a raw ingredients report helps restaurants while manufacturers benefit from a parts report. Look into programs that emphasize order workflows, outgoing payment tracking, inventory arrivals, and more.
Accounting
POS systems generate general ledger reporting, allowing a business to see important financial information. This includes assets and liabilities along with accounts payable and more. The user can customize the reports depending on what information they need. Choose a POS system that allows you to export the information in the report to Excel for use with accounting software. This feature helps not only the company but also any independent accountants working for the organization.
Tracking Options
Point-of-sale systems allow a business to determine which products are hot sellers and which you should eliminate from inventory. The sales reports show items sold, top performances, the average transaction amount, payment methods used, and more. Many reports detail the customer and employee details, allowing the business to locate a transaction and review it if a problem arises. However, these reports serve as only one type of tracking report available today.
One thing users must recognize is data becomes more beneficial as more is amassed. A company might not be able to determine which items sell at different times of the year when first using the program. However, as they use it year after year, they find they gain more insight into customer purchasing and make the necessary adjustments.
Staffing
Labor reports help many businesses determine their staffing needs. Although a business with only one or two employees won’t benefit from the inclusion of this feature in their POS system, it still needs consideration. A person opens a business with the hope of making enough revenue to support themselves and grow. When this growth does occur, the owner will find each additional employee increases the need for staffing features in the POS system. It also allows you to generate labor reports with additional information. This can include, the average amount of each sale, the average number of complete transactions, how many hours each employee works on average, and more.
The system might allow for time-entry reports, as this tracks hourly employees who work irregular hours. Job titles and their corresponding pay scales appear in these reports along with overtime information. Business owners find they save time and money by purchasing a system with these features, as they no longer have to complete the tasks manually in their accounting program. The reports also make it easy to schedule employees and ensure adequate coverage during busy times without paying employees to stand around during slow periods.
POS reports become of great help to a business owner looking to grow and expand operations. The five types of reports mentioned above benefit most companies today, and these systems offer countless other report options. Each business is unique and reports needed by one organization won’t be of benefit to another. For this reason, companies need to review multiple system options to find the one that will allow their organization to achieve its goals. That needs to be the priority, regardless of which system you select.
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