Gone are the days that the businesses relied on conventional cash registers; cloud-based POS systems has taken the industry by storm. No matter whether you run a retail store or a restaurant, a POS system can increase the productivity significantly. Other than playing just the role of a point of sales, these systems are capable of generating vital reports for a business. But what such reports can you run on your POS system, you ask?

Sales Reports

No matter what the type of your business is, the ultimate goal should be sales. Having a perfectly generated, detailed sales report is highly beneficial for a business. In fact, such facility should be a prerequisite of any POS system. A comprehensive sales report should emphasize sufficient information enabling you to draw a clear picture about your business. Which items make most profits for your business, which period you experience a boost in your business and which items needs to be eliminated from your product list are some of the facts you can determine referring a sales report. Below is a list of facts that can be found in a sales report.

• Best-selling and worst-selling items
• Sales activities of a particular period
• Sales by department
• Sales by product
• Sales by employee
• Mostly returned items
• Profit (gross) by weekly, monthly or annually etc.

Payment reports

Although sales are the bread and butter of a business, the amount of actual payments determines the amount of money you have made during a particular period. Again, POS can help you to track critical information like cash flow, credit card payments and other information that affects your payments. Such report is a great way to prevent employee theft, errors in billing, preferred payment methods of customers and determine the discounts applied on sales. POS payment reports include information such as:

• Actions pertaining to cash
• Paid taxes
• Tips
• Sales voided
• Refunds
• Discounts given
• Modes of payments
• Employee payouts (if applicable)

CRM

Integrating CRM software to a POS is a very effective way to monitor information pertaining to important customer activities. You will be able to monitor repeat customers, develop specifically targeted marketing campaigns and develop customer loyalty programs. Modern CRM software programs are capable of capturing the customer details real-time and update the databases accordingly. Standard CRM reports include information like:

• Sales by customer
• Priority customers
• Purchase histories
• Customer information (name, email address etc)

Inventory Reports

Modern POS systems come with inventory management software too. This is a great way to manage and maintain adequate stocks to be compatible with the sales volume. A report generated via this inventory management software emphasizes information like the quantities, values of the inventory and items that you are running low. Those who need in-depth reports can rely on third-party software integration to the POS.

Having understood the benefits these reports can bring to your business, it is a wise business owner to use an up-to-date, hi-end POS and rectify the potential mishaps. What you spend on a POS as a business owner is a wise investment that associated both short and long term benefits.