If you want inventory control should you use a cash register or PC based system?

We are often told by customers looking for a cash register that they want inventory control. After hearing this we must really dive into what does inventory control mean to that person? To some it is true inventory control where the POS is tracking how many of one item you have sold, you have entered a beginning stock, you have entered on-going purchases of stock and taken a physical inventory and the system can tell you at any given time how many of that item you have on the shelf and how many you need to order and from whom. I know that was a long winded answer, however to some when they claim they want inventory control they really mean they wish to have a sales report of how many of one item they have sold over a period of time. There is a huge difference in the two ideas of inventory control.

If you are looking for true inventory control as described in my first example than a cash register is probably not for you. You would be better served with a software based POS system with inventory control. Now having said that does that mean a cash register can't do inventory control? No in fact many cash registers include a stock keeping report, however when we get down to the real world of operating a POS inventory control system you will find cash registers are to labor intensive and your cost of doing the work may outweigh the benefit. I have seen it over and over in my years in the cash register and POS industry. We have also had to fix many situations where a sales person (not ours) told a client of yah, this cash register can do full inventory control and they sell the client a bill of goods. Yes in theory it may work but in the real world unless you only have a handful of items it is not going to work.

If you need true inventory control then do yourself a favor and look at a software based POS inventory control system such as the Keystroke POS system. A computer based POS system integrates all the movement of inventory in your store. A true POS system allows you to create automatic inventory purchase orders, allows you to receive and edit inventory by accepting purchase orders into the system and of course the items you sell are automatically deducted from you inventory.

When set up correctly you will be able to go into you inventory control POS system and generate a report of what you need to buy from your vendors, or create a shrink report in a matter of seconds or maybe print shelf tags.

I could go on all day regarding the differences and benefits of both types of systems. If you would like to discuss which system would work better for you please give us a call at 1-800-863-2274 we are located in Seattle however we sell and install Keystroke POS and cash registers all over North America