Upgrading your point of sale solution to a top-tier, affordable option provides you with a variety of game-changing benefits. These benefits are now at your fingertips thanks to the cutting-edge and forward-looking POS features that you obtain in a POS refresh. Modernized payment options, app-based ordering, and the ease of allocating tips at the end of the night are all great selling points for an innovative POS platform, but isn’t there something else that you are missing?
A feature that often goes forgotten or is simply brushed aside is inventory control. Managing inventory in today’s hypercompetitive business climate has grown to be much more than simply counting items on a shelf. It is recording the ounces of those items, their weights, and the shelf footprint, as businesses try to squeeze every last dime out of the space they have and the usability of the products they order.
This places heavy importance on your ability to accurately maximize the use and revenue generated by the inventory you keep. Utilizing an innovative, integrated POS solution is a great start, but you need to take it further. There are a few key point of sale software with inventory control and management features that you must consider as mandatory additions so that you can maximize your inventory returns and build your business model for lasting success.
Point of Sale Software with Inventory Control Tracks Items from Receiving to Sale
An important aspect of effective inventory management is developing controls around incoming products and outgoing sales. While it is tempting for many to consolidate their receipt and sales logs, this can be a mistake. Relying on disjointed data from opposite ends of your business will yield only inaccuracies and the time-consuming piecing together of information to develop a usable view of what your inventory usage really looks like.
You need an accurate inventory logging tool that allows you to:
- Quickly scan incoming items into your POS platform, preferably using a barcode equipped smartphone with a POS app.
- Use the POS app to easily add new products into the system, which in turn automatically updates the POS system in all areas.
- Execute comparison reports so you can seek out inefficiencies or instances of product leakage.
Having these key abilities at your disposal allows you to take your inventory controls to the next level. Monitoring stock for quality freshness, for signs that sales have slowed, or to increase ordering for in-demand items, becomes much easier with these next-gen tools in your pocket. The improvements in inventory logging will have a direct impact on your bottom line, giving you wider margins and less stress.
Use Custom Unit Types to Enhance Inventory Management Effectiveness
An important aspect of getting the most out of your inventory, especially for the hospitality industry, is the ability to break products down into smaller units. The ability for restaurants, bars, cafes, and QSRs to track unit quantities requires that they have a bundled inventory toolset at the ready. This gives them deeper levels of inventory control that is not realistically possible by relying on manual or physical item counts.
For example, say a restaurant needs a new way to manage their inventory of beer kegs. It noticed that their inventory of partially used kegs was growing, and many of these had unknown amounts of beer left in them. This was forcing staff to switch out kegs during inopportune rush periods. Contributing to the issue was that many of the partially-used kegs had to be discarded, due to them going flat, and that sales were by the serving size, and not by the ounce.
They began to leverage the inventory control solution within their POS platform to track keg tap dates and times for improved quality control. Also, the way sales were tracked was changed to an ounce-based model, versus by the glass or pitcher, giving them a better sense of what was left in the kegs under the bar. This not only enabled them to get more use out of a tapped keg, but they saw a steep reduction in beer that was discarded due to going flat.
Integrating Returns and Voids into Inventory Data for Retail
Retailers face their own sets of challenges when it comes to developing accurate and profit-boosting inventory controls. While tracking minute levels of units of the products they sell is not typical, they have the complex nature of processing returns and voids that requires close monitoring. Scan counts also make up a valuable aspect of managing inventory, making it imperative that retailers have a user-friendly and highly capable POS inventory solution in place.
Effectively managing and monitoring voids, returns, or exchanges are a mandatory practice to streamline if you are to reduce losses due to leakage. Mis-scanned items or manual entries can lead to costly, inadvertent errors by you and your staff. Letting your POS solution operate under automated inventory guidelines allow you to establish error conditions that force an override request, letting you and your supervisors take the initiative to drive cost savings even deeper.
The Time Has Come to Implement Your POS Inventory Control Solution
Building a better business relies not just on your talents and vision. It is about having the products your customer desires and pairing that with knowledgeable staff to guide the customer through your options. You have one chance to make a great first impression on a new customer, and any out-of-stocks or incomplete items will lead to lost sales, as well as give you a mark against your reputation.
Developing an in-depth inventory control process requires that you have the right tech in the right places. The expert consultants that talech will offer to you will give you the inventory tools you need to ensure long-term success through effective inventory management. We will present to you the perfect blend of technology, business support, and training to ensure that your inventory controls are the best fit for your business goals.
Don’t overlook the importance of finding point of sale software with inventory control. When you partner with talech for your retail technology needs, you can be assured that your inventory will be tracked efficiently and will provide you with the kind of data you need to make crucial buying decisions. Reach out to us today to sign up for a demo and to learn more about how talech can be your valued POS partner.
