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Help setting up a POS system

M

mallik

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2002
Messages
141
Hi, the people I know have a convenience store, but it's not the most efficiently run place I've ever seen. Inventory isn't monitored too tightly, and a lot of times, stock runs out. They use the old style registars.

I was thinking of maybe trying to set up a point of sale system to automate everything, so that we can automatically keep track of inventory, sales, etc. For example, when a customer purchases an item, the item would get scanned, and then the price comes up and the inventory gets automatically updated. I don't know if something like that would be too fancy for a convenience store, but it was just a thought. The store isn't huge or anything, and we're in Canada, so we're not allowed to sell alcohol like in the US, but I thought it still might be a good idea.

Also I was thinking that if it were possible, I was wondering if it would be possible to build one from an old PC. What would you need to know to do it? Sorry for the long post, but does anybody have any experience with this, or any ideas? If this automated inventory/purchase system could work, does anybody know where I could get info on it, or does anybody have any recommendations on how to get started? Thanks in advance.
 
Well, I used to work in a conveniece store so I know what your talking about. We had the kind of automated system like you are describing.

It should be easy enough to run on any pc with the right peripherals, namely a bar code scanner.

Where I worked, they had a company make a software program that would do the things they wanted. I'm sure there are generic POS software programs out there that you could buy or something.

Might have to search a bit for the software that suits your business best but I'm positive it is already out there.

go to.www.pointofsale.com They look like they have a lot of stuff you could use
 
A local radio shack around me uses some dell and they run POS software on it. So I think that any PC is good.
 
go hunt on google for a free prog.

i found one once , it was a simple inventory mangement prog , with some POS functions.

sorry , cant remeber the name since it was like 2-3 yrs ago
 
POS systems are pretty much nothing but a pc with a bar code scanner and, possibly, a non-standard keyboard. Any pc that can run the software and has these, should work fine.
 
POS systems are pretty much nothing but a pc with a bar code scanner
Click to expand...

well . in the last 10 yrs , I've used 5 different POS systems,
mostly Unix or DOS based and NONE of them used a bar code scanner
 
^^

I only said bar code scanner because it's the method that most POS systems use to track inventory.
 
As long as they dont have too many seperate pieces of inventory, look at quickbooks for the software. I don't know if it interfaces properly with a UPC scanner (although i think so, never had to use it for that). Its not a bad piece of software for a small company with limited inventory. We use it right now, although we are currently looking to replace it (too much inventory, and w're getting too big).
 
you might be able to get buy with like an acess databse and a bar code scanner. I don't know much about it but we have used a similar set up to automate data entry in the semiconductor fab I work in.
 
Originally posted by mdmikep
you might be able to get buy with like an acess databse and a bar code scanner. I don't know much about it but we have used a similar set up to automate data entry in the semiconductor fab I work in.
Click to expand...

True, but for the price of access (if they dont already have it) and the time/expense of setting it up/getting it set up, they could get an off the shelf system. There are off the shelf software packages that will do this, and all the bookeeping and reporting, payroll etc. for around 200 bucks.
 
well, really the easiest way to track inventory is with a program, i think peachtree does it. theres also a lot. unless you're talking about wal-mart scale inventory, an automated system is probably going to be more trouble than its worth.

if you just want to use a cash drawer with a pc to look cool, im not sure itd be worth it.
 
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