| Technology can be very confusing for a buyer, | | | | mechanical devices. Receipt printers for retail outlets |
| especially when there a hundreds of products to | | | | and hotels come with cash drawer ports and both the |
| choose from and it is necessary to decide which will | | | | printers and the cash drawers share a single port with |
| suit his or her needs. Knowing some basics about point | | | | the PC, leaving other PC ports free for other |
| of sale (POS) requirements will simplify things to a | | | | peripherals of the POS system. Barcode scanners |
| large extent. Here is some basic information about | | | | read product information from the price tag of the |
| POS equipment for a beginner! | | | | products and feed the information into the computer, |
| Every POS system has some hardware requirements | | | | which then processes it and prints it. Magnetic stripe |
| and needs physical input and output devices to carry | | | | card readers and check readers are essential for |
| out the commands of remote system software and | | | | vendors who accept payment through cards and |
| to guarantee the smooth functioning of business | | | | checks. Apart from drawing money from the |
| transactions in a restaurant or a retail outlet. Some of | | | | customer's account, these devices also prevent fake |
| the mandatory hardware includes computer terminals, | | | | checks and credit card accounts from getting |
| receipt printers, cash drawers, magnetic stripe readers, | | | | submitted. The scanners and readers are usually |
| check readers, monitors or screens, keyboards, | | | | wedges in point-of-sale keyboards, which come with a |
| barcode scanners, and customer display screens. | | | | maximum of 101 keys for industry-specific functions. |
| These are aimed at time-effective and error-free | | | | Monitors and touch-screen displays are used as both |
| sales transactions, where every activity is machine | | | | input and output devices depending on the individual |
| driven and manual input is minimal. | | | | needs of a vendor. Fourteen-inch monitors are most |
| Computer terminals with operating systems like | | | | widely used, but nine- or ten-inch monitors are used in |
| Windows or Linux are essential to map the software | | | | some cases, especially when they are used as display |
| into Windows or Java and to integrate it with the | | | | boards for product or menu information and pricings. |