| EPOS is short for Electronic Point of Sale which refers | | | | accounts system to be available on the till and for all |
| to the hardware and software where the transaction | | | | sales figures to feed back to the accounts system - |
| takes place in a retail store or hospitality environment. | | | | replacing the need for entering sales figures manually. |
| The primary feature of an EPOS system is that it is | | | | Because these types of system are linked to products |
| electronically driven and therefore often has a | | | | it is also able to manage stock and deducts the |
| touch-screen interface. | | | | number of items sold from the stock records |
| The products that a store sells can be scanned using | | | | accordingly. This allows for a live status of stock to be |
| a handheld scanner which is recognised by the till along | | | | viewed which is particularly useful if the company has |
| with price and details which are displayed on the | | | | multiple outlets - even if this is just online and a shop - |
| screen when scanned. Items can also be selected | | | | as it prevents two places selling the final stock item for |
| from a range of menus and can be chosen by | | | | example. |
| touching the correct product on the screen. The total | | | | With this type of integration reports can also be |
| automatically adds up and then the payment method is | | | | created which show anything from stock levels to the |
| taken, calculating change is required. The EPOS can | | | | best selling items. |
| also be linked to a chip and pin device to accept | | | | What are the alternatives? |
| payments. | | | | The obvious alternative to EPOS is a till system which |
| Accounts integrated systems are also available, often | | | | simply records money or sales coming in and does not |
| supplied with a number of additional modules which | | | | manage stock in any way. It also does not link to an |
| offer a range of functionality. The accounts integration | | | | accounts package so the inputting of figures typically |
| allows for all products which are set up in the | | | | takes place manually on a weekly or daily basis. |