Software Implementation of a Computerized Supermarket Cash Receipt Generating System

1.1 Introduction

Cash receipt is a written acknowledgment that a specified article or payment has been received. It records the sale of goods or provision of a service. If the recipient of the payment is required to collect a tax from the customer, the amount collected would also be included on the receipt and the amount would be deemed to have been collected on behalf of the relevant government tax authority. In many countries a retailer is required to include the tax and similar amounts in the price of goods sold. Similarly, amounts may be deducted from amounts payable (Webstar, 2011).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Cash receipt generating system is a viable source in any business organization and venture and so on, its main purpose is to maintain more reliable records of money going in and out from the firm. This is look upon the view that the business organization must have business associates that exchange market with each other. It is a sure fact that the most have been a contract of which, there is an obligatory task that stands the terms of agreement, it could be a payment to their client or partners or from their client who pays into their own account. Another thing matters weather it will be cash without remark balance or install mental, and how many installment it is going to be. This is clear stated in the organization activities and manner of operation. Whenever there is payment, there is also the issuing of receipts this is centered on the writing of what each party has in stock.

In some countries, it is obligatory for a business to provide a receipt to a customer confirming the details of a transaction. In most cases the recipient of money provides the receipt, but in some cases the receipt is generated by the payer, as in the case of goods returned to a store for a refund (Slohan, 2005). A receipt is not the same as an invoice, which is a commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer, relating to a sale transaction and indicating the products, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller had provided the buyer (Webstar, 2011).

There is usually no set form for a receipt, such as a requirement that it be machine generated. Many point-of-sale terminals or cash registers automatically produce receipts. Receipts may also be generated by accounting systems, be stamped by cashiers or generated electronically, for example if there is not a face-to-face transaction. To reduce the cost of postage and processing, many businesses do not mail receipts to customers, unless specifically requested or required by law. The custom in most stores at the point of sale is for a salesperson to scan or in some way record the price of a customer's proposed purchases, including tax, discounts and other adjustments. In traditional situations and still in some family businesses today, the salesperson would then show the customer the summary, the invoice, for their agreement; but most stores today bypass this stage. The practice of presenting an invoice is most common in restaurants where a "bill" is presented after a meal. The salesperson would indicate to the customer the total amount payable, and the customer would indicate the proposed method of payment of the amount. After processing the payment, the salesperson would then generate in the one document an invoice and receipt (Godelnik, 2012).

If payment was made by a payment card, a payment record would also be generated. These are the printed records of the transaction, and are legal documents. A copy of these records would be handed to the customer. The document may also include messages from the retailer, warranty or return details, special offers, advertisements or coupons, but these are merely promotional and not part of the formal receipt. Receipts may also be provided for non-retail operations such as banking transactions (Godelnik, 2012).

Hand-written or hand-completed receipts are more often used for infrequent or irregular transactions, or for transactions conducted in the absence of a terminal, cash register or point of sale: for example, as provided by a landlord to a tenant to record the receipt of rent (Bergstrom, 2011).

It is natural for many shoppers to be fond of keeping or hoarding their receipts from the many transactions that they make daily. Some people keep them to use while accounting for money spent, others in case they will need to reverse a transaction but most receipts are kept out of habit. Receipt tracking can be time consuming and very tedious especially since most receipts are small and can easily get lost. People keep these receipts because of the important information that they contain, like proof of purchase for warranties receipts, proof of major expenses, merchandise returns or exchanges, expense reimbursements budgeting and reconciling, tax deductions. Other than these reasons, one does not generally need to keep receipts, so they should liberate themselves from letting them pile up (Bergstrom, 2011).

Developing digital receipts systems has been tried in some parts of the world to simplify the storing and managing of receipts for later use. The system enables more than just receipt storage for people, it enables other financial uses that are of importance to both the business and the customer. Paper receipts are also terrible for the environment, with research showing over 1.2 billion gallons of water being used to produce paper receipts (Bergstrom, 2011).

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation reveals the problems of the Computerized Supermarket Cash Receipt Generating System research work which are as follows:

1. The speed of generating receipt for goods sold and processing data manually is slow and prone to errors.
2. The current process is stressful to end-users due to time factors
3. Lack of inadequate facilities for shopping, customer have to visit shops within the campus premises to purchase an item and inadequate attention will be giving to them because of crowd due to the manual approach of receipt generation.
4. There is no proper storage of receipts to ensure that they can be retrieved, analyzed or viewed by businesses and shoppers.
5. Producing the receipt printout for each transaction is costly for a business while keeping them only to find them faded, damaged or lost and therefore of no help is unfortunate to customers.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to Design and Implement a Computerized Supermarket Cash Receipt Generating System. In achieving this aim the following objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To develop an application software that will keep track of the files can at any operates the organization and client’s financial report.
2. To design a software that will generate accurate customer’s cash receipt for goods/item sold.

1.5 Significance/Justification of Study

For there to be a computerized business operation, the business must be look upon in a new way of existence. Not only being concerned with customers, prices output and so forth one should also consider the fact that data forms, information flows procedures etc. it is momentous on the basic that computers are used as a co-existing element to information system. This application is effective and productive because it enhance to process amore better information system (Automated).

On this work, we shall basically look upon the possibility of making the outline orderly model of designing effect change. The process of changing system is systematic such that it is a repetition process. It is a fact to say that every system has what is called life cycle especially information system. By reviewing and modifying them, we say,

It is a system development cycle. The routine is always cyclical. It is on the system development that the familiar input processing output-feedback pattern of all system. The system development contains the output which consists of various organization information systems. The feedbacks components help evaluate the effectiveness of the systems terms of changing requirements.

1.6 Scope of Study

The scope of this research is focused on the Design and Implementation of a Computerized Supermarket Cash Receipt Generating System.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

1.8 Definition of Terms

Acquiring Bank: This is a bank or financial institution that accepts payments for the product or services on behalf of a Merchant.

Computer: This is an electro-mechanical device that is capable of accepting data as inputs, stores it, processes the data and outputs it as result or information.

Credit Card: It is a payment mechanism that enables consumers to make their online purchase.

Data: Data are raw facts which undergo processing and become information. They are also the simplest unit of information that can stand on its own.

Digital Certificate: It is a certificate that enables a merchant to do on-line business and it is been issued by a corporate body.