1.1 Introduction
Point of sale (POS) refers to the place where a customer executes the payment for goods or services and where sales taxes may become payable. It can be in a physical store, where POS terminals and systems are used to process card payments or a virtual sales point such as a computer or mobile electronic device (Investopedia, 2021). POS systems saves money, provides productivity gains, and can cut down the amount of time you spend away from the primary focus of your business. This POS System Buyer's Guide will walk you through the process of evaluating multiple POS vendors and choosing the right system (Petee, 2005).
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, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
One of the great recent advances in the world of information technology is the rapid development of communication which has brought world into a global village, we can send mails electronically (e-mail), search for information (WWW), buy goods online (e-commerce), withdraw transfer money (e-banking), schooling online (e-learning), this has affected the society positive to a great extent, as result computerization of sales should not be exempt Application of technology in Sales has been adopted in developed countries for over two decades now, and this has been attributed to the desire of the governments of these countries to improve the efficiency of their goods and services, processes, accountability. Switching from a traditional cash register to a computerized POS system can be difficult - there are many factors to consider and some pitfalls to avoid. However the return on investment and benefits to your business can really make it worth your time and effort. In the most basic sense, a computerized POS system is a glorified cash register.
The most basic sales system consists of a computer, a cash drawer, receipt printer, a monitor, and an input device such as a keyboard or scanner. However, in addition to being more efficient than cash registers, sales systems can create detailed reports that can help you make more informed business decisions. Sales systems saves money, provides productivity gains, and can cut down the amount of time you spend away from the primary focus of your business. This POS System Buyer's Guide will walk you through the process of evaluating multiple POS vendors and choosing the right system.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Over the years, manual method of generating receipt of payment. This method has its problems. It has been proven to be very ineffective and inefficient. Some of the problems are
- The job of preparing sales record is tedious causes delay.
- As a result of the problem above, manual methods have a lot of discrepancies and raise doubts in the voucher.
- This method encourages fraud figures are easily manipulated and changed.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement a web based Point of Sale System for FPNO bookshop. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows that will develop an application software that will:
- Provide full functional reports to management
- Provide a fast and accurate way of auditing records
- Control the existing system errors made by human beings due to shortcomings.
- Ensure the problem accoutered in recording information is highly minimized.
1.5 Significance of Study
Moving from a cash register machine to a computerized POS system is very significant to any retail sales of business activities because the return on investment and benefits to your business in the area of stocks processing, accountability and accurate data collation for effective management of the business.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This project covers federal polytechnic bookshop for school of industrial and applied science the design will only cover the sales, stock supplier section, of the bookshop.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- 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.
- 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.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- 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
Accounts receivable: Amounts owed to a business (an asset), usually by customers who purchased goods or services on credit.
Additional markdown: An increase of a previous markdown to further lower the selling price.
Address Verification Service (AVS): A service that reduces credit card fraud by verifying the cardholder's address information when the physical card isn't available to swipe through an MSR device (e.g., as with telephone orders). AVS processing doesn't affect whether the charge is approved. Instead, AVS indicates whether or not the address provided by the customer matches the address on file with the credit card company so that the merchant can decide whether or not to process the charge.
Adjustment: An increase or decrease to the quantity indicated in the retail software package. The adjustment ensures that the records in the retail software match the actual physical quantity in inventory.
Bar Code: information encoded into a rectangular bar shape, this information can be read by special device.
