How to Choose the best POS Billing Software for Your Business from Retail Mass
by MaestroInfotech System Website Design Company BangaloreIf you own or manage a small
business, you know how much time can be spent chasing down paper invoices,
purchase orders and sales reports. It can be a real nightmare! That is where billing software
comes in. It allows you to record all your customers, sales, invoices,
inventory, suppliers (and more) in a PC-based system that is easy to use.
Deciding that you need to invest in
good quality POS billing software
is not hard. The tricky part can be choosing the right software package for
your requirements. There are dozens of systems on the market claiming to be the
holy grail of all your business problems, but choosing the wrong one can cost
you valuable time and money.
Here's a simple checklist of 11
things to look for when purchasing billing
software for your small business:
1) Customer records
This is the core element of any POS billing
system. What sort of information do you need to record about your
customers? There's the obvious things like address, phone, fax, mobile, email
and web address. But what about marketing-related information like "how
did the customer find out about your business?", and "standard
discounts" for key clients.
2) Multiple contacts &
Communication history
If many of your clients are
businesses with multiple contacts, can you record individual contact details
for each person? Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising, and
statistics show that one of the most important factors in customer satisfaction
is good customer service. Have you thought about keeping a log of all
communication with your customers? It can be extremely helpful for improving
internal communication within your business, and results in a more personalised
service for your clients.
3) Multiple shipments
Obviously your billing software will need
to create sales orders - that's a gimme. But do you need to record
employee-related information, like who the "salesperson" was? What
about flexible dispatch options, like multiple shipments per sales order?
4) Search facility
There's no point recording all this
really useful information if there's no easy way to get to it. Check that the
search facility is flexible and easy to use. What criteria can you search by?
Here are a couple useful fields you may want to use: customer phone number,
customer address, order date, dispatch date and dispatch consignment number.
5) Tax & regional support
Are you able to change the tax rates
on an order line basis? What about currency formatting? If you and your clients
are in Europe, then there's no point using billing software that can only
handle US dollars.
6) Reporting
Producing accurate reports in
seconds is something you no longer have to dream about. In fact it is a
necessity in today's competitive market. Ensure your retail billing software
can calculate information on sales based on date, salesperson and customer
type. If you operate a B2B business, another key performance indicator may be
dispatch totals, based on date, and employee. But one important thing to
remember about software... you can only get out what you put in. So if you are
looking for a specific report, make sure that information is being recorded by
your billing software package.
7) Backup
I've seen first-hand how devastating
a hardware failure can be. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of data can
be destroyed in seconds... if you do not have a backup procedure in place.
Ensure you select a retail billing software package that
has a built-in backup utility or works with your current backup system.
8) Online help & support
If you're a new computer user, then
you'll definitely need a software package that has a comprehensive online and
easy-to-use help system. Also check out what direct technical support is
available through the vendor. Some software companies charge very high fees for
personal support, so ensure you include this in your budget.
09) Customisations
If you purchase an off-the-shelf
billing software package, you may require minor customisations to suit your
unique business processes and industry. Some software vendors offer
customisations at quite reasonable prices. But ensure you include this cost in
your budget.
10) Other features
What else do you want from you billing software?
If you deal with fixed price products, you may need a comprehensive inventory management system allowing you
to purchase stock, manage inventory levels and supplier relations. Some quality
software packages also include a useful follow-up diary, allowing you to keep
track of tasks and assign them to other staff members.
When choosing a billing software
package for your business, make sure you check that it offers everything your
business needs. And then the only thing you'll have to worry about is what to
do with all your newly found spare time!
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Created on May 29th 2018 05:53. Viewed 536 times.