Point of sale and inventory documentation Essay

Point of Sale and Inventory System is a process wherein the business could monitor the movements of the products as well as the sales transactions. It is important for the company to take account inventory of the products as well as the sales. Inventory refers total amount of goods and/or materials contained in a store at any or factory at any given time (Inventory, 2011) Even though technology is available, still many companies use manual system. Operating manual inventory is a time-consuming task, lots of paper works and slow date processing (Hamlet, 2011). It also problematic in terms of communication streams. Each update or removal from the inventory must be updated daily (Cruz, 2010). Manual sales and inventory process was prone to errors that required time to rectify discrepancies (â€Å"Inventory†, nd.). Since manual inventory consumes a lot of time and is susceptible to errors, it would be helpful to build a system that will automate the transactions from acquisition of the product description to updating the inventory database. Work efficiency of employees is defined as how productive they are in their work (â€Å"Inventory†, nd.). The causes of the discrepancies in the records are many, and some of the commonly observed ones are: stock loss; transaction error, inaccessible inventory, and incorrect product identification. Stock loss, also known as shrinkage in industry, includes all forms of loss of the products available for sale. One common example is theft, which can be committed by both shoppers (external theft) and employees (internal theft). With these problems of manual inventory system, businesses emerged with computerized Point of Sales and Inventory System. It tracks purchases and sale transactions thought an organization. Point of Sale and Inventory System is a tool used by retail businesses such as stores, supermarkets, and restaurants. It can register the purchase and keep track of inventory. It also records information on the purchase including time and store location. It also manages the sales of retail goods. It makes a business much more efficient, lowering the costs of running the business while improving customer service and making the business more pleasant to work in (Smith &  Harris, 2011) According to Hendeson (2011), that effective tracking of inventory is an imperative component to a small business successful operation. By having up-to-date data regarding all needed stocks for sale, the organization will drastically increase its bottom line. The amount of time that can be saved by the company is the biggest benefits of using a computerized point of sale and inventory system. Another benefit of a computerized point of sale and inventory system is the accuracy it ensures. The companies operation will be more effectively. The business owner or the manager can ensure that the reports, purchased order and other documents related to sales and inventory are uniform regardless of two created the reports (What are the benefits of Computerized Sales and Inventory, n.d.). According to ruffling (2009), senior director of retail services for BBK Ltd., the trends in Sales and Inventory System are not just inventory accuracy but the use of pricing models to allow for markdown management. Based from the problems encountered in a manual point of sales and inventory system, developers come up with this computerized point of sales and inventory system. Developers have chosen Thirsty Teddy Refilling Station and The Sierra Spa started its operations in the year 2012 by Mr. Randy S. Quiniones. It is located at Sierra Heights Place, Sierra Madre St. Highway Hills, Mandaluyong City. The company is currently using a manual inventory system but aims for improvement to be competitive. In small businesses, inventory system is still applicable because of the advantages it provides the management. Inventory system makes the management of stock levels mush easier and more organized. It improves profits by accurately identifying the flow of stocks. The developers have come up with an idea developing a system that will improve the process and at the same time comes up with an idea developing a system that will improved the process and at the same time comes up with an efficient result of Inventory. The developers aim to eliminate possible problems due human errors that might occur during manual handling, like erroneous tallying and recording of items and other products during the actual inventories. The proposed project entitled â€Å"Thirsty Teddy Refilling Station and The Sierra Spa Point of Sale and Inventory System† deals with the tracking of regular costumers, supplies and delivery’s inventory system. This system will be made actually for the management to reduce their work with concrete and consistent handling of data. Also it  aims to build a consistent inventory system for the company that will surely help the company for stability and profitability. Statement of the Problem Sales and Inventory has always been an issue in the part of manual procedures. Thus, the study seeks to answer the following: 1. How to Design, develop and implement a Point of Sale and Inventory System? 2. How to develop a module that will be used for keeping and storing the entire item’s information? 3. How to develop a module for counting all the sales of the sold items? 4. How to develop a Computerized Point of Sales and Inventory System that will lessen time spent in processing of the payment? 5. How to generate reports faster on-time? Objectives of the study The developers aimed to designed, developed and test Point of Sale and Inventory System for Thirsty Teddy Refilling Station and The Sierra Spa, for them to become more competitive and to attract more customers specifically, it sought to answer the following objectives. 1. To identify the existing processes in terms of a. Sales and b. Inventory 2. To determine the software and hardware requirements of the system. 3. To enumerate the features of the system; and 4. To test the acceptability of the system. Significance of the Study The system will bring innovations and modernization for Thirsty Teddy Refilling Station and The Sierra Spa, and an effective way in providing a means of convenience and faster service. The following will be the beneficiaries: Thirsty Teddy Refilling Station and The Sierra Spa. The system will give the company another asset to be used for them to attract customer by providing better services with regards to their improved point of sale system. Also it increases the company’s competitiveness among other competitors. In this way, it may able to improve the Thirsty Teddy Refilling  Station and The Sierra Spa image and professionalism through a better and well organized business. Manager. The system will help the manager perform more efficient ways to operate the business. The manager will receive reliable and accurate reports on inventory status and sales report. Through these reports the manager can create a good business decisions, determine products that contribute to sales and create new business strategies and enhancement. Inventory Clerk. The clerk will be more productive in checking the stock-in and stock-out of the company. It will also help the inventory clerk in doing reports for the system will generate stock reports Cashier. Upon implementing the system, the cashier will be more productive and efficient in doing work, providing reliable reports for manager and giving the customer quality service. The cashier will not worry about doing manual calculations, for the system will generate sales reports. Developers. In creating the system, developers will be able to apply knowledge acquired in school and discover new facts and ideas that will be a big help in the long run being in the world of business particularly in a system and software development. Other Developers. This will serve as the great significance to other developers that will have similar studies. These developers may further improve and revise the outcome of this research. Scope and Limitations The study focused on the manager and cashier’s requirements. The proposed system included only stocks monitoring process. The System is able to provide inventory reports and sales reports. There were two modules aim to developed- the administrator or manager module and the cashier module. In the Manager module, the manager can view, edit and delete user account as well as supplier accounts, view inventory as well as reports such as the stock in and stock out and the list of suppliers that can provide the stocks needed. The manager can also view stock that needs to be purchased as well as the status of each purchase order. In the Clerk module, the inventory clerk can add and edit information of stocks being delivered by the supplier. The said module enables the generation of information on the status of stocks, the bad orders, the stocks needed to be purchased and the suppliers that can provide the stocks. Inventory clerk is not allowed to delete supplier’s information. In the Cashier model, sales transaction  receipt generation and purchase order is also included as one of the features of the system. The cashier can only view and add transactions, but is not allowed to delete and edit information made by the manager and the inventory clerk. Security measures were also included. The user will simply login the user name and password to gain access in the system. Conceptual Framework The developers aim to use Input-Process-Output (IPO) to present paradigm of the study that illustrates the relationship between the input and output. The paradigm of the study exhibits the skeletal framework of the research study. The input consists of existing process of Thirsty Teddy Refilling Station and The Sierra Spa in terms of inventory and sales. Problems of the existing process are also needed in the development of the system. The developers also identify the features of the system and test the acceptability of the system. The phases of Waterfall Model will be the basis for the development of the system. This includes the following phases; requirements, analysis, design and implementation. The output of this system is Thirsty Teddy Refilling Station and The Sierra Spa Point of Sale and Inventory System. Figure 1.1 in the succeeding page, shows the paradigm of the study to be conducted, to come up with the output of the propose system.