What does POS mean?

POS stands for point of sale.

According to Cambridge Dictionary, POS is…

a place where something is sold to the public, or the place where someone pays for something. 

Basically it’s the time and place of when a transaction is completed between a merchant/retailer/business owner and a customer. 

At a point of sale, a merchant will:

• note down the price or scan the barcode of an item a customer wants to buy
• calculate the amount of money owed by the customer
• offer payment options to the customer
• accept payment from the customer
• prepare an invoice or receipt for the customer

What is a POS system?

If you’re looking for retail software or restaurant software to run your business, then you’re most likely looking for a POS system.

A POS system or point of sale system is a computerised network operated by a main computer, which is linked to checkout terminals.

It’s simply a system that helps your business complete sales transactions.

You can think of it like a super powered cash register.

A POS system consists of POS software and hardware such as: But then again, soon there won’t be cash registers anymore, because POS systems can do so much more than just process payments. We’ll talk about this in a bit. Keep reading… 

• POS software
• POS machine/monitor/touchscreen/tablet
• barcode scanner
• receipt printer
• credit card terminal

• cash register