Point of sale system means different things to different people: it can be a glorified cash register, or an integrated system that joins sales, inventory, purchasing, and bookkeeping. If your business is still running on an old-fashioned cash register, odds are you could benefit from moving to a point of sale, or POS, system.

While the complexity of POS systems varies greatly, there are some essential elements shared by all systems:

• a computer and monitor
• point of sale software
• a receipt printer
• and a cash drawer

All but the most basic systems will also include barcode capability, which will generally include a barcode printer and scanner.

You may even have the makings of a POS system sitting around in your store or office. The computer does not have to be anything special — just about any Windows OS PC will do the job. Same goes for the printer — put that decommissioned inkjet to work in your POS system. You could even download a free point of sale software program to run your system; this means that all you will need to buy is a cash drawer to build a bare-bones system.