Point-of-sale (POS) integration is the process of connecting different business tools and software to a POS system to streamline operations. There are many benefits of integrating your POS with business applications.

It helps you handle payments and keep track of inventory more efficiently. Moreover, POS integration is good for data analytics and the effective allocation of resources. This article will cover these benefits and more.

Keep reading to learn everything there is to know about integrating your POS with business applications.

Why Integrating Your POS With Business Applications Matters

According to a 2023 survey by Precedence Research, the global point-of-sale market size in 2023 was $13.31 billion. It’s projected to hit $41.53 billion by 2034. So, why is POS such a big deal?

Integrating your POS with business applications has the following benefits:

• Streamlines Operations: Integrating your business with POS helps you automate repetitive tasks, saving you time. It streamlines inventory tracking, customer relations, order management, and more.
• Improves Accuracy: Humans are prone to error, which can be costly in the long run. A business that uses POS systems reduces glaring mistakes that are common with manual data entry. This gives you better reports and helps you maintain accurate records.
• Provides Access to Customer Insights: Your business gains valuable insights on customer behaviors when you switch to POS. You can track customer purchase history, preferences, and frequency of engagement, which is good for crafting targeted marketing campaigns.
• Helps Your Business Scale: It’s easier to expand your business once you’ve integrated it with a POS system. This is particularly important for eCommerce stores that handle large inventories.
• Offers Better Financial Reporting: A POS system synchronizes your sales data in real time. This helps you make data-driven decisions to improve your business’s financial performance.

Business Applications You Can Integrate With Your POS System

The following business software and applications can benefit the most from POS integration.

1. Accounting Software

Accounting is a department that demands urgency and accuracy — two things a POS system provides. You can automate sales data transfer from the POS system into your accounting software.

This reduces manual errors and miscalculations, giving you the space and time to focus on more important things like expanding your business. Automation, among other things outlined in this detailed Attrock guide, is one of the fundamental techniques for scaling a business.

QuickBooks POS is an example of a point-of-sale solution you can integrate with your accounting software. This tool can help track expenses, manage business bills, and generate real-time financial statements.

2. Customer Relationship Management Systems

Maintaining good customer relations is essential for any business. However, managing this can be tedious and time-consuming, especially if you’re in retail.

By integrating a POS system, you can automate most tasks associated with customer relationship management.

CRM systems keep track of customer profiles and purchases, allowing you to analyze buying patterns, personalize promotional offers, and tailor communication to individual preferences. This helps boost customer loyalty, improve customer satisfaction, and drive repeat purchases.

With the integration of POS with CRM systems, you can also track vital marketing metrics like average order value, customer lifetime value, and purchase frequency, helping you further refine your marketing strategies.

Clover is a good example of CRM software you can integrate with your POS. You can use it to automate customer rewards, introduce new products, or get real-time customer feedback.

3. Payroll

Integrating a POS system with payroll software helps you track working hours, handle taxes, calculate wages, and ensure timely salary payments.

A setup like this eliminates errors and helps you keep a clean record of all payrolls you've made over the years, which is helpful for tax compliance.

You can even work with a payment gateway development company to customize a payroll system for your POS. A customized system like this gives you more control over your operations.

A notable payroll application that would work well with your business POS is Square. Its payroll option automates salary payments to maintain tax compliance, streamlining the payroll process for small to medium businesses. Square also allows for easy tracking of hours worked, tips, and overtime, all in one platform.

4. Inventory Tracking

A well-stocked inventory ensures your customers are never inconvenienced whenever they want to buy goods from you. You can avoid running out of stock by automating the process through your POS system and compatible inventory software.

Besides stock monitoring, these integrated eCommerce solutions can automate stock reordering to ensure you never run low at any time. This system is also good for waste reduction as you can keep track of expiry dates for perishable goods and ensure you don’t order too much.

Take Shopify POS for instance. It lets you see the exact number of products left in stock, as shown below.

5. Order Processing and Delivery

If you run a business with a delivery model, human errors can be costly, particularly when it comes to refunds and returns. Integrating an order processing and delivery program with your business POS can simplify this process.

This system automates order processing and tracks delivery status. At the same time, it lets your customers choose their preferred payment method, which boosts user experience.

Toast is a popular POS system used by restaurants to process instant orders and eliminate customer backlogs. It also provides you with valuable customer insights to help improve your business, as shown below:

6 Steps for Integrating Your POS With Business Applications

Successfully integrating your POS with business applications is a process that demands careful thought. These systems are not free, so to avoid wasting money by going in blindly, here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Outline Your Integration Goals: Before anything else, you need to clearly define your integration goals as this will help you make informed decisions. Do you want to automate payroll, improve customer engagement, or ensure inventory accuracy?
2. Evaluate Your POS Compatibility: Not all point-of-sale systems are compatible with different business applications. Therefore, you need to determine how compatible your existing POS system is with the applications you want to use. Don’t take this lightly as future expansion greatly depends on this.
3. Choose the Right Integration: There are direct POS integrations that are built into the system. They’re easier to configure and provide regular system support. Alternatively, you can go with third-party tools like Zapier that you can configure to work with incompatible POS systems.
4. Test: The next step involves conducting integration tests in a controlled environment before rollout. This comes with two benefits; it allows you to train your staff well in advance. Secondly, you can catch and fix potential glitches before rollout.
5. Roll Out: Once you have ascertained that everything works as expected, start rolling out the integration. To avoid surprises, roll out the system in phases so you can deal with issues one at a time without disrupting everything.
6. Monitor and Optimize: A working POS system isn’t the end of everything. You need to track the performance to ensure accuracy is maintained. Furthermore, pay attention to analytical reports that identify areas that need more optimization.

Wrapping Up

Automation in business is vital in today’s competitive environment — and integrating your POS with business applications will elevate your enterprise. You can streamline payroll, gain valuable customer insights, and generate financial reports without hassle.

Follow the steps outlined in this post to execute the integration successfully. Feel free to leave us a comment or two on what worked best for you.