Most Accounting Systems are designed as horizontal market packages
written with a top down approach. Their strengths are in the power and
integration of the financial modules. Their weaknesses are in the integration of
the middle and lower levels, when used in environments that deal with volume
transactions and require specialised front end systems designed for that market.
Before an accounting system can be interfaced to a retail system, the
retail systems information must be accurate. That is by far the most difficult
challenge of retail management as it relies on people, often with limited skills
and experience, to perform tasks that significantly impact on the accuracy of
the information. An effective retail system must therefore have the ease of use,
flexibility and controls that minimise the exposure to incorrect operation and
dishonesty.
A retail management system must also minimise the labour intensive tasks
such as those within the purchasing cycle, i.e. Purchase Ordering, Stock
Receipting, Accounts Payable, Stocktaking and Product Line performance
reporting. These functions span a significant number of staff responsibilities,
but in order to avoid costly double handling and double checking, the systems
must be integrated and provide an automated data path between the modules.
The reason these systems fail is integration. Sales and Accounts
Receivable need to be integrated, as do Purchasing, Stock Receipting and
Accounts Payable. Where these modules are split across two different systems,
integration is lost!
In order to achieve good stock control, accountability is critical, so
each branch should be accountable for their stock. The traditional architecture
was an online system with branch
terminals online to a Corporate Server. This is the simplest architecture but it
means the Corporate Server must hold all stock information, so there is then the
demand for online sales transaction processing in order to have up to date stock
information. But online transaction processing does not have the performance and
redundancy that is demanded in most checkout environments. PC POS Technology has
provided that.
POSperfect II and the Corporate Controller systems provide a complete
suite of POS, Retail Management and Accounting applications. These systems are
not heavyweights when compared to highly specialised Merchandising, Distribution
and Accounting systems, but their power is their integration and design to
efficiently manage the challenging multi-branch retail
environment.
The Corporate Controller comprises an extensive suite of retail
management modules encompassing centralised maintenance, inventory management,
reporting and accounting. One of the advanced features is the Central Purchasing
module. This provides automatic (or manual) generation of single, or
consolidated multi-branch, purchase ordering. Purchase orders are automatically
and electronically downloaded to the branch systems for easy receipting when the
stock is delivered.
Stock receipting functions then automatically update the central
purchasing system so Accounts Payable staff can efficiently reconcile the
deliveries against suppliers invoices. Invoice details are automatically created
from the original Purchase Order and Branch Receipting, so there is no paper
work or double entry. From the original Purchase Order or from the Vendors
Invoice, the AP clerk can drill down to see the stock line details and costs for
each store’s delivery.
Inter-branch
Transfers (IBT) Control
Store to Store Transfers are
similarly managed being created once only (normally at the source store) and
electronically transferred to the destination system for easy checking and
receipting. The Corporate Controller provides Inventory in Transit Reporting to
detect transfers where the stock receipted does not match the stock transferred.
The Sales interfaces provide for customer and account transactions and
enquiries at POS, interfaced to the central debtors ledger in the Corporate
System. The system can be configured to receive payments at the branch or
directly into the Corporate Controller.
The General Ledger is integrated with all systems. The Accounting
administrator may post each store’s stock, sales, debtors and creditors
transaction data for any given period. Data can be reposted multiple times if
necessary.
The Corporate Controller
combined with the POSperfect branch system is ideal for medium and large retail
chains (5-100 stores) that demand a high level of integration. While the
individual modules such as merchandising and accounting are not intended to
compete with high end specialised applications, the
advantage of the Corporate Controller is integration and cost. An end
to end system supported by one organisation provides major cost savings in both
the initial implementation and the ongoing support and maintenance of the
system.