Point of Sale System for Northern Luzon Adventist College Cafeteria

Chapter 1

Introduction

“Most businesses today use cutting-edge technology to streamline transactions

and elevate business processes to new heights. They are now using a computerized

system to handle their transactions per their requirements. One of the most common

systems used by businesses is the point of sale system. It aids in the improvement of the

process and the speed with which the customer's transaction is completed.” (StudyMoose,

2016).

A Point of Sale (POS) System is a software-based business system where your

customer makes a payment for products or services at your store or cafeteria. In simple

terms every time a customer makes a purchase they’re completing a point of sale

transaction. It also serves as the central component for your business; it’s the hub where

everything like sales, inventory management, payment processing, and customer

management merges. (Stubbs & Conrad, 2021). It is a tool used by business

establishments to streamline business transactions.

Point of Sale System is also a powerful tool when integrated with other system.

This is emphasize further by Chloe Henderson is his work by saying:

“The system also acts as a centralized database for other business operations when

integrated with additional software. Processes such as inventory control,

marketing, and sales can be tracked and analyzed within the system to generate

detailed reports. These insights allow companies to understand what products

have high turnover rates and where discounts should be added to clear out
 underselling stock. Additionally, marketing directors can plan effective

campaigns using data to drive sales that target their demographic”. (Handerson,

2020)

The benefits of a Point of Sale System can be instantaneous. For example, the

system could provide advance reports in a short amount of time, which is time-saving,

has fewer errors, increases efficiency, helps in inventory management, makes quick

payments, helps in employee management, and finally, better purchasing or supplier

order management, to name a few.

A. Project Context

According to encyclopedia.adventist.org,

“Northern Luzon Adventist College (NLAC) is a Seventh-Day Adventist

boarding institution of Tertiary Education located along National highway,

Artacho, Sison, Pangasinan. The college started as a church school in 1923,

became an academy in 1931, and expanded into a senior college in 1992.”

Currently, the college offers education from Kindergarten through the Graduate

School under the leadership of Pastor Nepthali J. Mañez assisted by the college

officers and administrators.

Like any other colleges and universities, NLAC also offers food services to its

clients through its canteen and cafeteria. The cafeteria started during the existence of the

College headed by Mrs. Medina but at present, it is managed by the livelihood

coordinator, Mrs. Regie Jongkolnee Balbas, assisted by Mrs. Jesusa Gunong, the cafeteria

clerk, and a working student.

 The Cafeteria offers services such as cafeteria orientation, manage and coordinate

the dining service, provide customers with balanced nutrition, and serve large numbers of

people like students, visitors, and faculty.

The Cafeteria is open every Monday – Thursday at 7:00 AM - 12:30 PM and 3:00

PM – 6:15 PM, every Friday at 7:00 AM - 1:00 PM, every Saturday at 7:00 AM – 8:00

AM and 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM, and every Sunday at 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 5:00 PM –

6:00 PM. And serves meal, fruits, vegetables, bread, beverages, dessert, entrée, veg

products, rice, bottled water, nuts and chips to the customers.

Cafeteria boarders which composed largely by students are using meal cards to

pay for their food given by the business office amounting to 2,000.00 per card. The credit

limit of each borders is 16,000.00 pesos per semester which is automatically charged to

their accounts during enrolment. Other customers could pay in cash when availing food

service from the cafeteria.

Faculty and faculty kids on the other hand has an option to pay in cash or charge

to the faculty’s account. The credit limit for faculty is 5,000.00 per month. Furthermore,

the cashier is in charge of filling out the record book and charge slip. For example, if a

customer makes a purchase in the cafeteria, the cashier writes down the necessary

information in the record book, such as the item and the price of the item purchased. In

the case of the faculty, the cashier writes the date, name, item, price, and their signature

on the charge slip. After recording in the record book and charge slip in the cafeteria, the

cashier must submit the report to the Business Office. The sales report must be reported

everyday while the summary of charges for faculty is submitted every end of the month.
 Every end of the month, Mrs. Regie Jongkolnee Balbas and a working student are

assigned to count the products for the inventory of the cafeteria in a manual process. As a

result, there's a high chance of making mistakes. After the counting, the number of

products that have been counted will be written in a notebook and they will encode the

data from the notebook to MS Excel. The encoded data must be printed on paper, and the

printed data is referred to as a goods inventory.  The goods inventory will be reported to

the Business Office once it has been completed.

It was observed, and still being observed, that using meal cards is very portable

and easy to use, and they have the owner's name, so if it's lost, it can be easily returned to

the owner. Some cafeteria boarders, however, are having difficulty because they

accidentally wash their meal cards during laundry and are unable to recover the lost

amount. Simultaneously, the cashier will have difficulty understanding the amount on the

card.

The NLAC Cafeteria's point of sale is done manually by writing the item and
price in the record book when a cash payment is made. However, because they are in a
hurry due to a large number of customers, they sometimes do not understand their
handwriting. And if the faculty will charge, it is done by writing the date, name, item,
price, and their signature on the charge slip. As a result, they sometimes struggle with the
price list because when the faculty will charge, the computation of their charges is not
accurate for the item that has been purchased. Manually writing information in a record
book and charge slip gives inconvenience to the cashier. By using technology through a
Point of Sale system, such problems are solved by using this system. When a customer
purchases a product, the system will automate the saving of records and deduct the
number of purchased products from the inventory. Also, needed reports can be easily
produced because the needed data is already electronically stored. This may help cashiers
to record information quicker and in a more organized way. Furthermore, the use of
paper, notebooks, record books, and charge slips is eliminated since data will be gathered
electronically.

Further, the use of a point of sale system will help the cashiers to generate all the
needed data for reporting purposes in a minimum of time. Mrs. Balbas can easily see the
counted products from the system if she wants to, and easily get the data from the
customers because the system's records are organized.