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, manages and

coordinates the dining service, provides customers with balanced nutrition, and serves

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. It also provides its customers with meals, fruits, bread, beverages, desserts,

entrées, vegetable products, rice, bottled water, nuts, chips, etc.

Cafeteria boarders, who are mostly students, pay for their food with meal cards

provided by the business office, which cost about 2,000.00 pesos per card. Each boarder

has a credit limit of 16,000.00 pesos per semester, which is automatically charged to their

accounts when they enroll. Other customers who used the cafeteria's food service could

pay in cash.

The cashier is in charge of filling out the record book and charge slip. When 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.

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

to the faculty’s account. The credit limit for faculty is 5,000.00 pesos per month. 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 every day, while the

summary of charges for faculty is submitted every end of the month. <Did They Encode

to the MS Excel?>
 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 <Be ready lang sa checking about ditto

kasi baka itanong ni maam if ano ginagawa or nanyari pag may ganito 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, that using of 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 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. 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.<DITO BAKA

KAYA MONG GAWIN 2 or 3 Paragraph kasi prang masyadong mahaba Then I’ll Check

again LATER.>

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. <I think POS not only generate the
all data for reporting>

Furthermore, the use of a point of sale system will assist the cashier in improving
customer service. This includes reducing waiting time, faster scanning of items, quicker
payments, etc. In addition, the system will assist cashiers in generating all the necessary data for
reporting purposes in a timely manner. With these operational improvements, customers will
tend to get better service and come back to the cafeteria for their next purchase. 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.