DEVELOPMENT OF A POINT-OF-SALE SYSTEM WITH DATA FORECASTING FOR COMPANY XYZ Juan Rafael Derpo, Paulo Angelo C. Nazareno, Maria Beatrice P. Quilinguin, Mark Anthony P. Sabili, Ph.D., Giuseppe Ng, and Edwin Olmos, Ph.D. University of Asia and the Pacific, Pearl Dr, Ortigas Center, Pasig City 1605, Philippines
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RATIONALE The common goal of any traditional Point-Of-Sale System is to potently guide decision-makers in achieving better results for business-related matters. However the vast majority systems, only offer the solutions on the tracking and book-keeping of sales. It would be beneficial to businesses to immediately know the current footing and the most probable sale for the future in order to plan for ordering commodities, allotting goods, bringing in new-creations, tracking customer preferences and other concerns for their further development. A Point-Of-Sale System with statistical models can help companies not only in their daily transactions but also in preparation for short and long term investments.
OBJECTIVES The primary purpose for the creation of this system is to be able to grant Company XYZ with the most efficacious way to track their company footing and effectively manage their data by translating these into useful information for making better business decisions. All these should be achieved with a user-friendly interface for easy access of gathered data in the different branches of Company XYZ; an automated accounting of necessary quantitative data for analysis such as total sales, gross sales, total profit; faster sales data interpretation in comparison to manual computation currently being done by Company XYZ; and an automated tracking for the inventory of commodities in different branches of the company.
METHODOLOGY The researchers made use of the Agile Software Development, a methodology that anticipates the need for flexibility and applies a level of pragmatism into the delivery of the finished product .
RESULTS The creation of Point-Of-Sale system that has a user-friendly interface, accounting automation, real-time sales interpretation, and inventory improved the business operations of Company XYZ. The forecast of data is able to aid in both extensive and diminutive pronouncements and reduces the probability of making erroneous choices.
CONCLUSIONS The implementation of the system helped decrease the number of man-hours and man-days spent by Company XYZ on needed accounting particulars and report generations. The system was able to make the business process faster and more efficient.
KEYWORDS Data Forecasting Point-Of-Sales System Data Analytics Predictive Analysis Agile
1. INTRODUCTION Currently, Company XYZ possesses no Point of Sale system. Hence, they use an inefficient way of acquiring their sales reports from each of their branches. When receiving data, they rely first of all, on encoding every transaction that each of their branches have into excel formats. Each of their branches would then send these data to their headquarters using a third party software that could freely be used from a third party website. Afterwards, these data that are in excel format would be sent to their accounting office in order for them to manually compute the overall data. As such, it is the objective of the researchers to create a POS system for Company XYZ that would automatically record and send transaction data from each of their branches to the Company XYZ headquarters. Additionally, whatever data that the headquarters would receive would be computed automatically within the system in order to remove any need of manual computations. Lastly, these computed values will then be represented visually through graphs or tables that will help in the company’s business decisions. Lastly, with the implementation of this POS system, the problems such as inefficiency and insecurity of data transfer, time wasted through manual computation, the inaccuracy of data, and losses accompanied with the ineffective POS system would then be resolved. In addition to this, the implementation of POS system would accomplish their goal of tracking which of their branches have the most profit and growth, economically speaking
1.1. Research Objective The objective of the study is the development of the point-of-sale system with data forecasting for Company XYZ with the following features: (a) User-friendly interface for easy access of gathered data in the different branches of Company XYZ. (b) Automated accounting of necessary quantitative data for analysis such as total sales, gross sales, total profit, etc. (c) Faster sales data interpretation in comparison to manual computation currently being done by Company XYZ. (d) Automated tracking for the inventory of commodities in different branches of Company XYZ.
2. REVIEW OF REATED LITERATURE 2.1 On Point Of Sales “POS or PoS is an abbreviation for Point of Sale (or Point-of-Sale, or Point of Service)” [1]. A Point of Sale is basically where the sales are made. An example of this are checkout counters in the supermarkets. Companies nowadays have systems for coordinating
their POS which allow the users to track usage, monitor changes in unit dollar costs, calculate when you need to reorder, and analyse inventory levels on an item-by-item basis. POS software records each sale when it happens, so that your inventory records are always upto-date. Better still, you get much more information about the sale than what you could gather with a manual system. By running reports based on this information, you can make better decisions about ordering and merchandising. Having a POS system can have a lot of advantages like analysis of sales data, storage of a sales history, and improved price accuracy with the use of bar-code scanners. POS Systems have a lot features which can definitely make the lives of managers a lot easier as regards to businesses. A POS System can offer features like ease of use, efficient entry of sales information, quick and easy pricing updates, efficiency in updating product information, quick and easy product tracking, and most of all, security from financial thefts [2]. “Point of Sale (or Point-of-Sale, or Point of Service) or also known as the term POS. The term is appropriate to a retail shop or store, the checkout/clerk counter in the store, or an area where such exchanges can happen in this sort of environment. It can likewise apply to the actual Point of Sale (POS) Hardware and Software including yet not constrained to: electronic money register frameworks, touch-screen show, standardized identification scanners, receipt printers, scales and shaft shows. Purpose of Sale Systems are used in various commercial ventures, going from eateries, inns and different organizations, nail/magnificence salons, gambling clubs, stadiums, and we should not overlook - the retail situations. In the most fundamental sense, if something can be traded for money related worth - a Point of Sale System can be utilized.” [3] Thus, we can now determine that POS is a tool that can and should be used by Company XYZ. Since the company specializes in eateries with a high volume of transactions, utilizing a POS system can greatly increase their efficiency and sales management. Additionally, “At present, retail POS Systems were among the most modern, effective and easy to understand PC systems in business utilization. Truth be told, most Point of Sale Systems do significantly more than simply "Purpose of Sale" tasks. Even for the lower level 4 and 5 retailers, there are Point of Sale Solutions accessible that incorporate completely coordinated bookkeeping, stock following and administration, open-to-purchase anticipating, client connection administration (CRM), administration, rental administrations, operation reporting and finance modules.” This explains why a POS system is one of the most appropriate tools that can be used by businesses given its effectiveness and
the many solutions that it may bring in the business setting [4].
2.2 On Data Forecasting “Forecasting is the use of historic data to determine the direction of future trends.” [5] Businesses forecast data in order to gather knowledge that they may use in to properly allocate and make efficient use of their budget for future transactions. The data which they use for forecasting may include sales, costs, profit, etc. Moreover, Forecasting is a tool that can be used to solve problems related to management and business prioritization. And lastly, it is important for businesses such as Company XYZ to make use of forecasting due to the adverse demands of an ever-changing market. Data forecasting can have a lot of advantages such as supply chain efficiency, supplier and customer satisfaction, and successful long-term planning. It can help in supply chain efficiency by allowing the management to plan more carefully and appropriately which in turn helps in reducing costs and additional time. Data forecasting can help in supplier and customer satisfaction by allowing the supplier to properly prepare for possible increases or decreases of customer orders. This prevents additional costs to suppliers in case of rush orders or cancellations. This gives good customer satisfaction because the items of the customers would arrive on time and might make them decide to employ the services of the company again. Data forecasting can help in long-term planning by giving the management an idea on what will happen in the future. This helps the company a lot because it would allow them to make much more realistic goals and would help prevent wasting resources. A good forecast can help a company plan for the future especially with respect to expansions [6].
3. METHODOLOGY The system development made use of Agile Software Development, a methodology that anticipates the need for flexibility and applies a level of pragmatism into the delivery of the finished product [7]. In a perfect world, customers and the software development team would see eye to eye and communication would be necessary. However, since the ideal perfect world doesn’t exist, the agile software methodology was formulated based on the agile manifesto and a set of twelve principles that aims to address this issue [8]. The twelve principles can be expressed as the following:
Figure 1. Agile S oftware Development
1. Satisfy the customer through delivery of working software. 2. Embrace change, even if introduced late in development. 3. Continue to deliver functioning software incrementally and frequently. 4. Encourage customers and analysts to work together daily. 5. Trust motivated individuals to get the job done. 6. Promote face to face conversation. 7. Concentrate on getting software to work. 8. Encourage continuous, regular and sustainable development. 9. Adopt agility with attention to mindful design. 10. Support self-organizing team. 11. Provide rapid feedback. 12. Encourage quality. 13. Rapid and adjust behavior occasionally. 14. Adopt simplicity. The emphasis of the Agile manifesto is to focus the developers on the working conditions of the developers, the working software, the customers, and addressing changing requirements instead on focusing on the detailed systems development process, tools, all-inclusive documentation, legal contracts and detailed plans [9].
3.2 System Architecture Refer to Figure 1, the Physical Data Flow Diagram shows the features that can be called on by the administrator employee accounts when they make use of the specific application for the P.OS. System. As such, administrator accounts has the privilege of adding employee accounts , and as well as making changes to the inventory, category and item databases. Additionally, they have the power to make forecasts via a click of a button. Employee accounts on the other hand, can only view these databases.
accounting office of the company to be used for overall data forecasting and performance assessment.
Figure 3. Context Diagram
4.1 Dynamic Model for POS Back End The diagram below shows the sequence of events that occur in the P.O.S back end. The user, either an admin or employee, provides the necessary information to the program and in turn, the program passes the information to the database. The system then verifies whether the information passed is authentic and determines whether the login is a success or a failure. Additionally, after a login passes, the Administrators have the administrative privileges to add items. Once these actions are completed, the systems confirms the addition, deletion or modification.
Figure 2. Physical data flow diagram
4. PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION Refer to Figure 2, the P.O.S and Forecasting System for Company XYZ is a web-based application with two types of users. A Branch Admin would be assigned per branch and the Employees of the branch are to create their own accounts. The Branch Admin could manage the assigned Employees in his branch by adding or removing him from the branch. Once a transaction occurs, an Employee or Branch Admin will create a transaction which the system would log. The transaction details which include the Item Name and Item Quantity of a specific product, would be the basis for the reduction of stocks in the inventory. If commodities are delivered to a specific branch, the Branch Admin may update the item quantity manually. The Branch Admin has the option to use the sales data for his branch for data forecasting. The forecasted data would be presented through charts contained in a report that would be readily available for download. The sales data would be sent from the different branches of Company XYZ to the main
Figure 4. S equence diagram for the POS Back End
4.2 Dynamic Model for POS Front End The diagram below shows the sequence of events that occur in the P.O.S Front End. Once a customer orders food items, the employee records these transactions to the program, and afterwards this same program would then pass an update to the inventory databas e. This would then verify these inventory and transaction updates before the employee finally issues a receipt to the customers.
in the specified Inventory. Item and Transaction have an intersection data, Transaction Details, which shows the Item details in the specified Transaction.
Figure 5. S equence diagram for the POS Front End
4. 3 Dynamic Model Data Forecasting The diagram below shows the sequence of events that occur in the Data Forecasting. The user, being admin, provides the necessary information to the program and in turn, the program passes the information to the database. The system then verifies whether the information passed is authentic and determines whether the login is a success or a failure. User would then use the program to create a graph having its details passed from this program to the necessary database. The program databases and program would then verify whether the creation of the graph is a success or a failure. Finally, the program database and the program verifies whether this attempt fails or succeeds. Figure 7. Entity Relationship Diagram
Figure 6. S equence diagram for the POS Front End Figure 8 DFD-Level 1- Adding Employees
4.4 Entity Relationship Diagram The Entity Relationship Diagram below shows the different entities used in the POS-Data Forecasting system. A User can have many Accounts while an Account can only have one User. An Account can register many Employees while an Employee can only belong to one Account. An Account can possess many Transactions but a Transaction can only belong to one Account. An Account can create many Items, Inventories, and Categories while they only belong to one Account. Item and Inventory have an intersection data, Inventory Details, which show the Item Details
Refer to Figure 8. The Branch Admin would search for the employee using his unique employee ID and the database would then show the employee details. The admin in turn, would then confirm the addition of the employee to the system.
Refer to Figure 11. The Branch Admin will be able to add and edit inventories into the database. In order to add an inventory, the Branch Admin must input inventory details like its name. The Branch Admin must first search for the inventory and then input the new values to be updated. The system will ask for inventory update confirmation and the Branch Admin will approve it.
Figure 9. DFD-Level 1- Item Modification
Refer to Figure 9. The Branch Admin will be able to add and edit items into the database. In order to add an item, the Branch Admin must input item details like its name, description, and price. The Branch Admin must first search for the item and then input the new values to be updated. The system will ask for item update confirmation and the Branch Admin will approve it.
Figure 12. DFD-Level 1- Add Items to Inventory
Refer to Figure 12. The Branch Admin can add new items and update existing items in the inventory. On both cases the Branch Admin must get the item from the item database to be added or updated, and he must also enter a quantity for that item.
Figure 10. DFD-Level 1- Item Category Modification
Figure 13. DFD-Level 1-Create S ales Transaction
Refer to Figure 10. The Branch Admin will be able to add and edit categories into the database. In order to add a category, the Branch Admin must input category details like its name and description. The Branch Admin must first search for the category and then input the new values to be updated. The system will ask for category update confirmation and the Branch Admin will approve it.
Refer to Figure 13. An Employee must input both the item and its quantity in order to create a sales transaction. The Employee must confirm the sales transaction before it can update both the transaction and inventory database
Figure 14. DFD-Level 1- Data Forecasting Figure 11. DFD-Level 1-Inventory Modification
Refer to Figure 14. This figure shows the process of forecasting data. Therefore, as indicated above, the user inputs the type of forecasting that he wants to implement before choosing which transactions should be included in the data forecast to be produced. Additionally, the database will show the transactions that the user have chosen and will confirm for forecasting to continue.
Figure 16. Registration Page Refer to Figure 16. To create an account, the user is asked for his First Name , Last Name, a prefered User Name, a password, and a company ID given by Company XYZ.
Figure 15. DFD-Level 1-Report Generation
Refer to Figure 15. The user should be able to choose which data would be included and choosing which report types will be used for the creation of these reports. On another note, the Report Database will show the report type chosen by the user as a confirmatory factor before finally generating the report.
Figure 17. Log-In Page Refer to Figure 17. In the log-in page, the user is prompted to enter his username and password.
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The creation of Point-Of-Sale system that has a userfriendly interface, accounting automation, real-time sales interpretation, and inventory improved the business operations of Company XYZ. The forecast of data is able to aid in both extensive and diminutive pronouncements and reduces the probability of making erroneous choices. 5.1 Software Interface Design The users can interact with the system using only one way. These users can interact through the use of personal computers that is either a laptop or a desktop. The users should start with opening an installed application dedicated to the project. The users could be classified in two ways: (1) admin or (2) employee. The admin has the capability to input and manipulate data through mouse clicks and keystrokes which would be saved on a database. The employee on the other hand, has the ability to access saved data from the database through mouse clicks and keystrokes.
5.2 Results of the Implementation Phase
Figure 18. Main Menu Refer to Figure 18. Assuming that the user is able to successfully input a valid username and password, he would be lead to the M ain M enu.
[3] M.B. Quilinguin, P. Nazareno, S. Partosa and G. Dacasin (2016 March). A Study on the Relationship Of imonggo’s User Interface And Customer Experience , [Unpublished].
[4] M.B. Quilinguin, P. Nazareno, S. Partosa and G. Dacasin (2016 March).A Study on the Relationship Of imonggo’s User Interface And Customer Experience, [Unpublished]. Figure 19. S ub-Menu under View Data that shows data from CS V Files uploaded Refer to Figure 19. If there are existing CSV files uploaded, the contents of the file could be seen on a single page. The user has the option to forecast data on the same page.
[5] R. (2015). Forecasting [Online]. Available: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/forecasting.asp [Accessed 20 January 2017]
[6] K. Farnen [Online]. Available: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importancelimitations-forecasting-36164.ht ml. [Accessed 20 January 2017]
[7] TechTarget (2017 June). Agile Software Development [Online]. Available: http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definitio n/agile-software-development [8] B. Klaus and P. Horn, System Analysis and Design Eight Edition. New Jersey: Pearson, 2011. Figure 20. Chart that shows trend of Forecasted S ales
Refer to Figure 20. The forecasted data, aside from being represented in numbers at the side of the screen, is automatically represented by a line graph that shows the sales trend.
6. CONCLUSIONS The implementation of the system helped decrease the number of man-hours and man-days spent by Company XYZ on needed accounting particulars and report generations. The system was able to make the business process faster and more efficient.
REFERENCES [1] POSmatic, "What is Point of Sale (POS)?," [Online]. Available: http://www.posmatic.com/point-of-sale/whatis-point-of-sale.php. [Accessed 5 November 2016]. [2] POSmatic, What is Point of Sale (POS)?, [Online]. Available: http://www.posmatic.com/point of-sale/what-is-point-of-sale.php. [Accessed 5 November 2016].
[9] Tegarden, Dennis and Wixom, System Analysis and Design with UML 4th Edition. New Jersey: Wiley, 2013.
Copyright statement A copyright statement should be included at the end of your paper as shown below. Copyright © 2017 Juan Rafael Derpo, Paulo Angelo C. Nazareno, Maria Beatrice P. Quilinguin, Mark Anthony P. Sabili, Ph.D., Giuseppe Ng, and Edwin Olmos, Ph.D.: The authors assign to IRCIEST- BatStateU a non-exclusive license to use this document provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. T he authors also grant a non-exclusive license to IRCIEST - BatStateU to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web, on Flash Drives, and in printed form within the IRCIEST conference proceedings. Any other usage is prohibited without the expressed permission of the authors.
