15 Oct  More About POS

Processors and POS/PMS suppliers are working towards integrating ownership of all 3 segments necessary to make a system fully integrated. This means the system not only handles inventory but checkout scanning and payment authorization.

Fully Integrated

• POS/PMS program handles inventory, scanning, reservations and many other addons such as relationship followup.
• A Gateway gets your system onto the networks to get authorizations from the banks
• The Acquirer/Processor handles the movement of the money and billing for processing.

Semi-Integrated

• The POS/PMS system handles all of the processes above
• The Acquirer/Processor handle all of the transactions no separate Gateway is needed

Advantages of Full Integration

• No worries about checkout errors the POS/PMS and payments balance every night.

Advantages on Semi Integration

• You get all of the advantages of the POS/PMS system
• You have more control over fees and more clarity
• System security when transactions are transmitted though the Acquirers hardware is their responsibility
• Some POS/PMS systems do not publish separate processing invoices making determining fees very difficult to determine

Disadvantages of Full Integration

• You are at the mercy of the provider for rates as it is difficult to change providers
• There may be risk to you for any breaches of security and card information is the card information is transmitted through your hardware and/or stored on a server under yours or the providers control

Disadvantages of Semi Integration

• Balancing may become an every day issue as staff has to enter the amount of each transaction separately. If there is a difference at the end of the day balancing will be an issue.
• If you have online transactions a separate system is needed to facilitate this.

The above is a general breakdown of the systems and will vary depending upon system used and your business situation.