POINT OF SALE

Best Western Asia POS Guideline

Revision April 2019

Best Western Operations Asia

operationsasia@bestwestern.com
1 INTRODUCTION
This document is intended to set out the operational and technical requirements of a hotel’s Point of
Sale System in Asia Pacific.

2 POS FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

It is a fundamental requirement that the POS have stand-alone intelligence with the ability to store the
price file and all sales without the need to be connected to the computer at all times.

2.1 Functionality

2.1.1 Be user friendly with a minimum of operator intervention (key stroke, touches,
etc.) required to perform transactions.

2.1.2 To monitor, record and maintain customer transactions of the business at the
point of sale.

2.1.3 To maintain sales history (line item details) by event / department / area and
report on daily sales via “time slices” (minimum of a 30 minute period).

2.1.4 To facilitate the reconciliation and collation of cash, credit card, vouchers etc.

2.1.5 To assist in the management of inventory and provide real time update of
inventory levels.

2.1.6 Supports a direct credit card interface.

2.1.7 Supports cash less system either via a magnetic stripe card or a smart card.

2.1.8 Supports cash count reconciliation at the POS where supervisors who remove
money form the draw at various intervals have the capacity to enter this amount via the
POS and then if possible to produce a journal entry for posting to accounting software.

2.1.9 Must be PCI compliant

2.2 Essential Requirements

2.2.1 Allow an operator with the valid security access the ability to:

 view subtotals
 Review the last entry or the entire transaction.
 Cancel the last entry or the entire transaction before totaling.
 Quickly tender change due.
 Enter opening and closing inventories.
 Enter cash drops and cash pickups

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2.2.2 Facilitates a minimum of 15 price levels per product and able to be changed at the
POS.

2.2.3 Facilitates category programming / grouping on the operator interface (eg. beer,
white wine, etc.)

2.2.4 The ability to enter stock via a PLU number and not just a speed key.

2.2.5 The ability to account for combinations (“combos”) or other promotional deals
(eg. buy two packets of Smiths Crisps and get one of small Coke free).

2.2.6 To automatically decrement items when they are sold so “servers” know
immediately when an item is out of stock.

2.2.7 The ability to highlight when maximum sale levels have been reached (eg, 10
hamburgers only left for sale).

2.2.8 Automatically number each order consecutively.

2.2.9 The ability to handle multiple payment methods for the one transaction (eg. split
up between cash, credit card, voucher, loyalty points etc.).

2.2.10 The ability to transfer transactions / data from one customer, table, account, etc.
to another.

2.2.11 To provide a TAB alert when an account reaches a certain amount.

2.2.12 To provide a TAB alert when a certain prepaid amount per patron, table, account
etc. has been availed.

2.2.13 The ability to suspend a transaction and continue processing with other sales
transactions.

2.2.14 The ability to recall suspended transactions

2.2.15 To be able to re-configure point of sale devices (ie. operator interface, customer
interface, POS database) for various locations on an ad-hoc basis from a centralized
point or a specific authorized user.

2.2.16 Password / operator swipe card access to POS.

2.2.17 The POS must be able to operate in a training mode

2.2.18 Facilitate the operation of a single cash drawer to a single user.

2.2.19 Facilitate the operation of dual cash drawers with a single POS terminal.

2.2.20 Input to be facilitated by scanning / barcode reading.

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2.2.21 Input to be facilitated by magnetic swipe.

2.2.22 Input to be facilitated by touch screen.

2.2.23 Input to be facilitated by keyboard.

2.2.24 Potentially all or a number of POS are also required to operate as a PC

workstation

2.2.25 Facilitate adjustable screen lighting on operator and customer display devices.

2.2.26 Facilitate multiple line screen display for operator display

2.2.27 The POS unit is required to be portable and lightweight.

2.2.28 The POS unit is required to have a small footprint for placement in areas
where space is at a premium.

2.2.29 The ability to have 2 - 5 day memory capacity for stand-alone / remote operation
of POS.

2.2.30 Polling of transactions to be available.

2.2.31 The POS is required to operate with / without credit card or smartcard readers.

2.2.32 The ability to automatically dispatch an order to remote printers / displays in

service locations.

2.2.33 Facilitate the printing of patron bills from any terminal to a remote printer.

2.2.34 The POS should be user friendly with drop down lists, drill down icons and
context- sensitive based Help screens to make maintenance and training more effective
and efficient.

2.2.35 The ability to prevent data from being lost if an operator or other type of
intervention causes a networked POS to be disconnected.

2.2.36 The ability to undertake data backups and support data redundancy

2.2.37 The system should provide full disaster recovery in the event of a power failure.

2.2.38 Able to operate under wet/dirty conditions without degradation of service, risk of
malfunction (eg. water resistant, easy clean hardware etc.).

2.2.39 POS must support locally or externally security flags which highlight excessive no
sales, voids, unauthorized discounts, outstanding table account settlements.

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 2.2.40 The ability to search by name. (with enough characters in the results to ascertain
what product it is)

2.2.41 The ability to view stock items at the POS.

2.2.42 Ability to print off previous transactions from anytime in the past .

2.3 Desirable Features

2.3.1 Suggestive sales prompting.

2.3.2 Ability to display recipes at POS to assist in customer inquiries

2.3.3 The ability to conduct customer surveys or assessments.

2.3.4 The system must be capable of processing smartcards.

2.3.5 The ability to have programmable header and footer display on receipt printouts
and be customizable to specific areas ie. beach bar, sports bar etc.

2.3.6 The ability to program product logo/s on the operator interface.

2.3.7 The ability to display advertising material or other media on a customer display.

2.3.8 The ability to send messages from one POS to another, for promotions, security
issues, messages, etc

2.3.9 The ability to adjust customer / operator display colors.

2.3.10 POS must be able to support pre-programmed price changes

2.3.11 POS to provide a revenue snap shot for any outlet irrespective of the outlet

2.4 Report Capability

2.4.1 The system should provide the following reports (indicate if available in hard
copy, soft copy and by screen inquiry).

 Gross profit analysis by product.

 Gross profit analysis by department/area.
 Gross profit analysis by total sales.
 Audit trail sequenced by employee, by debtor, by stock sold.
 Sales by product group for any given period (eg. time, day, week, nominated day
of the week for a given period).
 Sales of top selling items for a nominated period - ranked by value, quantity or
profit.
 Item listing.

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  Slow moving products.
 Turn over ratios on products.
 Cash in drawer reads - accessible in real-time from both cash drawers, POS and
treasury.
 Stock by location.
 Operator signed on and user identification.
 Transaction report by operator, cash drawer, time, shift (eg. no sale
transactions, account (tab) charges, vouchers, employee’s charges etc).
 Customer spends (eg. unit incidence to customer, group incidence to customer).

2.4.2 The ability to generate ad-hoc reports through an internal report writer.

2.4.3 The ability to allow various reports to automatically be run in sequence.

2.4.4 The ability to allow reporting processes or other update processes at specified
times without operator intervention or system performance degradation.

2.4.5 The ability to automatically process start of day, end of day and remote data
collection.

2.4.6 The ability to generate ad-hoc reports through the use of a third party report
writer.

2.5 Internal Control/Security Systems

2.5.1 The capacity to electronically monitor all actions of staff while on duty such as the
number of voids, error corrects no sales and discounts.

2.5.2 Each POS terminal should be able to support several cash drawers so that each
staff member who logs on can run their own float. At the end of each shift till balances
should be available from the terminal.

2.5.3 The POS system should support continuous electronic journal which can be called
to screen as required and analyze in the event that something unusual has occurred at
any time.

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