Want to know more about Payment Processing?
Tips to help you process payments like a pro and keep cash flowing.
Published on • 8 min read
B2B businesses (especially in industries like wholesale distribution and manufacturing) will often accept payments at a point of sale system in addition to their other channels like ecommerce and accounts receivable.
Learn more about POS transactions and how sellers can ease their acceptance and reconciliation of them.
Point of sale (POS) transactions are a familiar sight for consumer purchases, but many B2B sellers also use them as part of a broader set of sales channels. Because business transactions are more complex, reconciling B2B point of sale transactions can be more challenging.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at POS transactions from a B2B seller’s perspective and explain:
A point of sale transaction is a payment for goods or services, usually made in a retail setting. POS transactions can be conducted in person or online.
A business uses a POS system to process card payments or other forms of electronic payments at a physical location. A POS setup includes both hardware and software. POS hardware consists of a credit card reader and a cash register, or more often nowadays, a tablet that runs cloud-based POS software. This software collects data about the transactions and captures these sales in a company’s books.
Point of sale payments are typically completed using credit or debit cards, but can also be done with cash.
There are many benefits of POS systems for B2B sellers. The most notable is the positive impact POS systems have on helping them manage the retail operations of their business. POS systems streamline and simplify much of the day-to-day transactional activities and further support sellers by tracking important sales data.
Beyond how POS systems can transform your retail operations, they also allow B2B sellers to:
Additional benefits of POS systems for B2B sellers include:
Tips to help you process payments like a pro and keep cash flowing.
Here's how a POS transaction occurs, from the moment of the purchase right up to the funds landing in the business’ account:
When a customer pays for their purchase using a credit or debit card, their bank will send out a notice to the merchant indicating that the funds have been transferred. If the customer pays in cash, the merchant will need to deposit the cash into their bank account and then notify the accounts receivable department they have received payment.
Getting started with point of sale transactions is relatively simple.
If businesses want to accept POS transactions at a physical location, they’ll need:
Countertop and mobile POS systems provide the means for your customers to make fast and easy transactions. Receipt printers help keep track of those transactions, and payment processing software ties it all together so your accounting team can record all these sales in their financial management system.
Card and POS terminals capture card data and securely transmit it through a payment gateway via your payment processor. Card terminals can integrate with your point of sale systems in different ways. You can choose a:
Your choice of POS system depends on the level of investment you're able to make to ensure PCI compliance.
Just as there are some differences among POS terminals, there are also key differences among POS transaction types.
Here are three common POS transaction types:
Online POS transactions often happen through an ecommerce website. Customers visit your business’ online store and purchase goods. These transactions can be synced with your POS system as if the card payment was made in person.
Offline POS transactions, where buyers make a payment in person, are less common in the B2B world. But, they can be useful for wholesale providers, such as food import businesses, hardware stores, and other construction industry suppliers. Customers can pay for goods at these businesses during site visits if the seller has a POS terminal on-site.
Occasionally, customers are unhappy with the goods they’ve purchased. For wholesale providers, that may mean a customer requesting a refund or credit note. A refund can be done through the POS terminal, essentially as a ‘reverse payment’ that returns the funds to the customer’s credit card.
POS reconciliation is the process business owners or accounting staff undertake to match transactions from POS systems—as shown on a company’s bank statement—to the company’s own books. They do this to ensure that their financial records are accurate and that cash on hand matches up with expectations.
To reconcile POS transactions, businesses need to know the payment method, product code(s), who facilitated the payment, and sales tax information for each transaction.
Here’s what the process of POS reconciliation looks like:
A merchant might reconcile POS transactions as often as daily or monthly depending on the business.
Frequently performing account reconciliation can be advantageous for B2B sellers. Here are five benefits of POS reconciliation:
POS fees are typically charged per transaction and vary based on the transaction type and POS solution used. The three most common transaction types are online transactions, credit or debit card transactions, and keyed transactions.
Point-of-sale, also known as POS, pertains to the action of purchasing and selling goods or services using a computer and software solution. POS systems, on the other hand, are used to manage all the consumer purchase and sales aspects of a business.
Point-of-sale refers to a transaction of goods or services from a business’ perspective. In contrast, point-of-purchase (POP) refers to the consumer’s perspective of the goods or services that a business offers to them. POP can be broadly defined as an entire store or more specifically as the particular items that a business sells.
Integrated payments software helps by automating the reconciliation of POS transactions (among any other sales channels you support) with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Because your ERP manages other tasks like inventory management, it's incredibly convenient for a retail business to use integrated payments.
As a result, your business eliminates hours of manual work and potential errors, helping to boost AR team efficiency, cash flow, and customer satisfaction.
With Versapay’s integrated payment solutions for Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Sage Intacct, merchants can carry out POS transactions and reconcile them automatically with their respective systems.
Tips to help you process payments like a pro and keep cash flowing.
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