INTRODUCTION:

Previously, businesses relied on paperwork, making the business transaction so tedious for the salesperson and sometimes the customers. Since businesses were operating in small containers and kiosk, the book and paperwork were somehow okay for smaller businesses and organisations. However, as business and population increase the manual techniques of keeping record becomes a challenge. The invention of the cash register (also known as a point of sales (POS)) in 1879 by James Ritty brought business owners relief to complete and track store transactions. The POS management system inverted to replace the traditional pen and paperwork used in managing small and medium scale sales points. In its simplest form, point of sales (POS) system functions as a cash register that allows retailers to ring up sales and record those transactions in their stores. However, thanks to advancements in technology such cloud computing, internet of things (IoT), machine learning, internet, social networking sites and information communication and technology^1–8 the function of POS systems can now be extending beyond sales and keep a record.

Improvements to the POS were made after Ritty's invention. The improvement involved adding a cash drawer and paper roll for receipts. Lately, several POS systems function as retail management systems that handle everything from sales and inventory to client management. Thus, an increasing number of organisations and businesses started to utilise the machine, making it easier to manage capital and record transactions⁹. As the 20th century continued, several changes were made to further refine the POS, partly in response to other new inventions. However, most of the early POS were standalone (desktop) application. With the availability of cloud technologies, POS developer has revamped the POS system, making it possible for many consumers reaching for their phones to pay for items and utilise store membership discounts and coupons. Therefore, it is no longer enough for POS systems to facilitate cash, credit, debit, or gift card purchases anymore.

Notwithstanding, the benefits associated with the used of POS, our partial survey at the Bono region of Ghana revealed that 95% of small and medium scale businesses in wholesale and retail uses manual bookkeeping. Thus, only 5% of these businesses were using computer-based POS system for their daily business activities. However, 80% of the businesses using POS (i.e., off-shell) system reported that it is not user-friendly and quite complicated for a novice to handle. A further investigation shows that the off-shell POS were not cultural friendly and did not fits into how business in the region conduct their business compared with the western methods of doing business. Nonetheless, some studies argue that quality management automation is a starting point for technological modernisation of key business processes^10,11. Hence, this study seeks to design, develop, and implement a POS system which is highly user-friendly to compensate for the gap in existing off-shell POS systems, using PHP, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and MySQL. The contributions of this paper are as follows: (i). According to the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to implement a web-based POS for the shop owners in Ghana's Bono region. (ii) We put forward and integrate PHP, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and MySQL to offer highly secured web application. We anticipate that a successful implementation of this study will help retailers and shop owners manage their daily activities such as sales, stock taking and record keeping. Furthermore, the outcome of this paper will serve as literature for further studies in this field.

The remaining section of this paper is organised as fellows. Section 2 presents a review of related studies. In section 3, we present the method and tools adopted in this study. We present the experimental results in section 4 and study conclusion in section 5.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

In this era, where the entire world is going global, one of the technologies contributing immensely to this achievement is Web tools and technology^12–14. Several business and industries have taken the Web's advantage to advance their business in the positive direction¹⁵. It is believed that the internet has redefined researchers in the clinical industry in terms of expansion, enhancement, and potential¹⁶. The advancement in web technology has been applied in several areas, e.g., healthcare¹⁷, fault and fraud detection^18,19, automobile²⁰ energy system²¹ and education²² to achieved trilling results. Apart from the areas mentioned, E-commence and small and medium sale points have benefited from these technologies since introducing point of sales systems and device.

Point of Sales (POS) System

The point of sales (POS) is the time and place where a retail transaction is completed. At the POS, the shop attendant calculates the amount owed by the customer, prepares a proof of purchase for the customer, and provides the buyer (customer) options to make payment. After receiving payment by the customer, the attendant may issue a transaction receipt, usually printed²³. Several programming languages can be used to design a POS; we present some commonly used languages in the following section.

Programming Language (PL)

A PL is a set of vocabulary and grammatical rules for instructing a computer or computing device to complete precise tasks ²⁴. Computer devices are usable due to the programming language used to make commands to its various components to achieve an aim. Fig. 1 shows the types and examples of programming language. There are three main types: Assembly, Machine and High-Level Languages, which can be further categorised as an interpreted language and compiled languages. Some examples of the interpreted languages are Ruby, PHP, Python, Perl, and many others. In contrast, C#, C++, VB.Net and Java are examples of compiled languages.

Fig. 1: Programming languages

Software Development Models

There are several software developments models. However, we discuss two standard application development models: the Waterfall model (traditional model) and the Rapid Application Development (RAD) model, also known as the prototyping model.

Water Fall Model (WFM)

The WFM is the oldest method for building information systems and is still used today for medium or large complex systems projects. It is a very formal approach to building a system, dividing systems development into formal stages that must take place in sequential order. All the activities in each stage must be completed before the next stage can begin. The systems life cycle methodology also maintains a very formal division of labour between end-users and information systems specialists.

Rapid Application Development (Prototyping) Model

Prototyping consists of developing an experimental system rapidly and inexpensively for end-users to evaluate. By intermixing with the prototype, users might get an improved idea of their information prerequisites. A template is then formed from the user prefered prototype to create the final system. The prototype is used as a working version of an information system. However, it is meant to be only a preliminary model. Once operational, the prototype will be further refined until it conforms precisely to users' requirements²⁵. After the design, the prototype can be converted to a polished production system.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Numerous programming language and tools can be used for the implementation of a POS system. In this study, PHP, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript were adopted for the design and implementation based on their superiority in this nature's software design. Also, Xampp was used as a database management studio for the backend.

Requirement Engineering/Elicitation Techniques

Requirement engineering is the process of gathering and defining of what the system should provide. It focuses on assessing if the system is useful to the business (feasibility study), discovering requirements (elicitation and analysis), converting these requirements into any standard format (specifications), and checking that the requirements defined the system that the customer wants (validation). An interaction with shop owners through interviews, personal observation, and various scenarios use models to understand the proposed system. Moreover, through these, the requirement specification was created (functional and non-functional requirement, respectively).

Software Development Methodology

The waterfall model was adopted for this study. Five (5) distinctive phases were involved. We describe in brief the activities are done in each phase.

System analysis: We conducted observation and inquiries about the client's existing process. Shop owners were engaged in verbal discussions for system requirements and data gathering to know the function to incorporate in the proposed system. System design: Technical specialist model and document design specifications are selected for the solution's hardware and software technologies. Business users approve the design specifications. Programming: Technical specialists write program code. Testing: Technical specialists develop test plans and system acceptance tests. Business users are provided with test data and scenarios and validate test results.

Production and maintenance: Technical specialists evaluate the technical performance of the system and perform maintenance.

Fig. 2 (A) shows the flowchart of the proposed POS. A user must log in with login details, and if successfully, access is granted to the homepage and menu, select the item(s) to be bought, adds to cart, checkout, confirm the purchase, and prints a receipt to the sale made. Fig. 2 (B) shows the dataflow diagram of the proposed system. It describes the process involved in a system to transfer data from the input to the file storage and report generation.

Fig. 2 Proposed system flow chart (A) and dataflow diagram (B)

Fig. 3 shows the entity-relationship diagram of the proposed POS system; it consists of 4 tables. The first interaction is where the system records the following: the user's personal information and access, the product information on the system's database.

Fig. 3: Entity relation diagram

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

The final design was tested with 4 computers. An Intel Core i5 @ 8GB RAM with Windows 10 operating system was used as a server and 3 desktop computers as a client. We networked the 4 computers using our own designed Local area networks (LAN) using a TP-Link 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Network Switch. We discuss in detail the outcome.

Proposed system interfaces

Fig. 4 shows the login interface when the application is started. When the page shows, two input boxes appear. The first box requires the username; the second box requires the password. After entering the user's details and clicking on the login button, the user's information is validated against the system. If it exists, it takes the user to the homepage (see Fig. 5). The homepage makes available to the user the sales, products, customers, suppliers, sales reports, and product inventory on a side panel named dashboard.

Fig. 4: Proposed system login interface of the proposed POS

Fig. 5: Propose system homepage of proposed POS

Fig. 6 shows the transaction panel where the user can make all the necessary sales with the available added products. To make transactions, the user must first select the left panel's sales or main page. Here information to be filled is "product name" and "quantity". When information is inserted correctly, then the user clicks on the "ADD" button to proceed to the next step that is to save it with the save button.

Fig. 6 Sales model of proposed POS system

Fig. 7 shows the interface of the model for adding a new system user. From this panel, the default user can register a new user with their specific username and password. The system compels first-time login users to change their default password assigned. The process ensures that system users' password is to exposed to anyone.

Fig. 7: Adding a new system user interface of the proposed system

Fig. 8 shows the model for adding product. System User can add products according to their supplies. To add a new product, the user needs to click on the add product button and fill the form with details like item code provided by default, item name, category, date arrival, expiry date, selling price, original price, profit, supplier, quantity. For easy access, we added some drop-down box in a specific option to select so that the user does not have to enter any information.

Fig. 8: Model for page for adding products

Fig. 9 shows the sales report page. From here, the system users can check all the sales records, based date of sales.

Fig. 9: Sale report model

System User-Friendliness Test

In examining the user-friendliness of the proposed system, ten students were sampled purposeful sample technique from the department of hospitality and hotel management used to validate the system's user-friendliness. Of the 10, 50% were trained on using the system, and the other five were not trained. This approach allowed the researchers to know how user friendly and easy to use is the developed system. After using the system for one and half hour, questionnaires were set for each participant to fill. The respondent was made to measure the proposed system about its quality, responsive, satisfaction, value for money and more (see Fig. 10). We observed that on an average, 80% of the participant recommended that the proposed system is suitable for its intended purposed. Thus, based on our client requirements, we have developed the POS system as a web-based, which is much backdated comparable to the new tech era.

Fig. 10: Participant view on the developed system

Table 1 shows the features of our proposed system compared with already existing POS systems. From Table 1, 50% of the existing POS systems can automatically calculate the total cost of the items bought. Only 25% prints receipt of purchase for customers, 50% can show if some products in the shop have expired. In contrast, only 25% of the can alert shop owner products of low quantity in stock. A high percentage (75%) are single-user compliant; thus, two or more user cannot be registered on the system.

Table 1: A comparison of the proposed system with existing POS

Reference	Automatic Calculation	Printing Receipt	Expiry Date	Add Users	Below Quantity
26	×	×	×	×	√
27	×	×	√	×	×
28	√	√	√	×	×
29	√	√	×	√	×
Proposed POS system	√	√	√	√	√

CONCLUSION:

In this era of technological tools and platform advancement, manual bookkeeping in small and medium sales points needs to be discouraged due to several challenges associated with it. The coming POS has contributed massively to the progress of several businesses around the globe. However, more and more business in low-income countries in Ghana are still using the conventional way of keeping records. Thus, according to several businesses, it is due to the expensiveness and complexity of off-shell POS system. In this study, we sought to develop a less-expensive and user-friendly web-based point-of-sales management system. The waterfall methodology for software development was used. We built the proposed POS system based on the XAMP server configuration that consists of Windows Operating system, MySQL database system and PHP server-side scripting language. Our experimental setup with ten students shows that the proposed system is easy to use and robust. Thus, it has a user-friendly interface for even novice to learn it with ease.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

We wish to express our deep gratitude and thanks to God Almighty, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient for his mercy, guidance, and protection over our project. We are much grateful to wholesale and retail businesses in the Bono region of Ghana forgiven us information to develop this point-of-sale system. We also wish to express our gratitude to all persons who have contributed in diverse ways in making our study a success, our indefatigable supervisor, Mr Nti, for his support and sacrifices. We are very grateful to all our loved ones for their prayers, motivation, and support during this point-of-sale system development.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Received on 18.12.2020 Accepted on 03.05.2021

International J. Technology. 2021; 11(1):23-31.

DOI: 10.52711/2231-3915.2021.00004