In short: POS stands for point of sale: the place, and the system, where a customer pays for what they bought. In Arabic, point of sale is نقطة البيع.
The full guide: What is a POS system
POS stands for point of sale: the moment and the place where a customer pays for what they picked. At a corner shop that is the counter, in a supermarket it is the checkout, and in a café it is the till by the coffee machine. In Arabic the phrase is نقطة البيع, and the plural, points of sale, is نقاط البيع.
Over time the abbreviation stretched to cover the tools themselves. When a shop owner in Jordan says they have a POS, they may mean the cashier software that records each sale, or the card machine the bank gave them. Always check which one someone means, because the two differ a lot in price and in what they do.
Point of sale or points of sale?
A point of sale is one till or one device you sell on. Points of sale are all of them together: two checkouts in a supermarket plus a phone a staff member carries between the shelves. A POS system is what ties those points together under one account, so the owner sees all their sales in one place.
In Jordan most people simply say cashier, or cashier system, for all of this. In everyday use the meaning is the same.
POS terms in English and Arabic
| English | Arabic | What it means in a shop |
|---|---|---|
| POS | نقطة البيع | The place you pay, or the system that records the sale |
| POS system | نظام نقاط البيع | Software and hardware together: screen, printer, barcode scanner |
| POS terminal | جهاز نقاط البيع | The bank's card machine, or an Android device with a printer |
| POS purchase | شراء POS | A card payment at a shop, as it shows on a bank statement |
| Cashier | كاشير | The person at the till, or the selling software itself |
| Receipt | إيصال | The slip or message that proves the customer paid |
POS machine or POS software?
The card machine comes from your bank and does one job: it takes the money from the customer's card. It does not know what was bought, it does not touch your stock, and it does not send the invoice to JoFotara. POS software knows your items and prices, works out the total and the tax, prints the receipt and records every sale under the cashier who made it.
Today POS software runs on a phone, a tablet, an Android POS terminal or a Windows PC, with no old cash register needed. Ghalleh, for example, runs on all of them under one account, so the owner sees every point of sale on their phone from home.
A shop example
A homeware shop in Marka sells a pot for JOD 14.500 and two spoons at JOD 1.250 each. The cashier scans all three and the total shows JOD 17.000. The customer pays with a 20 dinar note, the software shows JOD 3.000 change, prints the receipt and updates stock.
Common questions
What does POS stand for?
Point of sale. It refers to where a shop takes payment and the system it uses to record sales, and people also use it for the card terminal the bank gives a merchant.
What is point of sale in Arabic?
نقطة البيع. The plural, points of sale, is نقاط البيع, and a POS system is نظام نقاط البيع. Many shops in Jordan simply say كاشير, cashier, for the whole system.
What is the difference between a point of sale and a POS system?
A point of sale is one place to pay. A POS system is the software and hardware that run every point of sale in the shop and bring their sales, stock and reports together.
Do I need special hardware for a POS?
Not necessarily. Many POS apps now run on an ordinary phone, tablet or PC, and you add a printer or scanner when you need one.