Written by our very own Joseph Stock, One Step Retail Solutions Implementation Specialist

Now that the holiday rush is over, it’s a perfect time to go through your point of sale software and do some clean-up. One excellent area to look at is old Purchase Orders. Of course, Purchase Orders are a vital part of any retail business, but once the product is received, it can be very easy to forget about the completed purchase order.

Most point of sale software will keep fully filled purchase orders in the system and for a period, you most likely will want to keep them. But, do you need purchase orders that are years, if not decades old? After a certain amount of time, those purchase orders are just taking up space in your database.

Another concern is that purchase orders can have items still on them that were never received and never will be. This can affect On Order reports and can prevent you from being able to properly remove old items from your system.

So, it’s a good idea to make your way into your old purchase orders once in a while and remove ones you don’t need anymore. January is as good a time as any to accomplish this. You can do this one by one if you wish, but most point of sale software has tools that can help you automate this process and save you a good deal of time. If you do not have knowledge of these tools, feel free to reach out to us at One Step Retail Solutions, we will be happy to train you on using them.

On a related note, you may want to also look into your sales orders and clear those up too. I don’t think that customer is ever going to pick up the dress they ordered in 1999.

Have a safe and happy new year.