POS System (Point of Sale)

A POS (Point of Sale) system is the bundle of hardware and software that processes transactions at retail checkout. Hardware: scanner, card reader, customer display, cash drawer, thermal receipt printer. Software: scans items, calculates tax, processes payment, prints the receipt, updates inventory.

Common enterprise POS platforms include NCR, Toshiba TCxAmplify, Square (smaller retailers), Lightspeed, and Oracle Retail. Each has its own receipt template engine — the typography, abbreviation rules, and code fields are determined by the POS, not the retailer.

That’s why Walmart receipts look different from Target receipts even though both run on similar 80mm thermal hardware: different POS software produces different line-item formatting, different abbreviation styles, different footer layouts.

The POS also defines what gets printed at the bottom: store/register/cashier IDs, transaction codes, survey URLs, loyalty info. Each retailer’s "receipt format" is really their POS configuration.