A point of sale takes payment, in various ways, and where it takes cash, the cash needs control. This piece is about payment methods and cash control in Odoo POS.
Payment methods at the point of sale
At a point of sale, customers pay in various ways: cash, card, and other means. A payment method, in Odoo POS, is a way the point of sale accepts payment. Setting up the payment methods means configuring the genuine ways the business's point of sale will take payment, so that, at the till, a customer can pay by the genuine means the business accepts. Odoo POS supports various payment methods, including, where card payment is taken, working with payment terminals, the hardware that takes card payments.
Why cash needs control
Of the payment methods, cash is the one that needs particular control. Cash is physical money in the till, and physical money needs to be controlled and accounted for: a business needs to know that the cash in the till matches the cash the sales say there should be, and that the cash is genuinely accountable. Card and similar payments are recorded as they are taken; cash is physical, in a drawer, and so it carries a particular need for control. Cash control is the discipline of keeping the till's cash accountable.
How cash control works with sessions
Cash control in Odoo POS works closely with the POS session. The session is the defined period of trading, and the cash control happens around the session: there is the cash at the start, the cash taken through the session, and, at the closing of the session, the reconciling of the cash, confirming that the genuine cash in the till matches what the session's sales say it should be. Closing a session, the cash is counted and reconciled, and that is the cash control: the session's cash genuinely accounted for. So running POS sessions properly, with the cash reconciled at closing, is how the till's cash is kept controlled.
Why cash control matters
Cash control matters because cash is real money that, uncontrolled, can be lost track of, can go missing, can fail to be accounted for. A point of sale taking cash without genuine cash control is a point of sale where the physical money is not genuinely accountable, which is a real risk. Cash control, the reconciling of the till's cash, session by session, is what keeps the physical money accountable: the business knows the genuine cash matches the genuine sales, and discrepancies are visible rather than hidden. For a business taking cash, genuine cash control is part of running the point of sale properly.
The takeaway
Payment methods and cash control in Odoo POS handle taking payment and keeping the till's money accountable. Payment methods are the genuine ways the point of sale accepts payment, cash, card, and others, configured to the business's genuine selling, with payment terminals for card payment. Cash control is the particular discipline cash needs, since cash is physical money: it works with the POS session, the cash reconciled at the closing of each session, so the till's cash is genuinely accountable. Cash control matters because uncontrolled cash is a real risk. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.