A point of sale system, often referred to as a POS system, is used by retail businesses to collect payment for purchases of products or services. It includes both software and hardware components. The point of sale system acts as a cash register, determines and displays the purchase amount, and processes payments for both cash and credit card transactions. Some POS systems also track inventory, manage customer loyalty programs, and provide sales reports. There are on-premise systems that are installed on local machines, and cloud-based ones that access information through the internet.