A good point of sale ("POS") system is critical for
any business engaged in sales to the public and having one in place
goes a long way to ensuring that revenue and profits are being
reported properly to federal, state and local tax
authorities. Along with the proliferation of companies who
create the software that drive POS systems, however, is a dubious
technology known as revenue suppression software ("RSS")
that is also sold as an add-on to the basic POS system.
RSS programs, also known as "zappers", are used to
delete some or all of a restaurant's cash transactions and then
reconcile the books of the business. Unlike voiding sales or
comping meals from time to time that would appear on a report as a
zero dollar transaction, a restaurant owner, for example, can use
the zapper software to delete entire transactions from the
day's receipts and exclude that information completely from
financial reports. The result is that the restaurant owner reports
less revenue
