Things You Need To Consider Before Purchasing A Restaurant POS System
How Many Restaurant POS Terminal Would Be Enough For My Business?
- Peak customer volume
You must plan the number of stations based on peak business. If you don’t you won’t be able to sufficiently handle the flow of customers during these periods. - Number of employees taking orders
One station per 3-5 servers would be sufficient in a table service environment. High volume areas such as bars and cashier stations may need to have a dedicated station for that purpose. When switching to a POS system from a cash register many people make the mistake of forgetting that their POS system will not only be used for cashing people out, but will now be used for order entry as well. - Restaurant layout
If you have a bar you can bet the bartender will need his or her own station. Other stations should be located where servers can easily get at them. - Assigning stations effectively where customers pay for their meals
Having proper locations where customers can pay for their meals is also important, you don’t want to keep them waiting do you? For paying at the front, you should have one or two dedicated cashier stations quicker transactions.
What type of POS computer should I use for my restaurant?
- Desktop: the standard desktop type.
- Least expensive computer option
- With a gurantee of 3 years of onsite warranty
- take more span but can easily be positioned so it can’t cause any hassle for your customers when paying
- Flexible for addition of extra ports
- Latest CPU speeds and memory
- Screen and computer are separate; so you can easily isolate which ones has technical difficulties.
- Small form factor: smaller than desktops.
- More stylish than the desktop
- 3 Year Onsite Warranty Standard for this component
- Space-saving
- Fewer options for expandability
- Latest CPU speeds and memory
- Screen and computer are separate; if ever technical difficulties accur, it’ll be isolated.
- All-in-one terminals: combined touchscreen and computer.
- More efficient because it requires fewer wires least space, even more stylish
- 1–2 Year Manufacturers Warranty (Not onsite)
- Comes standard with sufficient ports for almost any operation
- CPU speed is generally slower than the other two options but sufficient for the Point of Sale needs.
- Combined screen and computer
How many cash is ideal for my restaurant?
- Your servers may carry their own cash banks, but it is still advisable that you have a cash drawer to stations where you want to end transactions.
- A restaurant POS system can be used to safely record all credit card transactions in one convenient location.
- Can reduce seconds of transaction time with a high speed internet.
- If you do not have a high speed internet, we suggest using a standalone terminal for processing transactions.
How many printers must I have?
- Having one printer for your kitchen would be sufficient for your restaurant, not unless you have different sections serving different dishes inside your kitchen then it would be better if you place printers on all sectrions.
- For example, you can have all your appetizers print on one printer and all your entrees print on another.
- For kitchens and bars, it is highly recommended that you use impact printers instead of thermal printers. Because their loud printing alerts cooks and bartenders of an incoming order, and since tickets printed on thermal printers becomes unreadable when exposed to heat.
Is is essential to have more than 1 receipt printer?
- It’s always a good idea for every station to have a receipt printer.
Should I have a back office computer?
- A back office computer is good for allowing managers to run reports, access the system to make changes to menu, check inventory levels, or adjust employee time clock times, without disturbing servers and cashiers.
- It’s not quite necessary to have a back office computer for your restaurant, if you have less than 4 stations.. It is however a good idea to host the database on a back office computer if you do have 4 or more stations so that none of the stations has the additional load of running the database.
More information is available at POS-For-Restaurants.com
The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types and sizes throughout the U.S.
