Restaurant Point of Sale (POS): Searching for the right Software and Hardware?
February 8th, 2010 | by admin |Restaurant POS Software and Hardware
Running a successful restaurant? Let’s go back to the basics: right location, good food and service. These days, there’s another important consideration: in order to run your POS system, you need a good restaurant software you can rely on.
Even though physical components like the monitors and computers are the most visible, the software is the core of your POS system. Doing a careful evaluation of restaurant POS software is key to getting a system that will satisfy your customers and employees.
What to look for in restaurant software
First of all, identify your needs, know what task you need the software to do. A restaurant POS software should be able to handle checks per diner or per table, track orders per server, move diners from the bar to a table, manage list of customers that are waiting as well as the reservations, and more.
Once you’ve found that restaurant software that can meet your basic requirements, test it and see for your self how to use it. Even though there would be a learning curve for your employees when you purchase a new POS system, and since a POS software is easy to learn and navigate it can save you time on staff training.
You may learn more about ease of use by having one or two of your servers involved in the evaluation. They may try different kinds of oddball situations and changes that may end up causing problems to the software so you’d know what to look out for.
- Security – creating a login account for each employee adds to safety. You should be able to limit access to sensitive data and functions (such as comping meals) to managers, for as long as you desire.
- Flexibility – your servers are able to manipulate checks to match the whims of your patrons: easily splitting checks and tracking special orders, for example.
- Reporting – one the main advantages of restaurant software for owners and managers is the detailed reporting available. So you better make sure to choose the right software that gets detailed information either per check, per server, or overall, ranging from daily to annually.
- Multiple location support – if applicable, make sure the system is capable of tracking and reporting on multiple locations, including local differences in staffing and pricing.
Don’t forget your hardware
Of course you’ll need to invest in restaurant POS hardware as well: computers to run the restaurant software on, touch-screen displays for servers to enter order, and printers to produce order slips for the kitchen. The POS software you decide to use will require hardware – the biggest hardware decision you’ll have to make is how many stations wou will need.
Now, are you willing to start your business right? Get more details on restaurant Point of Sale systems at POS-For-Restaurants.com and receive free unbiased quotes from the Restaurant POS professionals serving your area.
The author of this article is the Customer Relations VP at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience meeting the automation needs of restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.