Restaurant Point of Sale systems serve as the backbone of any restaurant business. They help in keeping a track of all your sales, employee hours, and inventory levels. A reliable restaurant POS or Point of Sale system will help in ensuring a smooth and profitable operation. The best restaurant POS systems out there are intuitive and easy to use. They can be used across a variety of different restaurant types. Additionally, they are also capable of handling everything – from fine dining restaurants, quick-service restaurants, to high-volume bars.
What are Restaurant POS Systems?
Restaurant POS systems are typically utilized for ensuring seamless management of customers while tracking inventory and ensuring proper payments all at the same time. POS systems are utilized in restaurants to handle customer orders, optimize the menu, and other similar aspects of the restaurant. The dedicated POS systems for restaurants are designed to further enable a paperless environment for the customers while also ensuring employees have access to the latest information about the tables that they are working.
The best restaurant POS systems will be available in different forms -including online software as well as a hardware unit while being utilized with different hardware components -depending on what your restaurant needs. One of the best aspects of these POS systems is that they help in improving the overall productivity, speed, and accuracy at which employees can serve customers. Moreover, these systems also help in minimizing paper waste by offering all necessary information through paperless transactions via email or text message.
Features of the Best Restaurant POS Systems
Some of the features you should look out for in a reliable restaurant POS system are:
- Ease of Use: The most reliable restaurant POS systems will feature an intuitive interface while making it easier for employees to learn as well as use in real time. If you have not made use of a POS before, ensure that the one you are using has a relevant online help section or training videos to help train your staff in a moments notice.
- Integrations: It is recommended to choose a POS system for your restaurant that is capable of integrating with other applications or software systems you might already be using in your business -including inventory management, accounting software, and so on. This will help in saving time on relevant data entry as it allows information to flow seamlessly between different programs without having the need to duplicate any data entry efforts on your part.
- Hardware Compatibility: Ensure that your POS system is going to work effectively with the hardware device you wish to use in your restaurant business -including handheld computers or barcode scanners.
- Tipping: Most restaurant POS systems are available with the tipping feature. This allows customers to include gratuity for the respective staff. Some systems might also allow for automatic tip estimations for customers and advanced split tip features for businesses or individuals pooling tips.
- Split Bills: The function of split bill makes it easier to split bills between different customers sitting at the same table.
- Mobile-based payments: A number of consumers are using digital forms of payments like Google Wallet or Apple Pay to ensure payment for their purchases. With the right restaurant POS system, you are easily able to accept these types of payments.
- Sales Reports: Point of Sale systems make use of relevant sales data like sales volumes, costs, new customers, and revenues to come up with dedicated sales reports. These reports can be eventually used to track the overall revenue. These reports also help in identifying market opportunities and optimizing staffing.
- Inventory Management: This feature will allow you to effectively track ingredients and inventory, generate purchase orders, execute inventory reports, and receive alerts for low stock.
- Reservations: This feature makes it simpler for customers to make reservations for large parties, busy periods, or special occasions -like birthday parties or office gatherings.
- KDS: Do away with paper-based tickets while going digital for improved back-end operations with a dedicated KDS or Kitchen Display System for displaying your orders in real-time on the easy-to-read screen.
Best Restaurant POS Systems 2022
- Square
Square is a leading mobile-based payment company allowing users to accept credit card payments from the tablet or smartphone. Square was introduced by Jack Dorsey -the co-founder of Twitter. The signature product of the company is the Square Reader for plugging into the audio jack of an iPad or iPhone while allowing customers to swipe credit cards with the help of their tablets or smartphones.
The company has also expanded its product lineup to off full Point of Sale stations and deliver services to small businesses like inventory management, marketing analytics, and invoicing. The service is available for all businesses who are signing up for the account. However, with each transaction, there is a flat rate fee associated.
- Revel POS
Revel is an easy-to-use POS for restaurants that allows its users to track inventory, view reports, and manage tables from the phone or computer. Revel POS serves to be a cloud-based restaurant POS and management system that offers access to everything required for running your business from any location.
With Revel POS, you are easily capable of managing your inventory, employees, and tables -irrespective of your location. The point of sale system has been designed for restaurants featuring a single location or even multiple locations. It is also capable of integrating with all major credit and debit card processors while delivering ample flexibility to ensure growth as the business expands.
Revel POS can be regarded as the next-gen POS software solution. The platform has an intuitive dashboard that helps in unifying all possible aspects of the restaurant business -including customer management, inventory, sales, and so on. The platform also offers access to a free trial such that you will get a hold of its overall functionality before making a final decision. The all-in-one cloud-based POS is capable of integrating with existing software and hardware systems as well.
- Lightspeed Restaurant
Lightspeed is a full-service bar and restaurant POS whose headquarters are based in downtown San Francisco. Lightspeed is a big competitor in the market and is able to be integrated with different merchant services providers. Some of the key features of this POS are:
- Easy to use and interactive
- Ease of searching by restaurants, dishes, or cuisines
- Inventory management, employee management, streamlined sales processes
You also get access to lucrative pricing options by Lightspeed Restaurant. The pricing options are available to suit all budget and size options. There is also the availability of a 30-day free trial to get started with the POS system.
- TouchBistro POS
TouchBistro POS is one of the best software solutions for restaurant management for iPhone and iPad. It is also a leading software solution that is easy to use, full-featured, and affordable for retail stores and restaurants. There are no hidden fees or costs involved in the software solution.
Some of the advanced POS features of TouchBistro POS are:
- Customized sales tax settings for every menu item
- Customizable items and menus with unlimited price levels
- Built-in table management and customer ordering features
- Portal for online ordering with integration of a secure payment feature
- Loyalty programs and gift certificates with frequency capping
- Coupons and discounts management
The platform is available as an easy-to-use and flexible Point of Sale system for restaurants. The latest version of the platform is loaded with advanced features to help restaurants manage everything -right from employee management to sales, inventory, customer loyalty programs, and so more.
Conclusion
A reliable POS system for restaurant will help any restaurant business to thrive as well as grow -delivering access to accurate as well as significant data for making decisions. Every business is capable of recording its sales. However, a restaurant is expected to accept reservations as well as track which orders have been placed from which tables. Every business is known to track inventory; however, a restaurant is expected to track the total amount and cost of major ingredients in real time. This is where the role of a reliable POS system will come into play for restaurants, allowing less time to be spent on monitoring and tracking data, and more time spent creating a welcoming environment for your customers. Investing into a POS for your restaurant could be the difference for your customers.
