Restaurant POS Software and Hardware

Running a successful restaurant? Let’s go back to the basics: right location, good food and good service. But today, there’s another consideration to add: the restaurant software you use to run your POS system.

Though the physical components are more visible, your POS software is the heart that runs your POS systems. Doing a careful evaluation of restaurant POS software is key to getting a system that will satisfy your customers and staff.

What to look for in restaurant software
Before anything else, it’s important to know what exactly you need the software to do. Any reasonable restaurant software is able to handle checks per customer or per table, track orders per server, move diners from the bar to a table, manage waiting and reservation lists, and many more.

After you’ve found that restaurant software that can meet your basic requirements, test it and see for your self how to use it. While there will always be a learning curve for your employees when you adopt a new POS system, choosing restaurant software that’s easy to use can reduce the learning curve to manageable levels.

You may have a couple of your staff to to be involved in the evaluation of the software while giving it a test drive. 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 – you may need to create accounts for each employee for safety reasons. With this you should be able limit your employees’ access to some reports as well as the functions (such as comping meals) to managers, for as long as you desire.
• Flexibility – servers should be able to manipulate checks to match your patrons’ whims: easily splitting checks and tracking special orders, for example.
• Reporting – a POS software can create detailed report which is a great advantage for business owners. So you better make sure the software you choose gets detailed information either per check, per server, or overall, ranging from daily to annually.
• Multiple location support – if applicable, make sure that your POS system is able to track and record on multiple locations, including local differences in staffing and pricing.

Don’t neglect 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 only big deicision with it comes to using hardware is how many will you need.

Ready to start contacting restaurant software vendors? Find out more 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 Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of POS experience meeting the automation needs of restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.