POS Terminal Q&A: Back to the basics

These are some pf the questions you should never forget to ask your local restaurant POS Terminal vendor. It is important that you study the exact needs of your business to avoid making costly mistakes or being duped by local vendors.

Knowing Your Restaurant POS System
Restaurant POS Terminal/Station: How many should I buy? * Peak volume of customers When handling peak customer volume, you need to have a plan to be able to sufficiently serve them all. * Number of staff taking the orders For a table service environment we suggest 1 station per 3-5 servers. High volume areas such as bars and cashier stations may need to have a dedicated station for that purpose. Migrating from a cash register to a POS system, many people make the mistake of forgetting that their POS system is not only used to to cash out customers but for order entry as well. * Restaurant layout A good restaurant layout affects your employees service. So if you have a bar, assigning a separate station for your bar tender would be easier since he can serve customers from there quickly. * Assigning stations effectively where customers pay for their meals If you want your customers to pay for their meals though your servers carrying their own banks, then I suggest assigning fewer servers per station. But if you want them to pay at front, having 1 or 2 dedicated cashier stations would be better for quick transactions.
Which style of POS computer is best? * Desktop: the standard desktop type. o Least expensive computer option o Has onsite warranty for 3 years o take more span but can easily be positioned so it can't cause any hassle for your customers when paying o Flexible enough for adding extra ports o Latest CPU speeds and memory o Screen and computer are separate; if ever technical problems accur, it'll be isolated. * Small form factor (SFF): also known as shuttle form factor, a smaller type of computer. o Compared to the standard computer, SFF is more stylish o Has 3 years standard onsite warranty o More Space Saving o Fewer options for expandability o Latest CPU speeds and memory o Screen and computer are separate; if ever technical difficulties accur, it'll be isolated. * All-in-ones: combined touchscreen and computer. o More efficient because it requires fewer wires least space, even more stylish o 1–2 Year Manufacturers Warranty (Not onsite) o Comes standard with sufficient ports for almost any operation o CPU speed is generally slower than the other two options but sufficient for the Point of Sale needs. o Screen and Computer are one unit
How many cash drawers should I use? * Unless you want your servers to carry their own cash banks, placing cash drawer at every station you want to use to end transactions is advisable.
Debit card processing? * Using your POS systems to process credit card transactions allows you to keep records of every transaction you process in one convenient location. * With the advance of high speed internet transactions processing time can reduced to 3-4 seconds per transaction. * If you do not have a high speed internet, we suggest using a standalone terminal for processing transactions.
How many printers should a typical restaurant? * Having one kitchen printer will probably be sufficient for many restaurants; however, if you have different sections in your kitchen handling different dishes you may want a printer for each section. * Consider this, appetizers can be printed on one printer and all your entrée dish on another printer. * For kitchens and bars, it is highly recommended that you use dot-matrixprinters instead of thermal printers. Because their loud printing alerts cooks and bartenders that an order is coming through, and since tickets printed on thermal printers becomes unreadable when exposed to heat.
Do I need more that one receipt printer? * It's always a good idea for every station to have their own receipt printer.
Is a back office computer needed? * A back office computer helps managers to run reports and access POS systems to change, remove or add important data without disturbing servers. * It's not quite necessary to have a back office computer for your restaurant, if you only have 2-3 stations.. It is however a good idea that you host your database on a back office computer if you do have 4 or more stations so none of them has extra load of running the database. ------------------------------------ For more details about restaurant Point of Sale (POS) systems or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry, you may visit http://pos-for-restaurants.com ------------------------------------

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