Restaurant POS systems: what you need to know

The POS (point of sale) system is the combined hardware and software that allow you to accept and process payments in your restaurant or online from credit and debit cards, mobile payments, cash and contactless payment methods or payments from self-service and order and pay at table technology. 

A restaurant POS system also supports stock control, kitchen display and menu management as well as offering real-time reporting data.

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What is a restaurant POS?

In a restaurant setting, the POS system is the central point of operations for both front and back-of-house teams and facilitates every single payment taken from your customers. So, it’s really important that your system is secure, robust and adaptive to support the fast-paced environment of a restaurant.

From your customer's perspective, they will benefit from a seamless ordering and paying experience no matter if they order online or in the venue.

A cloud-based restaurant EPoS system supports all the ordering, paying and stock functions in your restaurant using digital ordering that communicates directly to the kitchen for faster and more accurate ordering while keeping all your operational data secure and accessible to you through any online device. So you always know how your business is performing.

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Advantages of using a POS system in restaurants

Faster service – serve your customers quicker, turn around more tables and deliver better accuracy between your front and back-of-house team with a streamlined kitchen display system.
Simple for customers – An easy-to-use and configure a digital system that delivers automatic upselling prompts and product details to boost customer service and profitability.
Support all payment methods – Seamless integration and interface with all major payment methods, loyalty schemes, shopping platforms and food delivery apps to drive revenue through every available channel.
Real-time reporting – Up-to-date and live sales reporting records every transaction as it happens so you can monitor performance whenever and wherever you are with defined key performance indicators reflected in your customisable reporting dashboards.
Save money – Stock result dashboards enable you to manage purchase orders, recipe costings, deliveries, returns and transfers as well as adapt and manage your menu products to reduce waste and save operational costs.

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What does a restaurant POS do?

POS systems have evolved and many now encompass several important functions that support a range of functions in your restaurant.

Find out more about what a fully-connected cloud-based POS system can do for you and the different components that make up the hardware and software within your POS solution:

Touchscreen restaurant POS

The touch screen POS is more than just where your staff inputs orders, it has become the information centre for your whole operation. A POS is now required to house all transaction data, allergen information, product upsell prompts, and cooking temperatures and easily deal with customer requests/changes. Plus, the option to add reservations, mobile ordering and payment device integrations.

It’s vital that the POS is fast and reliable, but also looks good enough to blend into the site décor.  

Mobile waiter tablets

Mobile waiter tablets offer the same service and information as your fixed POS but in the palm of your front-of-house teams. Tablets enable your customer-facing staff to actively manage the service around them and process orders and payments quickly without wasting time walking back to the POS. Venues often see a significant rise in sales due to tablets as staff are able to focus more time on the guest experience rather than trips to the POS. 

Kitchen display system

A kitchen display system delivers orders straight to digital displays in the kitchen replacing the need to generate printed order receipts and reducing the instances of lost tickets. The immediate communication of orders to the screen means faster kitchen service times and improves order accuracy.

In addition, the kitchen display system serves as a real-time hub for kitchen staff to check recipes, view training videos and access other relevant content.

Stock control platform

Stock control management that is connected to your POS system and updates stock movement in real-time so you can effectively manage resources as well as purchases, deliveries, returns and transfers and recipe costings.

Increased visibility over stock movement and transactions enables you to effectively track wastage and implement actions to reduce waste and save money in your operation.

Menu Manager

As POS solutions for restaurants continue to evolve the menu management software enables you to manage your partner ordering channels such as mobile, delivery and kiosk in one place.

Delivering full control of your customer-facing menu content across all channels with an easy-to-use drag and drop system that helps you create and organise your menus easily and even increase revenue opportunities with automated upsell suggestions.

Order and pay at table

Having been adopted in more restaurants as a solution to contactless ordering during covid restrictions, customers love the efficiency and speed of the order and pay-at-table technology.

With a fully branded design to fit in with your business, an order and pay system enables customers to order and pay for their food and drinks without ever leaving the table, reducing queuing times in your venue and enabling faster service and quicker turnaround of covers.