Selecting the Right Restaurant POS System for You

How many POS stations will I need?

• Peak customer volume
  You must plan the number of stations based on peak business. If you don’t you won’t be able to sufficiently handle the influx of customers during these periods.
• The number of employees taking orders
  In a table service environment we suggest 1 station for every 3-5 servers. High volume areas such as bars and cashier stations may need to have a dedicated station for that purpose. When switching to a POS system from a cash register many people make the mistake of forgetting that their POS system will not only be used for cashing people out, but will now be used for order entry as well.
• The layout of your restaurant
  If you have a bar you can bet the bartender will need his or her own station. Other stations should be located where servers can easily get at them.
• How and where you plan to have customers pay for their meals
  If you plan to have customers pay at the front you should have one or two dedicated cashier stations to allow speedy transactions. If the servers are going to carry their own banks, we suggest fewer servers per station.

Which style of POS computer is best?

• Desktop: standard desktop computers.
  • Least expensive computer option
  • 3 Year Onsite Warranty Standard for this component
  • Takes more space but can be hidden away beneath a counter
  • Has greater flexibility for addition of extra ports
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; in case of technical difficulties problems are isolated.
• Small form factor: smaller than desktops.
  • More stylish than the desktop
  • 3 Year Onsite Warranty Standard for this component
  • More Space Saving
  • Fewer options for expandability
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; in case of technical difficulties problems are isolated.
• All-in-ones: combined touchscreen and computer.
  • Most stylish option with fewer wires and least space required
  • 1–2 Year Manufacturers Warranty (Not onsite)
  • Comes standard with sufficient ports for almost any operation
  • CPU speed is generally slower than the other two options but sufficient for the Point of Sale needs.
  • Screen and Computer are one unit

How many cash drawers?

• This is probably fairly self-evident, but unless your servers carry their own cash bank you should have a cash drawer at every station you want to use to end transactions.

Integrated credit cards?

• Using your POS system 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 high speed internet is not available we suggest using a standalone terminal for processing.

- Need a great credit card processor, or need to setup your first account to take credit cards? Click here to fill out a quick and easy form to receive more info.

How many kitchen/bar printers?

• One kitchen printer will probably be sufficient for most restaurants; however, if you have different sections in your kitchen which handle different dishes you may want a printer for each section.
• For example, you can have all your appetizers print on one printer and all your entrees print on another.
• We recommend impact (dot-matrix) printers over thermal printers for kitchens and bars because their loud printing alerts cooks and bartenders that an order is coming through and because tickets printed on thermal paper become unreadable when exposed to heat.

How many receipt printers?

• It's a good idea for every station to have a receipt printer.

Should I have a back office computer?

• A back office computer is good for allowing managers to run reports, access the system to make changes to menu, check inventory levels, or adjust employee time clock times, without disturbing servers and cashiers.
• It is not necessary to have a back office computer unless you have 4 or more stations. It is however a good idea to host the database on a back office computer if you do have 4 or more stations so that none of the stations has the additional load of running the database.
• (If you don’t understand that last part, you can call and our knowledgeable sales people will help you: (877) 727-3548.)

Restaurant POS Systems
1 Station	2 Station	3 Station
4 Station	Bring Your Own Computer	Bring Your Own Software