EPOS for Restaurant

 

Restaurant EPOS systems are completely different from retail EPOS systems. You wouldn’t use a restaurant EPOS in a shop, so you shouldn’t use a shop EPOS in a restaurant.

 

There are a few features you want from a restaurant EPOS. The best EPOS system for restaurants  can really help you to run busy services and keep on top of your stock.

 

When buying a restaurant EPOS system the first thing you want to check for is table service.

 

EPOS systems with table service allow you to map out your restaurant’s tables and makes it easy to order food directly to tables, as well as showing you at a glance whether your customers have got their food or are waiting to pay.

 

More advanced EPOS systems will allow you to edit your table layout on the fly, rather than forcing you to use a layout that you made weeks or months ago — think about how often you push tables around.

 

Table service is a must-have because it makes running busy services far easier. This means that you and your staff can spend less time juggling orders and more time serving customers.

 

Restaurant EPOS systems also make communication between front-of-house and the kitchen go more smoothly. You can set up dedicated kitchen printers and display screens that print order tickets or display them as soon as they’ve been rung up by your waiters.

 

This means your waiters don’t have to spend time ferrying orders back and forth and reduces the chance of errors creeping in.

 

Oh, and a dedicated restaurant EPOS can help you keep on top of your inventory.

 

Most EPOS systems have some sort of inventory management capability which tells you what you’ve sold and what you’ve got in stock, but a dedicated restaurant EPOS can go one step further.

 

The best EPOS systems for restaurants have a feature known as ingredients management. This feature allows you to create ‘ingredients’ as inventory items. You can then create recipes associated with different menu items made up of these ingredients — which in turn come out of your inventory.

 

So, if you sell a pepperoni pizza, for example, then your EPOS system will take 250g of cheese out of your inventory and 100g of pepperoni.

 

This helps you keep track of what’s in stock and gives you a really nuanced view of your margins.

Bar EPOS

 

When you’re looking for an EPOS system for your bar there are a few things you need to bear in mind.

 

One of the most crucial things you need from a bar EPOS is speed. The last thing you want is for your EPOS system to slow you down when you’re faced with a rush of punters on a Saturday night

 

It’s vital that you get a EPOS system that has a fast and intuitive checkout flow and is integrated with your payment terminal so you can process transactions as quickly as possible. Fumbling around trying to find items and process transactions is just going to slow you down. A good bar EPOS will help you serve customers quicker and shrink queues.

 

Bars and pubs also tend to have a lot of staff and you don’t want all of them to have access to your back office reports. A dedicated bar EPOS system will enable you to create user accounts with different permissions so that bar staff can only access what they need to do their job.

 

Ingredients management can also be useful for bars, especially ones that sell a lot of cocktails and mixed drinks. For instance if you sell a double G&T then two shots of gin and a little bottle of tonic will come out of your inventory.

Retail EPOS

 

EPOS systems for retail are a little different to restaurant and bar EPOS systems.

 

A strong EPOS for retail should have robust inventory capabilities with the ability to handle complex product lists.

 

What features are important to your business will depend on what you sell and how you sell it — a clothes shop might need to be able to arrange items by size and colour, while a shop that sells custom-ordered furniture will need their retail EPOS system to be able to handle custom orders with ease.

 

Shops like grocery stores and delis might want their retail EPOS system to integrate with barcode scanners and digital scales.

 

Whatever your business does, you need to make sure that your EPOS system matches up with your needs or you could find yourself searching for another solution sooner rather than later.

Mobile business EPOS

 

Whether you’re running a food truck or selling goods at a market stall, mobile businesses have a different set of needs from bricks ‘n’ mortar ones.

 

One feature you need is offline mode, especially if you’re on the move about. You won’t always have a reliable Wi-Fi or mobile signal but offline mode means you’ll still be able to process transactions and take payments like normal.

 

Offline mode means you can run your business from anywhere. All your data will sync up to the cloud automatically when you get back online, so your offline sales still add to your figures.

 

You’ll also need to think about hardware. Many EPOS systems that are well-suited to mobile businesses offer sleek, modern cash drawers, printers, and card readers. This hardware has a smaller footprint than normal and is great for businesses that are pushed for space.

 

If you ditch cash and email customers their receipts then you can run your business with just a smartphone or iPad and a card reader.