Competition is tight in the restaurant industry. If you’re looking to boost efficiency and performance in your restaurant, implementing a quality restaurant ePOS system should be at the top of your To Do list.

Whether you know the basics already, or you’re hearing about a restaurant POS system for the very first time—we’ve got you covered. Here is the only quick guide you need to choosing a ePOS system that maximizes profit and drives your restaurant’s productivity.

What is a Restaurant POS system?

The short answer: a streamlined digital network within your business. It pulls a bunch of specialized programs together and helps you do this:

• Manage staff
• Simplify your bookkeeping
• Track inventory, sales, and cash flow
• Organize your covers and floorplans

Why does my restaurant need one?

To track everything your restaurant is doing right now, and strategize everything you want to do next. Essentially, it gives you a snapshot of your restaurant’s health.

Use it to maximize performance…

Are your team upselling and promoting where they need to? Are you over- or under-staffing the floor? A strong ePOS system can help you identify cracks in staffing and scheduling, monitor wait times, and identify the reason for slow table turnover.

And track your money.

A POS system designed for the restaurant industry lets you gauge your sales. Run direct cost comparisons between menu items and see where your products are costing you money.

Which ePOS do I need?

The one with features that support you

Finding the setup that checks all the boxes for your business is going to depend on what you want. But here are the features every restaurant ePOS system needs to offer:

• Responsive, user-friendly interface
• Quick reference KPI reports
• Inventory control
• Booking and seating functionality
• Strong customer support—with training documentation

If you need a little more information than that, we’ve rounded up a few of the most popular ePOS systems on the market.

3 Restaurant POS systems To Try

TouchBistro Restaurant POS

Let your diners settle up from their tables, or place orders directly through the iPad-based system. You can handle bookings and split-checks no matter how many covers you’re catering to. To make things easier for your customers, you can accept payment and print receipts directly from your device. TouchBistro has advanced management capabilities and features specifically for the restaurant industry, too. Detailed sales reports offer insight into your bestsellers and low achieving items.

Toast POS

Toast offers a lot of the same functionality as TouchBistro, and throws in a Quick Order feature. Quick Order lets you create orders quickly, track bar tabs in real time, access bar and food ingredient lists—all of which boost your clients’ experience. You can integrate your POS with its payroll feature, to give you seamless time tracking and access to HR functions. We like it for its extensive reporting and cost-saving analytics.

Toast wins for: integration with payroll and HR functions.

Upserve

Upserve is supported on both Android and iOS, and offers sales analytics, inventory management, and table-side functions. Your staff can also add shift notes. There’s a tip adjustment feature, check-splitting, and full workforce management capability. One of the best features on Upserve is the communication between front of house and the behind-the-scenes staff. The whole team can see the status of each table, add modifiers, customize and send orders, and add notes. Managers can set access levels for features and even set automated tip levels. Last but not least, this system tracks sales, guest counts, and sales trends.

Upserve wins for: best customer support. They advertise 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and chat.

Conclusion

Your business has its own strengths, pressure points, and goals for the future. That’s why there is no right or wrong choice for your restaurant ePOS system—as long as it gives you all the features you need. Now that you know what these features can be, you can choose the right POS system to elevate your restaurant’s performance and boost your bottom line.