How to choose a restaurant POS system

Step 1: Describe how you actually serve

Before you look at any POS, write down a normal busy service. Who takes orders, and where? Counter, table, bar, phone, website, delivery apps? How does the kitchen get tickets today? How do guests usually pay, and how often do they split? How many devices would you want at peak?

This list is your test script later. A POS that looks great in a demo can still be awkward for the way your team works.

Step 2: The feature checklist

Use this as a starting point and strike out what you don't need.

Front of house

• Order types you use: dine-in, takeaway, delivery, bar tab, drive-thru, room service
• Modifiers, forced choices, combos and time-based menus
• Courses with hold and fire
• Seat numbers and split bills (evenly, by seat, by item, by amount)
• Table plan with live status, transfers and merges
• Handhelds for tableside ordering
• Discounts with manager approval

Kitchen

• Kitchen display with station routing, timers, bump and recall
• Printer support as a backup
• All channels (online, QR, delivery apps) in one queue

Online and delivery

• Your own commission-free ordering page
• QR table ordering and kiosks
• The delivery apps you use, in your country
• Online payments

Back office

• Inventory by recipe, purchase orders, waste
• Staff roles, PINs, rotas and timesheets
• Guest profiles, loyalty and gift cards
• Reports you'd actually read, plus a Z report and accounting export

Platform

• Offline mode with automatic sync
• Runs on hardware you choose
• Your own card processing, or a rate you're happy with
• Tax rules and e-invoicing requirements in your country
• Multi-location, if you plan to grow
• An open API and data export

Step 3: Shortlist three

Narrow the field to three systems that clearly support your country, venue type and must-haves. Our comparison of the best restaurant POS systems is a starting point. Ask other owners nearby what they use and what annoys them about it; that's often more useful than any review site.

Step 4: Price the three-year total

For each shortlisted system, add up three years of software (with every add-on you ticked), hardware, card processing at your expected card sales, setup fees and the exit fee. Our restaurant POS cost guide shows how. The cheapest monthly price is often not the cheapest system.

Step 5: Run a proper trial

A sales demo shows you the best-case path. A trial shows you your restaurant. During the trial:

1. Load your real menu, with all modifiers.
2. Put it on your own devices.
3. Run a busy service, or at least a mock rush with your team.
4. Do a split bill four ways, a refund, a void and a discount that needs a manager.
5. Unplug the router for ten minutes in the middle of service. Keep ordering. Plug it back in and check everything arrived.
6. Close the day and read the Z report.
7. Ask your newest staff member what they thought.

Step 6: Ask the awkward questions

• Do I have to use your card processing? At what rate?
• Can I use my own tablets and printers?
• What's the contract length, notice period and early termination fee?
• What's included, and what's an add-on?
• How do I get my data out if I leave, and in what format?
• What support do I get at 9 pm on a Saturday?
• Which tax and e-invoicing rules do you support in my country, and how?

Red flags

• A long contract before you've tried the system with your own team
• Hardware that only works with that provider, on a lease
• Required processing with no published rate
• "Offline mode" that only lets you take cash, or nothing at all
• Kitchen display, online ordering or reports sold as expensive add-ons
• No way to export your sales and guest data

When EvronDesk is a good fit

EvronDesk suits independent restaurants, bars, cafés, cloud kitchens, hotel F&B and small groups that want offline reliability, their own processing, hardware choice and no contract, in the UK, North America, the Gulf or South Asia. You can test all of the above in a 14-day free trial with your own menu.