Restaurant POS Systems Cost in the USA

“Quick Summary” Choosing an ideal restaurant POS system is a tough nut to crack, one that involves comprehensive research and constant meetings with the vendors. You must analyze what you need for your restaurant business, including the best POS software as well as compatible hardware.

Most owners make mistakes while choosing a POS System based on cost alone. It is vital to focus on how each cost will affect your business value. So whether you are concerned about the cost of your restaurant’s POS or how these costs will affect your business, let us first comprehend the benefits and features of a restaurant POS software.

About Restaurant POS System

A restaurant POS software is like any other point of sale system. The only difference is it processes the transactions that happen in restaurants. Gone are the days when a traditional point of sale system was simply used as a restaurant billing software to accept orders and generate receipts. With the arrival of cloud technology, the POS system has grown into a complete Restaurant Management System.

Armed with inventory & stock management, analytics & smart reporting, customer relationship management, a restaurant POS reduces manual efforts and simplifies operations. You can also integrate your POS system with various third-party applications such as E-wallets, online ordering, table reservations, loyalty programs, and more.

The cloud-based restaurant POS software can work offline and online to allow smooth POS operations even in the absence of the internet.

Features of a Restaurant POS System

A great Point-of-sale system has countless benefits which will help you augment your business intelligently. Let’s dive into our next session to know more about these features.

1. Easy to Manage

There are systems in the business that can do wonders to manage your restaurant and bar. The challenge is finding a consistent medium between features you require and features you don’t need. Everyone needs multi-purpose systems, but hundreds of systems can also become havoc when you cannot manage them. Therefore, choose a system that works best for your business, whether big or small.

2. Quick Checkout Time

One of the most essential features of a restaurant or bar POS is speed. When you mostly experience busy days on Fridays and Saturdays, you can’t afford to have a lagging system. Also, it is crucial to know that there are many tablet systems present in the market which are dependent upon your internet connection and bandwidth speed. If you have a slow internet connection, chances are there your system may slow down too. Ensure your system is internet-based, local hardwired type, and hybrid. A hybrid or local system will be more reliable for a busy restaurant in case of an internet-based point of sale.

3. Easy to Use

Not all POS systems are developed equally, so when you search for a restaurant POS system for your business, you’ll have to consider ease-to-use software for your day-to-day activities. You need to take the product demonstration before considering the POS system.

There are various POS software companies present in the USA that will provide demonstrations of their product remotely or online. Some of the companies may also offer software demonstrations that you can download on your tablet or computer.

While carrying out the research part, you’ll have to consider tasks like placing orders, split checks, reordering drinks, quick check out, and sending tickets to the kitchen.

The good news is that it will take a week or less to learn the software configuration as they’re all a bit different, but you have to ensure that the layout is quirky and easy to use. If it is becoming hard for you to understand the system, your staff won’t understand it either. You can read reviews online or look for POS systems that other restaurant businesses are using.

4. Quick Inventory Management

Some people will not consider this feature as the most essential one, but poor inventory management can cause you ounces of trouble. Inventory management in the POS system helps you to consider how much food stock you have, cost of food, waste, and profit margin. Most quality POS systems have built-in inventory control systems, so you can easily deduct counts from the inventory number for making a sale.

Most systems will have third-party integrations, so you can use more powerful stock platforms designed to track the product. However, you need to make sure that your POS provider has features to integrate the vendor system that runs appropriately.

5. Improved Employee Management

Making optimum use of your employees’ time is a complex process without tangible data. With an integrated POS system in the USA, it can be easier to manage your staff and optimize their schedules. A POS system allows you to see sales individually and as per the given time slot. With this data, you can analyze which employees are performing efficiently, which are not. It also helps you to check the peak hours of your store. The whole of this data can help you build easier schedules, optimize employee time in the store, and provide training to other employees.

On top of that, your employees must also acquire training to use POS software. There are few companies that offer to train your employees into properly utilizing the POS system, which can be an added advantage. To streamline the whole business process choose a POS system that is easy for you and your employees.

6. Quality Reporting

You will expect more than just inventory management, sale, and employee management if you’re investing in a POS system. Your POS system must also have features that allow you to access data to drive sales and create a unique name for your business.

Other reporting types like inventory reorder, top-selling items, inventory activity by date range, and customer activity can play a pivotal role in offering clarity to your sales transaction.

Analyzing the achieved sales at your store from time to time is another aspect of quality reporting. This is an On-The-Go reporting feature. You can check the transaction history, net sales, average sales value, and the total number of customers via your smartphone or tablet, irrespective of your location.

7. Automated Ordering

As we know, the customer is the king. There might be times when your customers will want an item that you do not have in stock. Eventually, you’ll have to place an order in your POS system.

Once the product is back in your stock, the software will inform your employees to remind the customer about it. This feature allows the store to keep track of the orders requested and record them for future reference. This ensures better customer service and can become an additional revenue source if the item is in great demand.

Benefits for Businesses Who Utilize POS Software

As you’ve observed in the above section, the restaurant POS software comes with a range of features that will anyway benefit your business. And here we’ll learn about those benefits;

Saves Time

Undoubtedly a point of sale system saves a lot of your time. The system can assist you with several features that reduce the sea full of operations. As stated in the previous points, the software can help you with orders, inventory management, customer service, and more. Some tasks are also done automatically. For instance, the creation of real-time reports or a minimum quantity of products to keep in inventory. These features are really time-saving.

Enhances Service Speed

A POS system will provide a better customer experience with speedy services and management. It will also help you improve your operations, including faster scanning of items, quicker payments, and reduced waiting time. With these small but substantial improvements, customers will likely prefer your service over your competitors.

Reduce Errors

A POS system can eliminate several errors in your business. The system can assist you with varied functions so that you can work error-free. For instance, inventory management can simplify your registration by scanning your items. The system will adjust your inventory when there is a return or sale. With the best POS system in the USA, you will not have to enter your items manually. This can reduce calculation mistakes and simplify the work. Moreover, you don’t have to create on your own. The reports are automatically created with zero errors.

Boosts Revenue

By overcoming your operating costs, you’ll save considerable money. Also, a point of sale system can provide several functionalities that can help you enhance sales. You can utilize various features like rentals, repairs, consignments to generate more revenue streams.

Enhances Security

The security of your company’s data is very crucial. Your data must be easily accessible to the authorized users of the company. By installing a POS system, your data is protected against any unknown intrusion. On the other hand, some systems also offer double user authentication. This not only reduces the intrusion of any malicious users but also blocks them from future access. If you are willing to protect your data at all times, choose a cloud-based point of sale. Not just you’ll have access to your data anytime, anywhere, but you’ll also be covered by any natural disasters such as store fires and floods.

Restaurant System Cost In The USA

As we know now that POS systems carry myriads of benefits, the next very important thing to do is understand its cost. In the upcoming section of the write-up, we will share the cost of pos systems for the restaurant.

Hardware Cost for POS Systems

The average cost of a restaurant POS system in the USA starts at around $600 for a handheld tablet package. If your business is huge, you can expect a cost of around $2600. The cost may also increase if you want to invest in a starship POS system with terminals. Also, the software would be expensive in comparison to the hardware. To determine the total cost of the POS system, you must understand the functionalities of the POS system and run that against the software cost, hardware cost, and payment processing fees to get the actual value. It is advisable to buy a bundled POS software subscription along with the hardware to reduce the upfront hardware costs. Also, you can also lease hardware for $100 per month.

You also have to purchase a barcode scanner, a router, tablets, networking cables, and even a server with the basic hardware. If you’re looking for additional parts, it may cost you around $3000 or more for one register.

Examples of a Restaurant POS Hardware

• Credit card readers
• Cash Drawers
• Stands and Workstations
• WiFi Routers and Extenders
• Order and Receipt Printers

Restaurant POS Software Cost

Restaurant POS systems have transformed from a Single upfront cost to software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription models. This shift helped businesses to enjoy frequent software updates, improved support, and remote data storage. Look for CRM, inventory management, sales reports, simple marketing features, employee management at a minimum value. General fees may begin around $69 per month, but for thriving businesses or systems that provide advanced POS features, you need to pay more than $150 per month per terminal.

Transaction Processing Fees

Some kinds of POS software providers allow you to associate with a variety of merchant accounts; in some others, your merchant account is a POS service provider. Here, monthly service fees are comparable to credit card processing fees, which can be between 2.2% and 4.5%. Also, your sales processing fees would depend on the sales volume.

What are the Average Credit Card Processing Fees?

One of the biggest mistakes restaurateurs make is to assume the rate they pay in the cost. It means they’ll pick the lowest cost without understanding all the restaurant credit card processing fees. Any time someone swipes a card in your restaurant, they need to pay three kinds of fees, and that would be the average cost of credit card processing. Let us learn more about these fees:

1. Transactional Fees

Every time you swipe your credit card, these fees are processed. Both assessment and interchange fees are considered transaction fees. The card-issuing banks and associations charge these fees for each transaction. Interchange fees generally include a percentage of each transaction in addition to a flat transaction fee. Assessments are done considering the total transaction volume for the month.

2. Fixed Fees

Fixed fees consist of PCI compliance fees, terminal fees, and annual fees. These fees are the ones your payment processor charges, and you can pay them at the payment processing rate.

3. Incidental Fees

As the name suggests, this fee appears per incident. This fee is related chiefly to chargeback fees. These fees can be non-sufficient funds (NSF) or batch fees.

Understanding the fee structure of credit card processing can solve most of your questions. Once you know these fees, it will be easy for you to assess your monthly statement. The next step is to understand the credit card pricing models.

Credit Card Pricing Models

You might not have control over various fees that occur when cards are swiped in your restaurant, but you can definitely have control while choosing a credit card pricing model. Here is the pricing model brief that you’re looking for;

Interchange Plus

Interchange is a percentage rate developed by banks and other payments networks. This rate can differ as per the restaurant. So it is difficult to find the exact estimate.

Tiered

When processing providers decide pricing by tiers based on qualifying criteria and price transactions.

Blended

This is a lot like the pricing model of Tired, minus the tiers. Example - PayPal.

Flat Rate

A payments processor charges on the basis of a fixed percentage of credit card transitions.

Service and Support Cost of Restaurant POS

The restaurant POS should focus on making money. However, ongoing services and support costs must be considered before investing in a restaurant POS system. Only a few customers pay for these costs. When you opt for cloud-based design, you can save a lot of money. Thanks to on-demand connectivity, support team, and real-time work, the right pos provider can get things straight, so you can focus on serving customers.

Final Cost of Restaurant POS System

If you own a single registered business, you can expect costs between $1000 - $1500. You may incur an additional $1000 towards the software subscription fee, payment processing fee, and pricing models. Make sure your service provider allows you fair and transparent pricing, so you can have complete control over the expenses that you have to deal with!

If you’re not sure which service provider you can rely on for your restaurant business. Let the OVVI POS system be your helping hand to take your business to the next level.

Ovvi thinks like a restaurant. It allows you to intuitively track all the details that make up the products you sell. You can always keep your ingredients perfectly stocked and manage every ingredient that makes each dish a classy work of art. Our one-touch purchase order solution enables you to reorder items with ease from multiple vendors.