Basic Restaurant POS Equipment and Software Specifications
The basic POS systems you may see on a typical retail establishment consists of a cash register (with or without a built in cash drawer), monitor, receipt printers, and an input device. It can also be a touch screen monitors, programmable keyboards, or scanners and handheld devices for inputting data into the POS system.
Touch Screens: With its flexible user interfaces and programming, many retail business owners prefer to use touch screens. With this type of restaurant hardware, an employee can easily set orders and cancel an order within a second. It can also reduce mistypes and fasten ordering. Touch screens also uses less electricity and much easier to position on the counter table, but they are more prone to breakdowns.
Handheld devices: Restaurant POS equipment like PDAs, which are commonly wireless devices that transmits data back to its base station and into the POS system. You can also use the newer version, which is the write-on handhelds that allows you to write information such as the orders and directly sends the oder to the kitchen! This type of device perfectly fit when up-selling customers of desserts or drinks. Your employee can either roam their tables or take orders from customers waiting in line.
POS keyboards: You’ll find that most grocery and convenient stores prefer to use this type of POS hardware because it allows them to program individual keys for specific item codes and prices. The standard POS keyboard is a 101-key, like what you will find with any computer. Other have built-in magnetic stripe readers for processing credit cards, others are small and flat, like what we usually see in fast food outlets.
Scanners: This restaurant hardware reads bar codes and converts it before inputting it’s information to a POS system computer. It speeds up sales transactions and accurately inputs a customer’s product or service details that is being purchased. Scanners connects through Y-connectors called wedges that make them function as an extension of the keyboard.
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Volume of customers: For diffent types of volume of customers, using a scanner could be very helpful. If the line has several customers, your staff can easily use a CCD scanner or entry-level laser scanner. If the line is loaded with customers, then an autosensing laser scanners would be better. This type of scanner turns on when an item is placed in front of it, scans its code, and then turn off again. But if the counter line is overflowing with customers, you could sure use the help of an omnidirectional scanner, using its 15 or 20 lasers simultaneously, it scans a bar code from any angle!
Additional Restaurant hardware to consider
Cash drawers: Where you store cash, credit card slips, gift certificates, and other imporatant things. When looking to buy for a POS cash register, look for sturdy construction of at least 18-gauge steel. And since the usable life of a cash drawer is measured, make sure you can replace rollers, bearings, and other parts, because most cash drawers opens when a signal is released from the receipt printer.
POS printers: An addition to your restaurant POS system is a printer, every retail business needs one to complete a sales transaction. A POS printer is needed for printing a receipt and creating credit card slips. There are two types of POS printers, the dot matrix printer and the thermal printer. The dot matrix printer uses ribbons and regular paper to print. On the other hand, Thermal printers are slighly expensive than the dot matrix printers because they are more realiable, they have less moving parts, faster and quieter when printing.
Customer displays: A customer display or pole display lets your customers view the price of the item they’re about to purchase, and can sometimes be used to support advertising. Just make sure that your customer display has the right height and width to perfectly fit in to your counter table, as well as it’s compatibility with your POS software.
Check readers: Advisable for restaurants, fast food chains, hotels, casinos, and convenient stores. The check reader prevents fraud by verifying essential account information. By this, you are assure that every check in your cash drawer is authentic.
Magnetic stripe readers: A simple piece of restaurant hardware that is used to read credit cards. For added convenience, look for POS keyboards and touch screens that has a built-in magnetic strip reader, so you don’t have to buy a separate one.
Fingerprint ID readers: Mostly this type of hardware is used for employee login. But it is very helpful to limit which staff can access a POS terminal and prevent other staff from logging in inplace of somebody.
Always rememeber when purchasing a restaurant POS system, hardawre or software, you have to make sure that you review their details first. No matter how expensive or cheap a POS equipment is, consider the environment where you’re going to use it. Regular cleaning keeps your keyboards and touch screens in top shape, vacuuming dust and lubing your receipt printer can extend its life and maintaining an over all clean workstation can help protect your POS terminal from dust and spills. You can always request for a FREE POS system quote online where local suppliers will offer you competitive price lists of any restaurant hardware and software you need based on the the information you give them. So you would never have to waste money buying the wrong POS systems.
With over 20 years of experience in restaurant point of sale the author of this article is the Customer Relations Vice-President at POS-for-Restaurants.com — where the experts help you use your Restaurant POS technology to help you make your restaurant more efficient and more profitable.
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Restaurant POS Equipment: Types of Input Devices
Restaurant POS Equipment: Keyboards and touch screens
Choosing which input devices to use as your restaurant point of sale equipment should be one of the important tasks listed in your checklist. Choosing whether to go with a touch screen or a programmable keyboard helps you save time and money. The only market where keyboards are mostly used is grocery stores, because it has the ability to program individual keys for specific item codes and prices.
Touch screens are more intuitive to use than keyboards for many users. Touch screens also provides flexibility in the user interface and programming, where it eliminates costly staff traning. Most touch screens sold these days are based on flat-screen LCDs instead of traditional CRT monitors. While LCD touch screens are slightly more expensive (typically 0 – ,000 instead of 0 – 0), they are sturdier, uses less electricity, and space-saving. They also look much better. With both CRT and LCD displays, avoid “overlay” touch screens that are added on to regular monitors – they are more prone to breakdowns and add an unnecessary complication to your system.
For keyboards, . Others are smaller, more POS-specific devices, such as the flat-panel membrane keyboards you often see on fast food outlets. Often, POS keyboards come with built-in magnetic stripe readers for processing credit cards. Most programmable keyboards usually go for between 0 and 0.
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It doesn’t matter which POS equipment you use, make sure you consider the environment where it will be used. Both keyboards and touch screens are available with varying levels of spill and dust-proofing.
Restaurant POS Equipment: POS Scanners
All scanners work in the same basic manner, reading a bar code and sends the information back to the computer. They typically connect to the system through Y-connectors called wedges that make them function as an extension of the keyboard. Bar code scanning can improve speed and accuracy during checkout.
Low-end scanners are based on charge-coupled device (CCD) technology. They cost less, but usually have a very short range – an item being scanned needs to be 1 to 3 inches from the scanner. In a typical retail setting, this should be fine.
Laser scanners uses a beam of light in order to read bar codes, they offer much better scanning ability since they are able to scan at long distances. Some laser scanners are “autosensing,” meaning they turn themselves on when an item is placed in front of them, scan the code, and then turn off again. Omnidirectional scanners send out 15 or 20 lasers simultaneously, letting you scan bar codes from any angle. And the top of the line are embedded scanners, which you commonly see in supermarkets located below the counter.
Properlu use different types of scanners to serve customers. If you do not usually have more than a customer or two in line, CCDs or entry-level laser scanners should be able to do the job. In a fairly constant flow of customers you might want to use an autosensing model for speeding up sales transanctions, and very high volume businesses should investigate omnidirectional or embedded scanners. Prices range from below 0 for the most basic CCD scanners to 0 or more for omnidirectional laser scanners.
Restaurant POS Equipment: Handheld POS terminal
The latest type of input device is the handheld, wireless terminal. Essentially a PDA, it can take orders and wirelessly transmits it back to a base station. A great advantage this POS equipment can provide to a restaurant is that they increase the amount of time servers spend on taking orders on the floor and interacting with customers, because it eliminates the need to go back to a terminal to process orders.
Newer still are write-on handhelds: think about combining touch screens with PDAs, this tiny input device allow servers to simply write the orders down. Handwriting recognition software parses the order then sends it on to the kitchen and bar as needed.
Handheld terminals are more expensive than traditional touch-screen order terminals. However they can make up for the cost by upselling your customers more desserts and drinks. If you are evaluating handheld terminals, make sure you ask about the “drop test” – units are rated for toughness according to how much of a fall they can survive. To find out if your business is a candidate for handheld POS terminals, compare multiple POS equipment vendors to learn what products and services they offer.
The author of this article is the VP for Customer Relations at POS-FOR-Restaurants.com – a national organization of retail and restaurant POS systems dealers.
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