As the retail establishment business owner, you have to ensure that your profit is secured in many ways. You can easily loose money from simple customer’s change mistakes and from an abusive employee of yours that keeps helping themselves to a few extra bucks or giving away free meals!

If you’ve already experienced these, then don’t let it happen again! Now would be the best time to consider having a POS system. With the features a POS can offer your business, you can prevent these issues from happening and may even be able to completely eliminate them:

• Long lines which prevent you from working with as many customers as possible
• Frequent customer complaints
• Limited staff
• Overstocking of poor performing items
• Shrinkage (lost or stolen inventory that eats into your profit margins)
• Wasting too much time going over the books
• Financial inaccuracies (overbilling, underbilling, thin profit margins)
• Unorganized data

For as long as money is involved, might as well invest on quality POS systems can improve your business’ efficiencies as well as take good care of your customers. Buying cheap, low quality POS systems may cause your busines to loose money because of its poor features and easy-to-break components.

A good and reliable POS vendor can tailor the appropriate POS solution for your needs, which will allow you to enhance your business’ performance and satisfying more customers. So requesting for a free POS system quote is always a great idea, because expert POS vendors can provide exactly what your business needs, complete with the features that will make your business boost its sales, without having to spend an extra thousand dollars.

Questions to consider

When requesting for a free POS system quote, below are some of the pointers you might want to consider asking to a POS vendor. The main key to this service is that when you submit your details, it will be matched to the most qualified POS sellers in your area. And only they will be able to acquire your details which in return tailor the proper POS solution that will fit your needs and then send you their offers. These are some of the questions you might want to ask:

• Is the POS software user friendly? Which OS will it run?
• Is POS software compatible with my current business management applications?
• Can I have a try out of the POS system before purchasing it?
• Do I need more than one terminal? What about cash registers?
• Will I be able to use the same POS for different marketing tools such as gift card systems?
• How reliable are the reporting features?
• Will I be able to point out where my profit losses are coming from?
• Can my POS system be set up fast?
• Does it require extensive staff training?
• When it comes to customer support, at what level should I consider?
• Is there a loaner available if repairs can’t be made on-site?
• Are there POS all-in-one solutions available or do I have to buy everything ala carte?

More information and an online resource

If you wish to know more about restaurant point of sale system, please visit POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Customer Relations Vice-President at POS-For-estaurants.com with its 20 years and more of restaurant POS systems experience serving the automation needs of restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.

1. Network cables. The majority of systems are PC-based, designed to run on MS Windows technology. This means that the workstations and peripherals will communicate over standard Ethernet networking. Although wireless communications have been the talk of the town these days, I would still prefer to “hardwire” your computer stations. Some vendors include this service in their bid; others specify that cabling must be contracted through a third-party vendor.

Inspite of who will work on the cabling, make sure all cables are properly plugged and tested before installing any equipment. Each piece of equipment needs to have a cable drop. A cable drop is the cable that connects a device to a network, like your computer or remote printer connecting to a networking source such as a patch panel in the mechanical room or office.

For a restaurant POS system, the restaurant should be wired with CAT 5 or 6 network cabling that runs from every conceivable POS workstation, remote printer or KDS, office computer, hostess station, delivery order desks, cashier stations and network server to a “home run” area such as a central patch panel, preferably located in your telephone or electrical room or closet. Cabling routes need to ensure that cables are at least 24 inches from fluorescent fixtures, neon transformers and electrical motors, because these devices can sometimes interfere with the communication of each devices.

2. Electrical. Installing a dedicated and isolated circuits for your restaurant POS equipment such as your POS computers, network devices such as hubs and routers, and phone systems that can share. No other electrical equipment should be placed in this circuitry. Preferably, your network, phone, and electrical service will be near one another. An isolated circuit means its a separated ground from that of the main electrical service. This helps prevent spikes and surges that may destroy motherboards and hard drives. Note, however, that you’ll still want to use surge protectors at each workstation.

3. Designing workspace. When it’s time to design workstation areas, make sure to leave enough space to comfortably fit all needed equipments there. Tabletop space for server stations should be large enough to hold a computer monitor, guest check printer, and possibly a credit card terminal if you’re planning to use separate credit card equipment. Make sure you have enough space underneath the tabletop to hold your computer, the surge protector, power strip and UPS.

If you’re planning to place your workstations on mill-manufactured surfaces such as granite or woodwork, have your contractor pre-drill holes if needed to run cables or power cords beneath the surface. A 2-inch hole should be enough space for cords and cables on most POS systems.

For the cashier and bartender stations, the tabletop space should also be ample enough to fit a cash drawer and an order confirmation customer display. Most cash drawers have a footprint (space requirement) of 15- to 17-inch depth; 16- to 20-inch width; and 3.5 to 4 inch height. Be sure to get the drawer specifications from your supplier in advance if you are building a custom countertop so that the drawer is recessed into or underneath the counter.

4. Service plans, as part of your system. Your supplier may offer different types of service plans as part of your original purchase. The fact is, business grade systems are composed of hardware that are not built to last forever especially in retail establishments like a restaurant. Printers will eventually break, fans will slowl fail, and hard drives will crash. How often is dependent upon the conditions under which they operate. Dirt, dust, heat and moisture are the most common terror to office and restaruant POS equipment.

I’ve seen some systems that rarely experience problems while others deal with them constantly. The best thing a restaurant owner can do is to invest in good equipment and then protect that investment by maintaining it. Many restaurant POS solutions provider will offer ongoing service contracts that are basically extended warranties. The annual cost for these services usually ranges anywhere from 10 percent to 20 percent of the original purchase price.

Computer systems represents as a sizable investment. But if you dedicate the time and planning required to properly put in place and maintain the system, you are more apt to be rewarded a return on your investment by getting the most from your system in cost reduction, labor savings, and ensuring that you can account for all cash.

The Author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com — With over 20 years of restaurant experience that helps ensure that your technology is more efficient and your business more profitable .

Here are the 3 computer dangers you should keep away from:

1. Hijacking and spoofed e-mails. Spammers are now using a new tool used to make you believe that their spam e-mail is coming from YOUR computer. This can cause your connection to the internet be terminated or put on hold by your service provider – without you even knowing it. A good spam blocking software blocks inbound spam as well as unauthorized outbound spam from your serves. That’s why it would be a better idea to install one for your own protection.

2. Virus infected spam e-mails. Accidentally open a spam e-mail carrying a nasty virus and you can end up with big problems ranging from the slowing of your system to more serious threats such as system crashes, data loss, identity theft, endless popping of unapproved sites, and more.

3. Phishing spam. Also called phishing scam. The attempt to acquire personal information of an individual either to steal money from their bacnk accounts or use the money to spend it online shops without the owners knowledge. A phishing spam e-mail sends some kind of fake notification or warning to an individual asking for his or her online bank account, social security numbers, passwords, and credit card information. To be able to make someone believe that their spam e-mail is from a trusted website, phishing sites mimics the exact same look of the authentic website..

What to do to prevent this?

First and foremost, it’s absolutely critical that you get a quality spam blocking software installed as a first line of defense.

Many retail business owner over look into this, so their restaruant POS system pays the price.

Next, you want to make sure you don’t get on a spammers list in the first place. The moment your e-mail gets listed on a spammer’s list, there’s no way to get off; and changing your e-mail address can be a big hassle especially if you’re using it to stay in touch with your business contacts.

Below are some of the tips that can help you protect your e-mail from ending up on a spammer’s list:

1. Using disposable e-mail accounts.

Using a free e-mail address like with Yahoo or Gmail can reduce the chance of ending up on a spammer’s list. Always use free e-mail accounts when you’re shopping online or when subscribing to avoid getting your e-mail on a spammer’s broadcast list.

2. Never forget to double-check those tick boxes that are automatically filled in.

Better make sure you don’t check the box that says “Yes! I would like to get other offers from third party companies.” when shopping online. There’s a big chance your e-mail address will be sent to every online advertiser.

3. Don’t post your personal or business e-mail address in public places like your website or blog.

Spammers uses a special program that can collect e-mail addresses from web sites without your consent. If you really want to post an e-mail address on your web site or business blog, it’ll be much safer to use “info@” so all replies are forwarded to a folder in your in-box that won’t interfere with your main address.

4. Don’t open, reply to or try to opt-out of obvious spam e-mails.

Replying or clicking a link on a bogus opt-out link in an obvious spam e-mail signals that your e-mail address is active, and more spam will follow.

The only time it is safe to click or reply to the e-mail is when it is sent by a company you know or do business with (for example, a company that you purchase from or a newsletter you subscribed to).

For more information or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry and your location see more information at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

The restaurant and hospitality sector are increasingly turning towards business management software in order to run their businesses more efficiently.

It is with extreme importance that every restaurant must select the restaurant POS software suite that’s flexible enough to meet their needs and be able to grown alongside their business.

While not all restaurant owners are comfortable with pos technology it can be a huge asset and vital to any hotel or restaurant wanting to trade immediately after installation, which attracts more customers. A good restaurant POS software will saving money on training time, stock control, payroll and ultimately wages.

The hospitality market sector is very competative and streamlining your business operations can mean the difference between failure or success. In the world of hospitality If you can’t level with your competitors you’ll slowly loose your customers through smoothly run establishments that uses POS systems.

Even restaurants aren’t exempted from this, that’s why having a good hospitality software suite is very important for any restaurant’s success.

Sometimes you may notice that your restaurant’s external factors can a make a difference to your success, better think again. With the right hospitality software, it can can greatly add up to your success and can even place you on top of your competitors.

And if you are still searching for a software suite which is right for your business, make sure you look for a restaurant software suite that is robust, upgradeable, great value for money and above all easy to use.

You need to be sure that the hospitality software you purchase can be adapted to suit your needs. If the software is is inflexible and incapable of adapting to meet your needs, it can cause a lot problems in the long run.

A retail POS business software should be easy to install and use, intuitive and doesn’t even need days of training; it should be fully modular, as well as flexible and upgradeable so it can grow with your business. Additionally, you need to look for restaurant software that will run on your computer systems.

If you’re planning to operate with multiple tills you need a good backup system for safety, a system that will replicate your master data file to another machine making sure you don’t loose data should any disaster strikes. It is also important to make sure that the restaurant POS you’re going to use allows multiple hardware configuration, payroll integration and data export to sage or quick-books. Mostly, some business owners will have at one time or another used a computer running on a windows operating system, because many of the professional scalable POS and hospitality software solutions were written specifically [with windows in mind.

A final consideration is the requirement that the software will fast and user-friendly.

Most good restaurants are extremely busy during peak times and need a restaurant POS system that will work quickly and not freeze or crash during constant use. A good old POS software may come expensive, but it can really help you to ensure that your business runs smoothly allowing you to concentrate on other areas of your business.

A priority for any business is support, so you have to make sure you have the option of telephone support or virtual network connection support like yahoo and msn messenger this will be an optional extra with any good POS software provider and worth its weight in gold if your systems go down and you are unable to trade.

Remember that software programmers knows far more than you. This one of the biggest mistakes that many business owners overlook, you need to make sure that to whom ever you purchase your POS has after-hours support and purchasing from a company in the same time zone is a very useful commodity.

With over 20 years experience in the industry of Point of Sale Systems, the author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com, an online information service to help restaurants receive competitive bids for hardware, software or a complete restaurant point of sale system.

Visit them at POS-For-Restaurants.com

Find out about the best restaurant point of sale systems that will help your business grow! Compare and learn everything about online restaurant management softwares.

Using a good restaurant POS system wouldn’t be a problem for restaurant owners, but between the confusion of hardware and software, monthly contracts,programming setup, leasing equipment and peripherals, that simple old cash register sure is a relief.

Keep in mind; that relief can even cause restaurant owners thousands and even more than the cost of a POS system every month. It sure is nice to have that POS system that can easily track staff schedule, kitchen inventory, keeps track of orders and wait times, maintains reservations systems and can even accept orders from your website, all in one convenient central computer system!

Restaurant POS hardware and Point of Sale Software

Your restaurant POS software, whether it’s an Aldelo, Aloha, FuturePOS or Micros, is the program that you run and not the touch-screen monitor, keyboards, mouse, printers and hand held devices. As for expensive POS systems, never say purchase them on the spot. There are some vendors who will sell you their POS software at a very low price, while neglecting to tell you that it’ll only run on their very expensive computers.

Note that a company that really works hard to provide good quality programs does not need to make a business of vending computer components. Or worse, lease computer components at high rates. Before sealing a deal, figure out exactly what each component will be costing. Sure, that computer may only cost a month but after a year, it’s likely paid off at $600 and the whose part is that the client will still continue to pay after another year since it’s a lease, so while technology changes the outdated equipment is still being charged as if it were new.

Online Restaurant Management

Being able to access the system from another computer is a nice feature. Just imaging, lying on the beach in a beautiful beach resort with your laptop right beside you, watching your restaurant via a security camera. With a few keystrokes you can check your labor percentage, you can even send an email to your bar manager to remind him of the big party tonight, and maybe invite some influential people to join.

You might want to do a few check ups to see if your server is still online, check your employees performance for today and how much the sales was last night. This feature is such a relief, so now get back to relaxing.

Programming a Restaurant POS System

Some point of sales systems are designed to be programmed by the end user, which can be intimidating. Check to see if their company has a list of consultants or other help for programming to help you out. Many POS Software companies team up with the restaurant owner making sure that the software can satisfy their business needs.

It would be a great decision to look specifically for companies who are willing to provide these services for free while getting started. Charging for a small fee course after a year later really isn’t out of line but charging for initial training isn’t required for every company.

Finding The Best Point of Sale System for your Restaurant

Always remember, every restaurant or bar has their own needs. A drive through ice cream shop will be needing less options compared to a family style restaurants. A fine dining restaurants will require different features compared to a . Every restaurant has unique needs and requirements. So it would be best to ask away for every information packet. Is there a warranty or guarantee? Would there be a trial period given? Will it be able to work with your current credit card processor, or will you be required to switch? Can sales data be exported to Quickbooks or other accounting software?

Before heading on to your local POS vendor and close a deal, better weigh in first those POS software and hardware options of yours! It can save you hundreds and even thousands of dollars, not to mention the stress and headache of ending up with the wrong type of restaurant POS systems. Listen well to every salesman’s 15 minute offer and review all of the literature carefully. Lastly, consider listening to the perspectives of other restaurant owners before deciding on which point of sale system you’re going to have.

For more information, go to: www.POS-For-Restaurants.com

Now in restaurants, there are many moving parts that is involved. Having a restaurant POS Software can greatly help in managing staff attendance and performance, inventory, accounting and customers’ information, helps any retail business owner improve his business’ performance. How is that? With features that provides powerful tools to help manage employee and customer data, a restaurant POS system increases both efficiency and profits.

Customer Satisfaction Increases Profit

Customer satisfaction is a very important factor for retail business owners, meeting your customers’ expectations can increase customer return, wich will definitely increase your profit. The more customer returns you get, the higher your profit is! So your job, as the owner, is to make sure your employees are properly and accurately giving orders, provide assistance to customers and make an overall good performance all the time. With the use of a POS software, the ones with touch screen technology, decreases ordering time by 50% and increases ordering accuracy.

Because the goal of increasing profit, many retail point of sale vendors have developed systems that when combined can produce excellent results like the POS systems that enables you to integrate your accounting software such as QuickBooks and Peachtree. With a POS software like these, you can rest assured that all your financial data will always be up-to-date, accurate and can even print sales report on any POS terminal just with the touch of a button!

Improving inventory management is really difficult. Manual handling and updating of your inventory can be a lot of hassle, it’s both time consuming and costly. Install a proper POS software that can help accelerate inventory management, you will see and increase in efficiency with its advance management features, you can place any information with the items as well, such as purchase date or date of expiry, you will never have to back to manual system ever again.

When it comes to proper ordering. Placing an order should have the right timing, order too late  and you will run out of an item, while ordering too soon risks an item going bad. Installing automated inventory management enables you to increase the efficiency of your products orders, set a special alert to notify you and your employees when products are running low and needs re-ordering, as well as setting up notifications to alert you on nearing expiration dates. So if your restaurant still doesn’t have a POS software for inventory management installed, now would be the best time.

Good Restaurant POS Solutions Fights Leakage

Having a dependable restaurant POS solution for your business can decrease shrinkage up to 10%. And because every data is being digitally recorded, you can easily view reports, see every sales transaction made by your employees, and check if it’s accurate. By this, can ensure the safety of your profit and also ensure an easier way to investigate profit loss.

The information above is just the beginning of what a restaurant POS systems is and the advantages a good POS software can do for your business. Get advice and do your research online before making your final decision on any POS system since it making the WRONG decision can cost you in the long run. You can also check retail systems verdons online and request for a free POS system quote before buying one from your local supplier. By this, you can get competitive price lists and avoid buying expensive restaurant POS equipment that doesn’t work for your business.

For more information or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry in your area help you go to POS-For-Restaurants.com

Take Control of Your Business

Using the right POS system will provide a new level of control over your operations, increasing efficiency, boosting profits, and helping you fine-tune your business model. The wrong choice of system, however, is like wasting valuable time and money for your business, it can even be the cause of frustration.

In other terms, a POS system is a glorified cash register. The most basic POS system that consists of a computer, a cash drawer, receipt printer, and an input device such as a keyboard or scanner. In addition to being more efficient than cash registers, POS systems creates detailed reports which gives you all the information you will need to learn your weaknesses and make future plans for your business’ success.

A POS system can save you a great amount of money, increase your profits, and lesses the amount of time you spend on each business plans you have in mind.

Saving more money, gain more control over your business, and be more productive; sounds like a pretty neat combination, right? Well here are some of the best ways a modern point of sale (POS) system can help you out.

Reducing shrinkage

A computerized point of sale system can drastically cut down on shrinkage, due to theft, waste and misuse of your employees. And since your employees will know that inventory is being tracked, internal shrinkage will diminish.

Accuracy

Using a POS system, you are assured of selling the correct price on any item in your store or on your menu. Your staff will no longer have to guess the price of an item, and you can change prices with just one tweak in the computer.

Get better margins

With a detailed sales report, you can focus more on the higher-margin items. By moving items within a retail location, or promoting poor-performing foods in a restaurant, you can help boost sales of well performing items.

Knowing your stats

At any point of the day, a POS system can instantly tell you how many of a particular product have you sold today (or last week, or last month), how much money you have in your cash drawer, and how much of that money is profit.

Manage inventory better

Detailed sales reports make it much easier for you to keep the right stock on hand. Track your remaining inventory, spot sales trends, and use historical data to better forecast your needs. Your POS software can be set to alert you when when stocks run low so you can reorder for them. Many store owners who think they know exactly what trends affect them find a couple of surprises once they have this data.

Building a customer list

Gather names and address of your regular customers, you might never know when they’ll come in handy! You can use it for targeted advertising or incentive programs.

Reduce paperwork

The time you spend on doing inventory, sales figures, and other repetitive but important paperworks can be lessen by using a POS system. It can provide you both time and peace of mind.

More efficient transactions

In retail settings, barcode scanners and other POS features make checkout much, much faster. And since POS systems greatly streamline ordering process, orders from the dining room is quick and accurately relayed to the kitchen. In both cases, you’ll be making your customers happier with a faster and more accurate service.

Keep in mind that realizing these benefits requires a commitment to utilizing the POS system capabilities to their fullest. Without proper training and analysis, even the most sophisticated POS system will be nothing more than a regular cash register.

Retail needs vs. Hospitality needs

You have to remember that the POS market is divided into two segments which requires different needs: restaurants, bars, and hotels and other retail operations and hospitality businesses.

Retail

Of the two above, retails are the ones who uses simpler POS. They process transaction all at once and use less variation in the items they sell. Because there are some POS features retailers that specifically want to include the ability to support kits (e.g. 3 for deals), returns and exchanges, and support for digital scales. But if your business sells items in a variety of styles like clothes, then you might need a POS system that supports matrixes. As an example, matrixes ables yout to create one inventory and price entry for a particular sweater, but can still track sales according to size and color of the sweater.

Hospitality

Depending on the type of establishment, restaurants and other hospitality businesses have different requirements from POS systems.

Efficiency is the key focus for casual restaurants. For sub shops and other retail-style restaurants, a POS system can greatly increase accuracy and cut down on time-per-transaction unlike with hastily-scrawled order tabs sent to the kitchen. For quick-service restaurants, POS systems are practically a requirement for living up to their name: a customers’ order is entered on the terminal at the front which sends the order and displays them on a monitor at the kitchen where the order is assembled and delivered to the appropriate customer.

For fine dining restaurants, point of sale requires a bit different. They need to know which waiter is handling which table, and being able to create and store open checks. With better management, comes better gains from improved efficiency. If a restaurant with 20 tables and an average check of can increase turnover by one party per table, that would be an extra 0 on one busy night.

Return of Investment (ROI)

Switching from your old system to a computerized POS system can be difficult. There are several factors that needs to be considered and pitfalls to avoid. However the return on investment and benefits to your business can really make it worth your time and effort.

Need more information or an online resource?

Go to POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.

• Peak volume of customers
  When handling peak customer volume, you need to have a plan to be able to efficiently serve them all.
• Number of employees taking the orders
  For serving tables, I suggest assigning 1 station per 3-5 servers. You might want to have additional stations for handling high volume areas like the bar or cashier station. When switching to a POS system from a cash register many people unintentionally forget that their POS system is not only used to to cash out customers but can also be used for order entry as well.
• The layout of your restaurant
  Assigning a separate station like for your bar tender would be much better, so he could easily serve customers customers without any delay.
• Having proper location where your customers pay for their meals
  If you plan to have customers pay at the front you should have 1 or 2 dedicated cashier stations to fast track transactions. If the servers are going to carry their own banks, we suggest fewer servers per station.

What type of POS computer should I use for my restaurant?

• Desktop: standard desktop computers.
  • Least expensive computer option
  • With a gurantee of 3 years of onsite warranty
  • Takes more space but can be hidden away below a counter
  • Flexible for addition of extra ports
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; if ever technical difficulties accur, it’ll be isolated.
• Small form factor (SFF): originally phrased as shuttle form factor, a smaller type of PC.
  • More stylish than the desktop
  • 3 Year Onsite Warranty Standard for this component
  • Saves more space
  • Fewer options for expandability
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; if ever technical problems accur, it’ll be isolated.
• All-in-one terminals: the combination of touchscreen and computer.
  • Most stylish option with fewer wires and least space required
  • Has 1-2 years warranty (Not onsite)
  • Comes standard with sufficient ports for almost any operation
  • CPU speed is generally slower than the other two options but sufficient for the Point of Sale needs.
  • Combined screen and computer

How many cash is ideal for my retail business?

• Your servers may carry their own cash banks, but it is still advisable that you have a cash drawer to stations where you want to end transactions.

Integrated credit cards?

• You can easily process and track record of every credit card transactions using your POS system in one location..
• Can reduce seconds of transaction time with a high speed internet.
• If you do not have a high speed internet, we suggest using a standalone terminal for processing transactions.

How many printers must a typical restaurant?

• One printer for your kitchen will probably be sufficient for most restaurants; however, if you have different sections in your kitchen handling different dishes you may want a printer for each section.
• As an example, you can print all appetizer orders on one printer and have all your main dish printed on another.
• When choosing for printers to use for your kitchen and bar, use impact (dot-matrix) printers instead of thermal printers. Why? Because tickets that are printed on thermal printers becomes unreadable when exposed to heat, and the loud printing of impact printers can alert your cooks and bartenders of incoming orders.

How many receipt printers?

• It’s a good idea for every station to have their own receipt printer.

Should I have a back office computer?

• A back office computer helps managers to run reports and access POS systems to change, remove or add important data without disturbing servers.
• It is not necessary to have a back office computer unless you have 4 or more stations. However, it’s a great idea that you host your database on a back office computer when you have 4 or more stations so that none of the stations has the additional load of running the database.

More information is available at POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types and sizes throughout the U.S.

1. Scheduling Your Staff. Some restaurant POS packages includes a “staff scheduling” feature. You can expect to increase efficiency and dramatically reduce overall labor costs by controlling time-ins and time-outs, utilizing forecasting tools and control staffing levels. This smooth feature allows accessing staff schedule with ease, as well as shifts and multiple job positions. You can also tie in any number of security functions to multiple job position. In addition, some of the packages allow you to post schedules to a website and even automatically email the schedule out to your staff. Keep your labor costs in check and increase employee performance by efficiently and effectively managing your time & attendance information.

2. Software Upgrade Assurance (SUA). SUA is a software maintenance program that gives you a distinct advantage when buying a POS system. It enables you to prolong the life of your restaurant POS system and help stretch your investment. Customers who are on an SUA plan will always have the most current software version. This basically keeps their POS system new. Every time you receive a software upgrade it is as though they just bought the latest and most current POS system available in the market with the newest, most up to date features your restaurant can greatly benefit from. The most current feature set ensures that you have the best possible ROI by allowing you to have full advantage of what its POS software features offer.

Another very important feature of SUA programs is that no software purchase is required if you upgrade or replace a hardware. When hardware needs to be replaced there’s a drastically lesser cost for upgrading it.

These programs typically works on a yearly small fee to acquire their benefits. Most customers agree that they receive huge benefits that help reap the full return on your POS investment.

3. Proper Tip Handling. Some point of sale software products have tip tracking built into their time in attendance module. Once you set one of your staff as a tipped employee, the POS system will require a tip declaration prior to clock out. Servers and waiters who ring sales will get their total sales tracked. Tips collected through credit card sales are also tracked and shown on the server closeout report. Before signing off, the server/waiter will be shown their total sales, tips collected collected and then asked to declare their cash tips. By this, you will be able to accurately track and manage smoothly all declared tips, charge tips and hours of work for every tipped staff.

4. Frequent Diner & Customer Loyalty Programs. As the business owner you would like your point of sale system to provide accurate information on your customer’s number of visits, frequency of visits, buying habits, entice repeat visits and purchases using reward programs. You are able to do all this while managing the programs and preventing “sweet hearting” by employees. Sweet hearting happens when an employee promises a deal to a customer in order to make a sale.

Some of the restaurant POS packages come standard with a frequent diner or customer loyalty package that eases things within your business. By accurately tracking down your guests and their buying habits, you can prevent retail loss. You establish a database of account numbers using your guests information.. This number can be their phone number or whatever number system you desire to use. However, the most popular and most secure method is through magnetic cards with your business logo on them. These cards can act as a simple reminder of your restaurant to your customers by having your logo in their wallet or purse. The POS software will secure the reward programs you put in place to prevent your server or waiter from giving away food. Typically, rewards are earned customers who frequently visits or purchases on the menu you highlighted. By establishing reward programs takes your employees out of the game and place you in total control of everything.

As you can see, your business can be run more efficiently by using proper restaurant technology. There are many ways, methods you can use, to help you in better management of your business so you will never have to waste more of your valuable time and money.

The author is the Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com — helping business owners use technology to be more efficient and more profitable with its 20 years of restaurant experience.

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On credit card commercials, we can see a line of dancing shoppers merrily swiping their credit cards, from store to store, and glorifyhow convenient it is to use, they do not care to discuss the risk of identify theft at the cash register.

Monica Chauhan, director of embedded solutions for Solidcore (www.solidcore.com), a leading provider of real-time change control software, cites Gartner Group statistics showing that four out of five data breaches occur at POS (point-of-sale) systems.

Lock It Down

These Point of Sale systems are vulnerable to exploitation if not properly locked down. “For decades, embedded devices consisted of specialized hardware running proprietary software, but in recent times, there has been a shift towards standardization, such as Unified Point of Sale (UPoS) in the retail industry.”

“Standardization has enabled devices to become increasingly interconnected and has allowed for the use of off-the-shelf software on commoditized hardware running commercial or open operating systems, such as Windows XP Embedded, WEPOS (Windows Embedded for Point of Service), and Linux,” Chauhan observes.

According to Chauhan, greater system flexibility and quicker development time has created security risks for POS equipment owners.

Some Systems Are Vulnerable

From Robert J. McCullen, chairman and CEO of Trustwave (www.trustwave.com) – a security firm specializing in information security and compliance management solutions, agrees with Chauhan that there are many, but not all, POS systems that are susceptible to attacks.

“A little dial-up swipe machine is a low-risk device,” McCullen says. “POS equipment more prone to vulnerable exploitation are those that are computer-based and/or have Internet access; the risk lies in those two prime factors.”

If a POS system stores credit card track data, exploitation can occur, and swipe terminals can be tampered, according to McCullen.

“Generally, hardware swipe terminals have low exploit risk, rather a higher risk of tampering, and thus the tampering will allow hackers to read the cards, whether through a Bluetooth device used later to get the card data or other efforts to retrieve the information,” McCullen explains.

Chauhan points out other vulnerabilities. She claims that because today’s POS systems are similar to networked PCs, they require constant patching. She included that embedded systems have also become vulnerable to changes that are unauthorized and inappropriate as they are handed off to others in the distribution channel. With these, it often results to malfunctions and can cause the equipment to no longer meet PCI DSS (PCI Data Security Standard) requirements.

The Challenges With PCI DSS

Both Chauhan and McCullen agreed that POS equipment is faced with unique challenges with its PCI DSS compliance.

PCI DSS requirement 5 states that a regularly updated antivirust software must be used, according to Chauhan. Antivirus software can be an overhead expense on a low-footprint POS system, she even notes; inspite of that, the need for an antivirus software can be eliminated with a change control software.

As an example, NEC Infrontia installed and uses a change control software on its POS offerings which prevented unauthorized code from breaking unpatched systems. With this software, it allowed NEC Infrontia to remove the antivirus software that was impacting the performance of their devices, according to Chauhan.

PCI DSS Requirement 6, “Develop and maintain secure systems and applications,” presents unique challenges, Chauhan notes.

It’ll be a very challenging on the part of POS equipment providers to ensure their systems supplies the PCI compliance after shipping them to the dealer network and put into production at the retail location.

According to Chauhan, StoreNext (www.storenext.com), a large supplier of technology and POS systems for independent grocers and small chains, solved PCI DSS Requirement 6 patching challenges by embedding Solidcore change control in its systems.

In addition, the amount of time spent was reduced by StoreNext on monthly test and patch distribution cycles by reducing its patch frequency to quarterly. The PCI auditing requirement can be met through change control software, claimed Chauhan.

Other challenging areas, as McCullen affirmed, includes data encryption and user-based access controls.

Questions?

For more information and advice on this topic you can quickly contact a Restaurant POS professional serving your area.

The author of this article is the Vice President of Customer Relations at www.POS-For-Restaurants.com with over 20 years experience in the restaurant point of sale industry.