How Many Restaurant POS Stations Will I Be Needing?
- Peak customer volume
You must plan the number of stations based on peak business. If you don’t you won’t be able to sufficiently handle the flow of customers during these periods. - The number of staff taking orders
One station per 3-5 servers would be sufficient in a table service environment. You might want to add extra stations for handling high volume areas like the bar or cashier station. When switching to a POS system from a cash register many people tend to forget that their POS system will not only be used for cashing people out, but will now be used for order entry as well. - The layout of your restaurant
If you have a bar you can bet the bartender will need his or her own station. Other stations should be located where servers can easily get at them. - How and where you plan to have customers pay for their meals
Having proper locations where customers can pay for their meals is also important, you don’t want to keep them waiting do you? For paying at the front, you should have one or two dedicated cashier stations faster transactions.
What type of POS computer should I use for my business?
- Desktop PC: standard desktop computers.
- Least expensive computer option
- With a gurantee of 3 years of onsite warranty
- Takes more space but can be hidden away underneath a counter
- Flexible enough for adding extra ports
- Latest CPU speeds and memory
- Screen and computer are separate; in case of technical difficulties problems are isolated.
- Small form factor (SFF): smaller than desktops.
- More stylish than the desktop
- 3 Year Onsite Warranty Standard for this component
- More Space Saving
- Fewer options for expandability
- Latest CPU speeds and memory
- Screen and computer are separate; so you can easily isolate which ones has technical difficulties.
- All-in-ones: combined computer with touchscreen technology.
- 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 drawers?
- This is probably fairly self-evident, but unless your servers carry their own cash bank you should have a cash drawer at every station you want to use to end transactions.
Integrated credit cards?
- A restaurant POS system can be used to safely record all credit card transactions in one convenient location.
- You can reduce 3-4 seconds per transaction using with the advance of 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 many restaurants; however, if you have different sections in your kitchen which handle different dishes you may want a printer for each section.
- As an example, you can have all your starters print on one printer and all your main dish printed on another.
- We recommend dot-matrixprinters over thermal printers for kitchens and bars because their loud printing alerts cooks and bartenders that an order is coming through and because tickets printed on thermal paper become unreadable when exposed to heat.
Do I need more that one receipt printer?
- Since you’re going to have more than one station, you would likely need more than just one receipt printer.
Do I need 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 use a back office computer to host your database if 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.
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