Need Point of Sale and Credit-card processing mechanism for restaurant business

[alternate]

Hi, everyone. I need a Point-of-Sale and Credit-card-processing software for a small restaurant business.

Is there a way to use my PC to run the restaurant with, preferably with just windows?

[jlreich]

My largest responsibility at work is repairing POS equipment in the field. Registers are nothing more than a standard computer with a bunch of peripherals hooked up to it. Yes they are often legacy computers and often, but not always, proprietary boards, but the only version of windows I haven't seen running them is 3.1. I've seen everything from 95 all the way to vista including all the various light and embedded XP's. Many also run DOS and various distros of Linux. So no worries there.

However you still need the POS software. I would hope there are some open source alternatives out there. That's where I would start looking first.

What kind of store is it? What kind of peripherals do you need? Scan gun, flatbed scanner, receipt printer/check reader, debit/credit reader, touchscreen, customer display, cash drawer? Those are the type of things you need to think about.

Honestly, if this is a small business with one or two registers I have seen ads in PC Mag and the like for registers for around $500 that look as though they would do nicely for a small store.

Some things to think about.

[Paul Komski]

I would hope there are some open source alternatives out there. That's where I would start looking first.
This thread has stimulated me to look around at software solutions because it is something I want to setup for myself. At first glance Obenbravo POS (http://www.openbravo.com/product/pos/) looks very promising and not too technically challenging to setup for a small business.

It seems to integrate will all the common POS hardware and the software is basically free (and open source) and runs on most platforms including Windows. You would pay for both support and training if that is required and I guess that's the way they make their money. The POS package can also be intgegrated into a fuller ERP if that is what is really needed.

Thanks for starting the thread - looks very promising. You would need Java installed and it can run a number of different databases but sets up a default one on first use. The front end is basically brower based.

[alternate]

Thanks, Komski; that's an awesome starting point. It looks like the open source thing you found supports Windows 2k, XP, and Vista.

It's actually for my parents' restaurant business; the equipment they use is indeed quite a bunch of legacy equipment with a computer running Windows 95 and some unfancy, unflexible software that uses a touchscreen monitor; it consists just of these things and three order/receipt printing devices in various locations (bar, kitchen, desk) connected by wire; and there is a debit/credit card reader plus a cash drawer that responds to the computer.



Honestly, if this is a small business with one or two registers I have seen ads in PC Mag and the like for registers for around $500 that look as though they would do nicely for a small store.


Jlreich, could you produce an example somewhere online?

That was so helpful, guys. Thanks!

[jlreich]

This is one (http://www.pcamerica.com/restaurant_pos_systems.html) I see all the time in PC Mag. It always catches my eye because I work on stuff like this. No I do not work for this company nor do I endorse them. I am just showing what I have seen. The company I work for would probably start at $2000 or more for one of our POS systems. We also work on our biggest competitors machines and I am sure they start out at $4000 or $5000. :eek:

It looks like the system designed specifically for restaurants starts at $800. I'm not sure why the difference in price from a regular POS system. My guess is the restaurant system has a touchscreen and the regular POS does not. I can tell you when I replace a broken touchscreen in the systems I work on the customer price for the actual touchscreen itself does run $300 and up. Not the whole monitor, just the actual piece of glass that you touch. Our competitor I mentioned above has a touchscreen that our biggest customer is using a lot these days that the LCD/touchscreen module costs us over $5000 with a customer price of a little less than $9000. :eek: :eek:

[yawningdog]

I used to do this very thing for a living. I worked for a retailer that sold and serviced ASI Restaurant Manager. (http://www.rmpos.com/) It is not free or open source, but it's a pretty small, lightweight, and agile database engine that incorporates credit card software. And as commercial POS software goes, it's pretty cheap. Our other software suite we sold almost never moved because it was so much more expensive.

I do NOT recommend using anything older than windows 2000 pro or with a FAT filesystem. We had a few '98 machines that we still serviced and they were nothing but one headache after another. Very crash prone and bug infested with no support.

[alternate]

Jlreich, I'd really appreciate your feedback on this one since you have a lot of experience with POS machines.

It turns out my parents would like to connect multiple receipt printers to the PC that will be running OpenBravo POS software; the printers are to be placed in appropriate stations in a restaurant in order to send orders the appropriate stations.

Are receipt printers the best way to go here, i.e. they mainly need to send printed orders to the various stations. And how I am able to connect several of them to my PC; do they all have the parallel interface (i.e. the PC has only one parallel connector)?

Thanks!

[jlreich]

Yes you can hook up several printers this way. In fact we have several customers that do this. There are some that have two or three hooked to the same system. Serial ports and powered serial ports are the most common ports used for POS printers and for most other POS peripherals for that matter.

Fortunately many of the newer systems are making much more use of USB, and powered USB (12v, 24v, and even 38v) if they wish to power the peripherals through the system instead of having an extra power brick for the unit.

Personally I think everything should be USB. It would make my life much easier. :p

The problem with serial ports is as I am sure you noticed is that most common systems only have two. Many of the big time POS systems usually have four and optionally up to eight. But at this point you are getting away from the cheap easy systems and moving into more expensive proprietary POS systems. ;)

Probably the easiest and best way is to have the remote printers on the network. But again you are starting to get away from an easy one or two register mom and pop to more complicated. I am sure it is fairly easy to do in software but that is not something I can really advise you on.

You may want to call the manufacturer of what ever system you are looking at and ask them about your specific needs. They would be able to tell you how easy it would be and more importantly how much more it is going to cost.

[alternate]

OK, thanks, jlreich!

But curiously receipt printers, if you do a google search, cost around $200 each without an apparent reason. Why do they cost so much for so little?

[mjc]

Supply and demand...

They aren't as dirt common as a regular printer, so the suppliers can keep tighter controls on how many there are...

[jlreich]

Besides the point MJC made I would say because they are very versatile. There are a lot of setup options including setting baud rate and emulating older models to ensure compatibility with existing equipment, among many other options. This is all done in the firmware and has nothing to do with software on the system.

Actually $200 is rather cheap. Many of the printers I work on have a customer price of $800-$1300+. These typically have the ability to read and write to checks, and many can scan the check to send an image of it out for immediate processing and then print an image of the check on the receipt so there is no need for the store to keep the actual check and it is handed back to the customer.

[tokmik]

I'm starting up a small business; I will be making sales over the phone of a single product. And, I need a very basic point of sale system. Essentially I need the program to do a few things. Obviously, if there is a free program that does this, it would be great, but otherwise I'm willing to consider any suggestions.


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[jlreich]

Sounds like all you need is a card reader that you can manually input the card number and process the card. Which you will get with most merchant accounts. You can make up simple invoices in any office program.

[jdizon]

I'm starting up a small business; I will be making sales over the phone of a single product. And, I need a very basic point of sale system. Essentially I need the program to do a few things. Obviously, if there is a free program that does this, it would be great, but otherwise I'm willing to consider any suggestions.



merchantaccountsllc[.]com

[atc_traffic856]

I read through the excellent information on the POS thread.
I have a similar situation for the upgrading our POS operation. We have several areas that require communication between the POS stations in approximately of 50 to 100 meters of distance of the several identities.
Hopefully we can upgrade to USB support for the Registers. My question is running via through Wireless communication and using one area (Register, Receipt printer) as the main sever. We would like a communication between any one POS area? I am a novice at this so again I am just beginning to plan the most economical and the relatively medium cost of the POS operation that I am trying to convince the Higher Food Chain people that would pass the idea for it.
thank you

[Credit Card Pro]

Hi! There are a lot of things you can do. Just like what I have been doing I use a credit card processing facility for my business and I am not having problems with it. Things are going to be easier because almost everything is online now.

[shanebishop]

I suggest buying hxxp://www.retailexpresscom.au/pos/pointofsalesystemsasp if you want all those features in an easy-to-use package. I wouldn't trust open source POS software because they're not as secure.