Point-of-sale, or POS systems have been playing a crucial role in every shop or restaurant we walk into these days. They are originally designed as a means to record transactions and information like order items, staff and customer names, payment methods and so on, using a touch screen with a much more friendly UI, as compared to button style cash registers. Other than providing numerous sales reports which every POS should do, these machines have evolved tremendously in terms of capability and areas they could actually digitalise and connect. A great POS system is now expected to make business owner’s life easier, by optimizing more and more of your operations including front end order taking, kitchen order/inventory management and back office requirements.

Let’s take a look at the 9 must-haves in a F&B POS system you should look out for.

POS is not a cheap investment, selecting a wrong system will make your business lose opportunity to capture all the sales you wish to, which in turn can be higher than the cost of a good POS system. Put aside all the small fancy features that sound interesting but may not be needed, you should evaluate overall reliability based on hardware brands and quality, user feedback on vendors and their track record as in where they are used, and how long others have been using it. 

Less is more. Just like any business operation software app, an intuitive user interface(UI) is important for users. If it shows a very clean layout and less colorful pages, it is more likely to be a good design that protects users from getting an eye sore or vision impairment while looking at the screen for long hours day after day. MegaPOS adopts a simple rule of maximum 3 colors, where the interface is easy to interact and navigate. We design the steps for users to achieve most tasks with minimum number of screen clicks. Look for systems with simple and intuitive UI as this will increase user satisfaction, minimize mistakes made under pressure, and help get your orders moving at a faster speed.

As we become increasingly interconnected by the internet, having a solution that leverages on this to bring you productivity and efficiency is much needed. A cloud based backend system like MegaPOS enables you to manage backend requirements and view reports at your fingertips without the need to wait for each outlet to send you the reports. 

Having adequate features and capabilities to cater to your business growth is the secret to keep your IT investment protected. This will save you the trouble and extra cost should you find yourself expanding while you need your POS to keep up with. As POS is no longer just a transaction recording machine, you should look out for well rounded systems that have already built certain modules you may need in the future. E.g cloud reporting and centralised management, inventory and recipe, membership and promotion and so on. And recently add-ons like a kitchen management system(KDS) and QR-code ordering module are hot areas where more grown up businesses are investing into.

It is totally fine to just buy a most basic POS module to start with, but do not buy one because this is all a vendor has to offer. Using technology to compete is key to success, ask the vendor to explain by example how their solution can suit your business when you grow to multiple outlets, or twice the revenue.

POS systems sit right in the centre of entire operation collecting more than 80% of your business data, they shall have both upstream and downstream data sharing partners such as ERP, accounting, supply chain, third party CRM and BI(business intelligence) tools. We MegaPOS believes in the importance of POS being an open platform for various solutions to integrate. This will allow your business to grow without obstacles due to technological limitations.

Customer support may not be a feature of a POS system, but it is still an important factor to consider when buying a POS system. Picking a trusted POS provider like MegaPOS with reputable customer service standards, gives you a peace of mind to focus on growing your business knowing that when there is a need, help will be a phone call or text message away. 

With an inventory management system in place, stock level of quantifiable items like canned drinks etc, can be easily tracked and restocked once their stock levels are running low. Preventing a loss in potential revenue due to items going out of stock.

A robust customer management module is essential in today’s competitive F&B industry. MegaPOS customer management module helps boost revenue by improving customer retention rates through flexible automated promotions and customer reward points management, which is an often overlooked aspect in the F&B industry.

The benefits of having a wide range of reports covering different aspects of your business is often overlooked. By having a comprehensive & robust reporting system, you are able to pull data to analyse and make data driven decisions. On top of that, a good reporting POS system will be able to help you enhance security as employees know that actions done on POS are trackable.

In conclusion, investing in a reliable, feature rich yet easy to use POS solution is not difficult if you pay attention to the areas above. If you intend to centralize your shop’s operation into one comprehensive system, call MegaPOS at (+65) 6224 5788, or drop us a demo request on our website: http://megapos.com.sg/contact-us/