Start with how you actually serve
Before comparing feature lists, write down how an order moves through your restaurant. A counter-service café takes payment first and needs speed above all. A full-service dining room opens a tab, fires courses, moves guests between tables and splits the bill at the end. A bar runs tabs for hours and pre-authorizes cards. A food truck needs everything to work on a phone or tablet with patchy signal.
Each of those flows stresses a POS differently. If you buy a system built for retail and bolt on restaurant features, you will feel it on your first Friday night: modifiers that take three taps too many, no way to hold an order for the kitchen, or a split-bill screen that cannot divide a shared appetizer. Pick the two or three moments in your service where mistakes cost you money, and judge every system against those moments first.
Also note who uses the system. Servers, bartenders, kitchen staff, the manager closing out the drawer and the owner reading reports at midnight all need different screens. A good restaurant POS gives each role the view and permissions it needs and nothing more.
Front-of-house features that matter
Ordering speed comes from good menu design inside the POS: categories laid out the way your menu reads, nested modifier groups (size, then milk, then extra shot) with upcharges priced automatically, and combos that bundle items without manual discounts. Ask to build one of your most complicated menu items during the demo and count the taps it takes to ring it in.
For table service, look for a drag-and-drop floor plan that shows live table status, the ability to transfer and merge tables, course firing, and split bills by seat, by item, evenly or by a custom amount. For quick service, look for order numbers, hold and resume, and a clear take-away, dine-in and delivery mode on each order.
Guest-facing options are now expected: QR self-ordering at the table, an online ordering page, and some way to manage delivery-platform menus so prices and availability do not drift between channels.
- Nested modifiers with automatic upcharges
- Split bills: even, by percentage, by item, custom
- Mixed tender (part card, part cash, part gift card)
- Tips on terminal and on receipt, with tip reporting
- Floor plan with live table status
- Offline mode that keeps selling when the internet drops
Back-of-house: the kitchen and the stockroom
Orders need to reach the kitchen correctly and in the right order. You have two choices: kitchen order tickets printed on a kitchen printer, or a kitchen display system (KDS) that shows tickets on a screen and lets cooks bump them when done. Many kitchens start with printers and add a KDS on the busiest station. Either way, check that items route to the right station (bar drinks to the bar, grill items to the grill).
Inventory is where a POS starts paying for itself. A system with recipes and ingredient-level costing can deduct ingredients as dishes sell, warn you when stock runs low, and show the theoretical food cost of each plate. That turns the POS from a cash register into a tool for protecting margin.
Ask whether the system handles purchase orders and suppliers, and whether counts can be imported and exported to a spreadsheet. You will want both when you do your first full stock count.
Payments: read the processing terms carefully
Card processing is usually your largest POS-related cost, often larger than the software subscription. Some POS companies require you to use their own processor; others let you pick from several. Being able to choose gives you leverage on rates and lets you keep your POS if you switch processors later.
Look at the effective rate (total fees divided by total card volume), not just the headline percentage. Ask about monthly minimums, statement fees, chargeback fees, terminal rental and early termination fees. Card data should be captured by a certified payment terminal so it never touches your POS software directly, which reduces your PCI compliance burden.
SeroPOS, for example, works with several card-present processors including Global Payments (with the Verifone T650p Android terminal) and Moneris, plus Stripe and PayPal for online and QR orders, so you are not tied to a single processor.
Hardware and devices
Check which devices the POS runs on. Some systems only run on iPads, others only on proprietary terminals. A system that runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and Mac lets you reuse hardware you own and replace a broken tablet the same day from any electronics store.
Standard peripherals keep costs down: ESC/POS thermal receipt printers from Epson or Star, USB or network barcode scanners, printer-driven cash drawers and off-the-shelf screens for a kitchen display. Proprietary hardware is not automatically bad, but it makes you dependent on one vendor for replacements and repairs.
Our POS hardware buying guide goes into each device in more detail, including network setup and what to budget.
Reporting, accounting and payroll
End-of-day reports should reconcile without a spreadsheet: sales by category and item, payment types, tips, discounts, voids, refunds and the cash drawer (a Z-report or shift report). Owners also want trend reports, staff performance and a profit view.
Then ask how sales get into your books. At minimum the POS should sync to QuickBooks Online or Xero. Better still is a POS that shares a ledger with your accounting, so daily sales, tax collected, card fees and tips post automatically. SeroPOS syncs with QuickBooks Online and Xero on its Pro plan and also connects to SeroBooks, the accounting product from the same company.
Think about payroll too. If your POS tracks staff hours and tips, getting that data into payroll without retyping saves hours every pay period.
Total cost and how to run a real trial
Add up the full cost over two or three years: software subscription, extra terminals or locations, add-on modules, hardware, processing, onboarding or installation fees, and the contract length. A low monthly price with a three-year processing contract and a large early termination fee can cost more than a higher price with no contract. SeroPOS, for reference, publishes its prices: Standard at $29.99 USD a month and Pro at $49.99 USD a month, with a 14-day free trial, no credit card and no contract.
Use the trial on real work. Load your actual menu, set up your printers, and have your fastest and least technical staff member each ring in a busy-hour sequence. Pull the internet cable and see what happens. Close out a shift and read the reports. A demo shows you what a system can do; a trial shows you what it is like to use.
- Can I export my data (menu, customers, sales) if I leave?
- What happens to orders and payments when the internet drops?
- Which processors can I use, and what are the termination terms?
- Is support available during evening and weekend service?
- What does adding a second location or terminal cost?
- Which accounting systems does it sync with, and what posts?