LA Point of Sale

The basic POS systems you may see on a typical retail establishment consists of a cash register (with or without a built in cash drawer), monitor, receipt printers, and an input device. It can also be a touch screen monitors, programmable keyboards, or scanners and handheld devices for inputting data into the POS system.

Touch Screens: With its flexible user interfaces and programming, many retail business owners prefer to use touch screens. With this type of restaurant hardware, an employee can easily set orders and cancel an order within a second. It can also reduce mistypes and fasten ordering. Touch screens also uses less electricity and much easier to position on the counter table, but they are more prone to breakdowns.

Handheld devices: Restaurant POS equipment like PDAs, which are commonly wireless devices that transmits data back to its base station and into the POS system. You can also use the newer version, which is the write-on handhelds that allows you to write information such as the orders and directly sends the oder to the kitchen! This type of device perfectly fit when up-selling customers of desserts or drinks. Your employee can either roam their tables or take orders from customers waiting in line.

POS keyboards: You’ll find that most grocery and convenient stores prefer to use this type of POS hardware because it allows them to program individual keys for specific item codes and prices. The standard POS keyboard is a  101-key, like what you will find with any computer. Other have built-in magnetic stripe readers for processing credit cards, others are small and flat, like what we usually see in fast food outlets.

Scanners: This restaurant hardware reads bar codes and converts it before inputting it’s information to a POS system computer. It speeds up sales transactions and accurately inputs a customer’s product or service details that is being purchased. Scanners connects through Y-connectors called wedges that make them function as an extension of the keyboard.

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Volume of customers: For diffent types of volume of customers, using a scanner could be very helpful. If the line has several customers, your staff can easily use a CCD scanner or entry-level laser scanner. If the line is loaded with customers, then an  autosensing laser scanners would be better. This type of scanner  turns on when an item is placed in front of it, scans its code, and then turn off again. But if the counter line is overflowing with customers, you could sure use the help of an omnidirectional scanner, using its 15 or 20 lasers simultaneously, it scans a bar code from any angle!

Additional Restaurant hardware to consider

Cash drawers: Where you store cash, credit card slips, gift certificates, and other imporatant things. When looking to buy for a POS cash register, look for sturdy construction of at least 18-gauge steel. And since the usable life of a cash drawer is measured, make sure you can replace rollers, bearings, and other parts, because most cash drawers opens when a signal is released from the receipt printer.

POS printers: An addition to your restaurant POS system is a printer, every retail business needs one to complete a sales transaction. A POS printer is needed for printing a receipt and creating credit card slips. There are two types of POS printers, the dot matrix printer and the thermal printer. The dot matrix printer uses ribbons and regular paper to print. On the other hand, Thermal printers are slighly expensive than the dot matrix printers because they are more realiable, they have less moving parts, faster and quieter when printing.

Customer displays: A customer display or pole display lets your customers view the price of the item they’re about to purchase, and can sometimes be used to support advertising. Just make sure that your customer display has the right height and width to perfectly fit in to your counter table, as well as it’s compatibility with your POS software.

Check readers: Advisable for restaurants, fast food chains, hotels, casinos, and convenient stores. The check reader prevents fraud by verifying essential account information. By this, you are assure that every check in your cash drawer is authentic.

Magnetic stripe readers: A simple piece of restaurant hardware that is used to read credit cards. For added convenience, look for POS keyboards and touch screens that has a built-in magnetic strip reader, so you don’t have to buy a separate one.

Fingerprint ID readers: Mostly this type of hardware is used for employee login. But it is very helpful to limit which staff can access a POS terminal and prevent other staff from logging in inplace of somebody.

Always rememeber when purchasing a restaurant POS system, hardawre or software, you have to make sure that you review their details first. No matter how expensive or cheap a POS equipment is, consider the environment where you’re going to use it. Regular cleaning keeps your keyboards and touch screens in top shape, vacuuming dust and lubing your receipt printer can extend its life and maintaining an over all clean workstation can help protect your POS terminal from dust and spills. You can always request for a FREE POS system quote online where local suppliers will offer you competitive price lists of any restaurant hardware and software you need based on the the information you give them. So you would never have to waste money buying the wrong POS systems.