Building POS system using Point of Success

Pizza Shop Talk POS, Software, and Technology Discussion
1

I have almost everything figured out, except the hardware.

I believe I would like to have 3 terminals total, 2 for the counter and one near the phone station for delivery orders. I’ve gone to authorized Point of Success dealers and see what sort of hardware they bundle with their packages. I don’t want to call them with questions when I have no plan to purchase anything they will be trying to sell me. So here I am.

All that being said, I would like to know from anyone out there that has a similar setup and what sort of hardware they ended up needing. I would like to use the Caller ID system so when we get a call, we have the information ready to go. However, I do not want phone calls to take place at the counter where the two terminals are, which is why I would like a display near the phone station.

So the hardware would be 3 touchscreens, a computer, two receipt printers and a kitchen printer (I suppose 3 receipt printers would work, does the kitchen printer need to be any different than the receipt printers on the counter?) to send back orders. And hopefully when online ordering is up and running, online orders (I assume) will print out on the kitchen printer as well. 2 cash drawers, and of course the software. Am I missing anything? Will this setup work? Thanks.

2

kitchen printer should be impact, not thermal. receipt printers could be impact, , but thermal is quieter and faster.

3

Why impact for the kitchen? Just so it is heard? Thanks for your reply… those are the little things I would have overlooked if I had just started buying equipment. Also if anyone has any knowledge of the caller id system and how it works… is it possible to have it set up for just one screen or when a call comes in do they all display?

4

Thermal printers, by definition and design, use heat to activate the paper. Put a thermal ticket on a pan with a hot pizza, or under a heat lamp, or in a delivery bag…you’ll get a black ticket.

And, noisier! :mrgreen:

5

ah, of course. Everything is handwritten now, so again, not a detail I thought about. Thank you!

6

You’ll need one computer for each order entry station because each touch screen needs to connect to a computer. Choose printers that are supported by Point of Success (See system requirements on the web site) and they’ll work right out of the box.

Please let me know of I can help further!

7

Thanks Jeff. I was planning on using the system requirements page as a shopping list and staying away from anything not listed.

I assume I would need a copy of Premium with 2 extra copies for a total of 3 (which Im costing at 999.00)?

I also assume I will need only one copy of Online Ordering, Inventory, Remote, and Caller ID? Im hoping, anyway.

Point of Success was at the Northwest Foodservice Show in Seattle 2 years ago. You were probably partnered with a dealer as they had hardware there. Do you know of any of your authorized dealers being at the show this year or in Vegas next month? I don’t recognize any names in the vendor list but I thought I would ask anyway. Thanks.

8

I assume I would need a copy of Premium with 2 extra copies for a total of 3 (which Im costing at 999.00)?

Yes.

Point of Success was at the Northwest Foodservice Show in Seattle 2 years ago. You were probably partnered with a dealer as they had hardware there. Do you know of any of your authorized dealers being at the show this year or in Vegas next month?

Yes that show was a dealer exhibit. We are not exhibiting at Pizza Expo in March.

I waited to contribute to this thread because you asked other users for their experiences - I hope they continue to post!

9

Thanks Jeff. Over the course of the next few years I’m sure this thread will get some response, but as for my immediate need I figured it would be sparse with feedback. If I have anymore software related questions I will just use the website. As for hardware I believe I have a pretty good handle on what I now need.

10

If I were setting up a system like you are describing, this would be my list:
[list]3 PCs
3 Touch Screen Monitors
3 Thermal Printers
1 Impact printer
3 UPS units
2 Cash Drawers
1 8 Port Router
1 Caller ID Interface[/list]

The reason I suggest 3 thermal printers is to avoid having the delivery drivers use one of the counter stations as a dispatch terminal. If you are okay with them using the counter station the only 2 thermal printers.

11

I don’t understand what the kitchen printer is for? Why would you want slips of paper floating around when you could just have a computer screen with the orders on it? Also, where does your manager do computer work? On one of the order stations?

12

The majority of our orders are call-ins (delco)… from the kitchen to the holding warmer I’m not quite sure how I would run it without little slips of paper to compile orders awaiting pickup. Right now it’s a lot better system than what we have, were sometimes the slip (which we physically take from the counter to the kitchen) misses the kitchen and something doesn’t get thrown in. Of course the purpose of this thread is to nail down the details so if there is a better way of doing this without a printer or tickets, I’m all ears.

The manager does the paperwork on the back office computer. It’s just a spreadsheet with daily sales, labor percentage, drop log, etc… we have another spreadsheet that breaks down the sales by item. Currently we use Sharp A420 registers and rather tediously transfer the data from the zreports to the spreadsheets. With the system in place, I would think that we could still export reports to the back computer via network or thumbdrive… generating our own reports and skipping the tedium and inaccuracies of doing it ourselves. Again, I’ve never used a POS system so these are just assumptions… but they seem like pretty safe ones.

13

I went the way of Walmart refurbed dell Win-7 Pro desktops (with the included Win-7 pro disks) for less than $200.00 each, HP 21.5" touchscreens $229.00 at Newegg, 2 impact, 2-color printers, one for kitchen tickets, and the other for CC receipts, And a 2-color thermal for register receipts, all printers made by Star Micronics. Not happy with the retailer, so I will not send them any biz, but ecstatic with the hardware.

Point of Success 3.03 premium, time clock module, Caller-ID too. Happy with everything, especially the reports it generates, next addition is central point remote for the books.
I also added a laser UPC scanner, and an integrated adding a scale for our bulk items charged by weight (jerky, bacons, & such)

Before adding my 2nd terminal, I was under $1,200.00 in total costs. So when I see $10K + for a POS system that does comparable as mine does, I know I did it right.

14

also, grease will erase a thermal ticket!

15

With a good POS system the manager works on a machine that is part of the POS. In fact, it is usually the server. All the reports are right there. No more exporting anything. All those spreadsheets you are talking about are history. A couple of mouse clicks and your sales history, labor reports etc. No more creating reports in excel.

Most operators use a POS that generates a label for each box and puts the order on the computer screen at the makeline for the kitchen to work from. Driver prints a run slip when they check out the order and the order is assigned to their till at that same time. No more paper going from the order station to the kitchen! With a good system, the POS will also clear the credit card transaction and print the CC receipt. For deliveries it will print with the run slip when the driver checks it out.

Other than the labels for the boxes, nothing is on paper until the customer comes in to pay or the driver is ready to leave with the order. Similarly, nothing is on paper or “exported” or on a thumbdrive or is manually entered to create common reports. After 6 months you will wonder how you ever did all that stuff!

16

“when I see $10K + for a POS system that does comparable as mine does”

If you don’t need the features of a high system I can see where you are coming from… but they really are not comparable systems.

17

The labeling sounds great, is that something Point of Success does? I’m assuming the labels are put on after the pizzas come out of the oven… I notice PJ uses this system.
I suppose I would make one of the stations up front the workstation than for my reports. No sense having the computer in the back be any part of the process except for my social media/website updates. Can’t wait to say to myself, ‘I can’t believe how I used to do it’… I’m getting closer. After I get back from Expo I will start the ball rolling.

18

Yes, Point of Success does box labeling. I don’t use it, but it supports it.

I’m very, very happy with Point of Success. It has every feature I can think of that I’d possibly need, the report writer being included is extremely valuable, the support is great… the price is obviously phenomenal.

I always read that you have to be tech savvy to use Point of Success but I don’t believe that’s the case. If you’re not tech savvy, have a local company put together your network, put together your menu and let it run. Get a service contract from Point of Success and they’ll help you fix any issues you have (which I would like to point out have been ZERO for me in 5 years of running the software.)

If you are tech savvy, however, the openness of Point of Success can be a wonderland. From the basics of report writing to accessing the back end via ODBC - the possibilities are endless. I’m pretty sure I’m now running the most customized installation of Point of Success anywhere; it’s mind boggling what can be done with it.

However - and this could be a big however - I have not launched online ordering because I found Big Holler to be one of the worst companies I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. I explained to them how I needed things set up, they told me to change my system (my menu structure). Changing my menu structure was not an option as I would have also had to completely re-do my inventory system, and it also would have made report comparisons from previous years impossible.

When I logged onto the Big Holler online portal I figured out how to do exactly what I wanted to do in about 10 minutes. It wasn’t that it was impossible, it was that THEY didn’t want to set it up that way. I wasn’t about to do all of the work myself after paying them a $150 “setup fee”. Stacy was one of the rudest people I’ve ever dealt with, period, let alone as a customer.

She also told me that they had never encountered a menu set up like mine. After doing some searching on PMQ and with other operators, I found that to not be the case. I found posts going back 5 years that mentioned the exact same problem, and they were also rebuffed by Big Holler. We all have the same problem because most of us set up our menu the way POS recommends - which is the best way to do it I might add.

I know you’re checked in on this thread Jeff, so I’d like to say I would be thrilled if you guys decided to release the XML schema for the ordering engine so we could build our own online ordering sites. It’s easy to get anyway, I suppose, but I wouldn’t act on something like that if it isn’t “official”. I assume the schema belongs to Big Holler though, so I don’t even know if that’s possible.

19

Online ordering is important in the market and is only going to get bigger. In my view anyone looking at a new POS should include this key area in the decision making process. We are at 15-20% of orders for online and I know the nationals in some markets are approaching 50% or higher. You simply can not expect to ignore this area of our business if you are in delivery.

There are POS systems that are fully integrated. i.e. no 3rd party supplier. That is the direction I would suggest to new operators.

Regarding labels, at most stores the labels go on when the order is taken so the box is waiting at the cut table when the pie comes out.

20

So… how exactly is your pricing setup that made it so difficult to use with their online ordering system? One of the main reasons I am doing this is for online order, if that is going to be problematic than that sort of gives me pause.