POS were just becoming the rage when I left the business some years back. At that time I think they were around 3-4k if I remember correctly.
Are there any less expensive or have they come down in price? How are they priced, per terminal?
You get what you pay for. I use Revention 16k for a two terminal/online ordering system. It’s a bit pricey but, it runs my restaurant for me, best move I made.
are they all basically the same and are they customized? if you have a POS do you still need a seperate CC terminal?
Yes, yes and no.
You will need to decide how much you want to do as far as the setup of the hardware and the menu programming. If you are a hands-on person with some computer skills you can get into a system for under $2000. If you want everything done for you expect quite a bit more.
Let us know what you expect so the people here can give you better direction.
I would most likely need someone to show around the system since I’ve never used one before. I do know that I would prefer a touch screen to keyboard.
There are point of sales systems out that you can just purchase the software and put it onto a computer that you have set up for yourself using what ever you feel is necessary for printers, monitors, cash drawers etc. There are other systems that the company will reguire you to buy all the hardware and software for them. Again the question is what level of service do you expect?
Dont buy diamondtouch 
Basically if you buy a turnkey system from a company like Speedline,diamondtouch,microworks, selbysoft or others, you can expect to pay 10K to 20K depending on how many stations and what whistles and bells you get. Some have financing or leasing programs available. You get a system that is set up. tested, components are gauranteed to work well with each other etc.
The system Daddio is refering to is Point of Success. There may be others that operate the same way. Point of Success sells you the software and whatever add ons you select. You can provide your own hardware or buy it from one of their dealers. You can build your own network and set it up or use one of their installers or use a third party. This gives you more options and saves money. You can save a ton of money on hardware by buying refurbished or used equipment. The tradeoff is that you are required to do more hands on work building the network and layout your menu etc. If you buy your own equipment, you are responsible for making it work together.
Read the POS forum, go to the websites of various providers, get demos etc. It’s a big decision and one you will have to live with for a long time.
are you sure you need one just to get the doors open?
is it something you could review in 6 to 12 months?
I’m just sayin…
There is a system for sale in the classified section right now. For the price it could be a good deal.
http://www.pmq.com/tt/viewtopic.php?p=47355#47355
touch screens are nice, but I understand (from a POS/DB designer) that the staff is quicker w/a mouse…we have some touch screens & some mouse only - no difference - the make-line is touch due 2 convenience…
I have a question. Is there not software you can purchase that will do very much the same thing as a POS…I think and I may be wrong but this is to me one of the most price gauging items there is…It is a great tool with many benefits but again TO ME it seems very over priced for a somewhat simple software design.
Also is there something that just does the resverse address as the phone number comes in. I am amazed at the cost of a POS. They are certianly nice but it is not such a compilcated a program that it should be as pricey as it is.
PREACH ON!
I agree that most of the big players in the POS market are vastly overpriced. A big chunk of the price is the mandatory “training” that they will try to make you purchase. When I looked at Speeline they told me that it was mandatory to pay for all expenses to have a trainer fly to my store and be on site for 5 straights days. Yeah, right.
However, I disagree that a POS is a “simple” software design. In reality, they are quite complex pieces of software - unless you think a POS is just a glorified cash register.
I do not think it is just a glorified cash register at all. I know it is a great tool. However, look at a $200.00 Quick Book Pro software. That is cable of so much when you learn how to use it. The POS systems are not that different. I think it is just what I feel is the down fall of much our economic trouble we are facing today and that is most people want to make a BIG bucks quick instead of earning a dollar…I know this is not the forum for this. However, I think so many have the expectation that they are entitled to earn big dollars without the work or the innovation that justies what they feel they can charge.
that is the realities of business. If you produce a product for a market of a few 1000 versus a product with a market of millions then you will have higher costs to absorb over the expected sales and thus your product will need to have a higher price.
Another example - the cost of an oven versus the cost of a say a car - justify how an oven can cost that much when there’s so little to it compared to a car - the fact is they sell so few ovens versus cars (ok not a great example in todays climate but you catch my drift) the list can go on and one…
Yes some are expensive but pick the options you want, set your budget and find something that ticks as many boxes as you can.
Well first, they are very different. But ultimately, millions of copies of Quickbooks can be sold. You won’t be able to sell quite that many copies of a POS system, meaning the development costs need to be spread over significantly less product.
The $200 for Quickbooks also doensn’t include 5 or 6 computers, touchscreens, printers, networking equipment, cash drawers, support or training. So you’re not exactly comparing apples to apples.
Point of Sucess is $599 without all of the stuff above, certainly competitive and I would even say underpriced.
If POS systems are truly so “simple”, why not learn a little computer programming and just create your own?
They are different but not that much. BUt you answered a question I asked which is there not some software out there that can be used.
Piper you seem a bit touchy…do you sell POS systems ?..I
:roll: Go through my past posts and guess if I sell POS systems. I’m not touchy, you just said something I don’t agree with. POS sytems are NOT simple pieces of software.
I’m not sure why you are comparing a POS to QB Pro. Are you saying that you should be able to just use QB Pro in lieu of a POS system? A POS system is not accounting software, and one doesn’t replace the other.
I can’t figure out why you think QB Pro is so similar to a POS system. QB doesn’t allow me to input customer orders, calculate price, send orders to appropriate kitchen printers, process credit cards, handle delivery functions, maintain a customer database of thousands, produce reports based on those thousands of customers, have caller ID function, handle cash tills, server banks, driver banks, etc., etc.