Help, looking for a POS system for small independant restaurant. Looking to spend less than $4000 (is that possible) for a make line dummy terminal with maybe 2 terminals to take orders on. Daughter is in a larger franchise org and spent $12,000 on hers. Not wanting to spend that much. WE will have pizzas and subs and delivery. No eat in (yet). Any indies out there with a suggestion. Seen restaurant pro express software, is that any good?
Hi,
I am going to use Point Of Success POS software, and it is for sure cheap. I got my hardware from Dell, and they now are trying to really stock lots of POS hardware so that really helps. Dell even sells a restaurant POS software that looks ok, I think it is made by PC America. I think you could easily set up a system for four thousand. I am not open yet but I have started to program my menu into it, and so far so good. I wish you the best of luck in your venture.
Take Care,
David
I have used POS PIZZA! I have it at two different stores. It is very very affordable and customizable!! I put in 3 computers, software and hardware for under 3000.00
Let me know if you need anyhelp. I love the program.
Ryan
I am using Point of Success and am very happy with it. The nice thing about this is you can buy your own hardware.
I have been using Restaurant Pro Express since March 06. It’s not perfect but it definitlele does the job. Very easy to setup, learn and train. I bought 3 stations from them for about $5,000.
I am a fan of POSPizza as well. You can literally start out with very little initial investment and be up and running. You can pick up a computer at Costco for about $500, or spend a bit more on a touch panel computer http://www.touchwindow.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TouchWindow&Product_Code=E08919-000 like $1,249.20 for the one linked above. The software costs $375, so you could be up and running with a single order station for $1600 or so. Another station would cost you about $3,200 using all new equipment.
The biggest difference with POSPizza and the big guys is that you need to do all of the menu data entry yourself. With the sample data included in the program, it is not that much work though.
I bought used equipment and installed my first POSPizza for less than $500, and made my money back on my first marketing direct mail, and the system has paid for itself many times over. They also have a free 60 day trial, so you can get a copy for yourself and try it out for a few months. It will run on just about any windows machine, I had it running on a 400mhz win2k system for 2 years.
Dell also has elo touch monitors with mag stripe readers for about $650, add that to the $500 computer from costco that Chris’ pizza was talking about and you are at about $1,150. About a $100 savings from the totally integrated computer/touchscreen, and I think it is a much safer way to go. If your monitor goes down on the integrated unit you are out of business on that whole terminal. On the separate system you can just replace it with a crt or flat panel monitor, use your mouse, and you are back in business while you fix or replace your touch panel. Same thing if the computer goes down. The all in one unit does make one slick install though, but you can always put your computer under the counter as well. Just my two cents. Good luck!
David McGuire
Does POS Pizza have makeline terminals, so pizza makers can see what they are making. And if you bought more than one station, are they all independant? If station 1 sells $300 and station two sells $1500, does the computer know you actually sold $1800. My pos lets me know food cost, labor, sales, as well as makeline terminals, routing, etc, allows for mailings, etc. I’m trying to get my parents into a less expensive system, but I don’t know what is out there. does this basically do the same thing without all the bells and whistles?
POSPizza runs on a single computer, and you can hook up as many terminals as you need over a router or switching hub. There is also a make line monitor (up to 10 of them if you need it.) I run the main program on one computer and have the make line monitor, another order terminal, and a driver station all connected by LAN. I used to run my make line monitor on a 100mhz lap top that I purchased used for $20.
Total sales are available in real time under the daily sales report. Basically you buy the hardware (and Magoo’s comment on the seperate display and CPU is good advice as well), and the software license is $375, and another $150 for each additional order-taking terminal. Driver stations and make line monitors are free. If you have a sub line, pizza line, and spagetti(or anything), you can route orders to each respective make line monitor. I had one set up at the bar for a while. You can also attach printers instead of monitors, so orders would print out on the make line on tickets.
The only real thing that is lacking from POSPizza is the inventory functionality. If you aren’t taking daily or weekly inventories that really isn’t necessary anyway. I know many pizza operators out there who don’t take advantage of the features their POS has.
Marketing is also easy to do. You can print labels from your database for new and lazy customers, or export the entire customer database and do a mail-marge with MS word. It is very flexible.
The only real challenge is to get the initial menu fully entered. That did take quite a few hours, but once in it is easy to keep updated when you intorduce new products. You will have the same process with other companies though, and if you need something changed, it is much easier to just do it yourself (because it is easy you know how) than to have to call some support line and get walked through it.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions. I got POSPizza up and running for $50 using old computers. My first printer was $2 from the junk section of the used computer shop, and worked for 2 years after I pulled a pen out of it. I really don’t recommend going that route, but it should give you an example of how little you can spend to be up and running. I did upgrade all of my hardware over time, but my marketing direct mails paid for everything many times over.
Even if you install and don’t like the system, it is very easy to toss out compared to a $20,000 system you are still making payments on. You should download the software and try it out. It is free for 60 days. That should be more than enough time to enter your data and try it live for a few weeks on a few cheap used computers.
Here is an ebay del with a $30 buy it now price running win2k:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Optiplex-GX110-800Mhz-256mb-RAM-10gb-HD-Win2K_W0QQitemZ130029066434QQihZ003QQcategoryZ140070QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
You aren’t doing video editing so an 800mhz machine will run the program perfectly.
-Chris