Cash Register vs. Point of Sale (POS) System

What is POS?

POS stands for Point Of Sale. This is a system that is used throughout the restaurant, retail and Entertainment Ticketing industry. This computerized system allows business owners to track sales, cash flow, Inventory and can help simplify your bookkeeping effectively and enormously. Sales per Till, Salesclerk wise sales, Printing the Kitchen Order tickets to Kitchen directly or Bar can be done effectively and Make things easier and faster means.

Lets Discuss POS's Pros and Cons of Restaurant Industry to begin with.

Why it’s good for a restaurant?

The high volume of cash and credit cards that pass through a restaurant each day make a POS system a necessary. Not only does a POS system track every penny of your sales, many POS programs also takes credit card and work with Credit Card processors. This makes swiping credit cards more secure for both the customer and the business. Servers are accountable for all their sales, and it is impossible to alter checks in the computer unless you have the Administrative password. This helps cut down on employee theft.

What are all the Benefits?

One benefit of a POS system is that it simplifies communications between the kitchen and the Sales Clerk or Waiters. Orders go through the computer, directly to the kitchen printer or Bar Printers. Another benefit of a restaurant POS programs is that it can track everything from food usage, to the most popular menu items. Because the POS system acts as a time clock, it can also help prepare payroll. This can save you a lot of money in your bookkeeping department. Along with the daily operations of running a restaurant, a POS system can organize profit and loss statement and sales tax.

What are all the Cons of POS?

The most obvious drawback to any POS system is that it is a computer, and subject to all the same technological whims. If it happens to crash and you don’t have a back up, then you risk losing all your data, not just sales, but profit and loss statements and payroll statements. Important stuff that the IRS may want to examine some day. So, always have a backup. So Every Piece of Data need to be maintained in a planned and organised manner for later examination by you or by Income Tax department.

A good POS company can help you out in right planning and backup schedules to manage the data in a secured way.

What is the ROI (Return on Investments)?


Return on Investments are High because It saves :


1. Lots of Waiter or Sales Clerks in managing the KOT (Kitchen Order Ticket)

2. Planned Chef Work is very much possible because immediate printing of orders to the Kitchen or Bar.

3. Tracking sales and analyzing sales to plan the happy hours to boost sales based on hourly sales done.

4. Payments are Tracked properly and End of the Day report will help to analyze more accurately the sales and returns.

5. No need to remember Code number for all products since it does show all products based on categories or directly.

6. It makes life simpler for a Restaurant Owners

Where to find them?

There are many POS distributors. Here is just a partial list of those that carry restaurant-specific POS systems:

ProPOS.net - Very User Friendly POS for Restaurant / Bar / Fast Bar - with Touch Screen

Dineware POS - Restaurant POS

Aldelo For Restaurants Pro - POS Solution for Table Service & Quick Service Restaurants

Finally: Time is Money ! For sure You save alot of Money at the end of it!!!