Credit Card Processing Consulting - Restaurant POS Needs

"What Payment Processing Equipment does a Restaurant require?"

Here are Credit Card Processing Consulting's definitions of a restaurant's equipment and processing needs.
There are several factors involved with a restaurant establishment, more so than probably any other business type.
The size, operating procedures, speed of checkout, customer convenience and of course budget, will determine what type
of hardware, software or any other credit card processing mediums you should consider. Almost any size restaurant should be
using POS computer hardware and software to operate the payment processing, inventory and other functions of operation. The
exceptions to this is if the location has less than 50 seats. Then the use of a cash register and credit card processing terminal will work fine.

RESTAURANTS - Restaurant businesses swiping 80% or more of the credit cards through a magnetic swipe reader, (MSR) are considered qualified transactions and will receive the lowest qualified rates available. Some examples of restaurant types are dine in and some drive through locations such as most fast food restaurants that have customer seating and service at the table or drive through and still have the card in hand for payment processing. However, other restaurant types such as pizza delivery services do not qualify for the lowest payment processing rates if they process food orders over the phone most of the time.

What equipment should I consider?

Size of Store - If you have seating capacity of 50 customers or less then a cash register and credit card processing terminal should be the way to go. If you have 100 seats or more then you should consider thinking about a POS Computer and POS restaurant software that can offer a faster checkout time for your customers. There are financial tools available to help determine what is cost effective for your specific restaurant.

Operation of Store - If you want to keep track of inventory, employee time and wages and other items you may want to consider an POS Restaurant Computer System. It will pay for itself over time. The right point of sale system can let you know when inventory is getting low and it is time to re-order. It can also practically do payroll for you by keeping track of the staff's time and wages. All you have to do at the end of the pay period is run the report from the Point Of Sale Software. The need for a POS computer can be analyzed and determined if it is a good financial decision or not.

If your restaurant is large enough and with a good margin for the menu items then you should also think about wireless payment processing and orders taken at the table with a Wi-Fi payment processing machines or PDA that connects wirelessly to the POS Restaurant Software. For the business owner who prefers an upscale look and feel the wireless options presents itself in a classy atmosphere. This way your customers check out at the table, they do not have to wait for you or them to go to another location to process the payment, it is all completed at the table.

Budget - Budget is always a big factor for the restaurant business. Sometimes there is not as much profit as there is in other businesses so the pay back on equipment is a larger consideration. If the budget is tight then leasing equipment should be considered also. It is totally tax deductible so actually there is not an expense in the long run.

With proper analysis of the items listed above, we can plan a strategy for you to be successful and stay open. A POS computer system will cost a little more than a cash register and terminal. If your budget is very tight then you probably should not be thinking about a POS payment processing system or you can lease the system.