How Many Restaurant POS Terminal Would Be Enough For My Business?

• Peak customer volume
  If you want to efficiently handle huge volume of customers, you need to plan for the number of POS stations based on peak business.
• The number of staff taking orders
  One station per 3-5 servers would be sufficient for a table service environment. You may want to have additional stations for handling high volume areas such as the bar and cashie stations. When switching to a POS system from a cash register many people make the mistake of forgetting that their POS system will not only be used for cashing people out, but will now be used for order entry as well.
• Managing restaurant layout wisely
  A good restaurant layout affects your employees service. So if you have a bar, assigning a separate station for your bar tender would be easier since he can serve customers from there quickly.
• Assigning stations effectively where customers pay for their meals
  Having proper locations where customers can pay for their meals is also important, you don’t want to keep them waiting do you? For paying at the front, you should have one or two dedicated cashier stations faster transactions.

What type of POS computer would be best for my business?

• Desktop PC: the standard desktop type.
  • Least expensive computer option
  • With a gurantee of 3 years of onsite warranty
  • take more span but can easily be positioned so it can’t cause any hassle for your paying customers
  • Has greater flexibility for addition of extra ports
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; so you can easily isolate which ones has technical difficulties.
• Small form factor: smaller than desktops.
  • More stylish than the desktop
  • Has 3 years standard onsite warranty
  • Space-saving
  • Fewer options for expandability
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; in case of technical problems problems are isolated.
• All-in-one terminals: combined touchscreen and computer.
  • Stylish, space-saving terminal with fewer wires required
  • Has 1-2 years warranty (Not onsite)
  • Comes standard with sufficient ports for almost any operation
  • CPU speed is generally slower than the other two options but sufficient for the Point of Sale needs.
  • Combined screen and computer

How many cash will I need?

• You can easily notice how many cash drawers your restaurant will need, unless your servers carry their own cash banks you should have a cash drawer at every station for ending transactions.

Should I consider having integrated debit cards?

• Your POS systems can be used to process and keep records of all credit card transactions and allows you to store them in one convenient location.
• With the advance of high speed internet transactions processing time can reduced to 3-4 seconds per transaction.
• A standalone terminal can be used in place if you do not have high speed internet connection.

How many printers should I have?

• One kitchen printer will probably be sufficient for many restaurants; however, if you have different sections in your kitchen handling different dishes you may want a printer for each section.
• For example, you can have all your appetizers print on one printer and all your entrees print on another.
• For kitchens and bars, it is highly recommended that you use impact (dot-matrix) printers instead of thermal printers. Because their loud printing alerts cooks and bartenders of an incoming order, and since tickets printed on thermal printers becomes unreadable when exposed to heat.

Do I need more that one receipt printer?

• Having a receipt printer at every station would be better than just having one.

Is a back office computer needed?

• A back office computer is good for allowing managers to run reports, access the system to make changes to menu, check inventory levels, or adjust employee time clock times, without disturbing servers and cashiers.
• It’s not quite necessary to have a back office computer for your restaurant, if you only have 2-3 stations.. It is however a good idea to host the database on a back office computer if you do have 4 or more stations so that none of the stations has the additional load of running the database.

More information is available at POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types and sizes throughout the U.S.

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Phone recorder selection should be based on the application, the reasons why you want to record phone calls.

There are many reasons to record calls, other than spying on someone. These include

• verification of a sales transaction
• financial transactions
• health or medical information given to patient
• legal issues
• insurance claims
• interviews
• improve call handling
• improve customers service skills.

Basically any type of conversation that you feel is necessary or required by law, to avoid any misunderstandings at a later date

In the most simplistic form a single line recorder uses an adapter/device to connect to a telephone line and to the USB port on a computer. Once you record the call it is automatically saved to the computer. Because the calls are saved on a computer, you have the ability to share these calls through email .wav or mp3 file format. You can record from portable telephones as long as the recorder is connected to the base unit.

Depending on the product you purchase, the recorder can be configured to record calls by voice activation, or manually select the calls you want to record. If you are using this in your home, and have only one telephone line, you may want to manually select the recording of calls.

Telephone recorders are available in all sizes, from recording a single line to recording hundreds of lines simultaneously. Ports, channels and telephone lines all mean the same thing. Be sure to check the regulations for your State. Each State has certain requirements for legally recording calls as to how parties to the call are notified the call is being recorded.

Now what about recording cell phones?

Because there is no physical connection to the cell phone, a third party service will handle these recordings. You dial the telephone number provided by the service prior to making the call and then dial the number to be recorded.

If you require cell calls to be recorded on the fly, there is another type of service available that will give you a telephone number to use to record all incoming and outgoing calls. You will be charged by the minute when using a service to manage cell phone recordings.

Recording telephone calls is not that difficult. You can find good single line telephone recorders for under $150. Evaluate the specifications and features to ensure you are purchasing the best recorder to meet your needs. For larger office type recording applications, you will want to ensure the telephone recorder is compatible with your telephone system.

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