A point-of-sale (POS) system is essentially a modern-day cash register. POS systems allow businesses to record and process credit and debit card payments, register cash, and finalize a sale with customers. However, today’s POS systems do so much more than simply execute payments.

For restaurant owners, a POS system can take a lot of the hassle out of running your business. Today’s restaurant point-of-sale software can help with employee scheduling, inventory management, customer engagement, and cost tracking for better cash flow management. Here are five key features to look for when choosing a restaurant POS system.

5 Restaurant POS System Features

POS systems come in many shapes and sizes. With the right setup, you can use your POS system to practically run your entire restaurant. Look for these features when shopping around for the right POS for your establishment.

1. Easy employee scheduling

Tired of trying to schedule shifts for your team?  A POS system can take over for you, managing every staff member’s shift requests and coordinating to efficiently allocate shifts throughout the day, week, or month – using whatever rules and parameters you set. Better yet, employees can clock in and clock out to your POS system, making it easier to reconcile timesheets and manage payroll

Add the Tip Pooling app to your Clover POS to help team members evenly distribute gratuities and be rewarded for their hard work.

2. Inventory management

The important task of managing inventory often falls to the kitchen staff. But, they’ve got enough on their plate — pun definitely intended. The right POS system can help automate inventory management. A back-of-house cloud-based tool such as SimpleOrder gives anyone with access to the POS system a bird’s eye view of kitchen activity, from purchasing to menu pricing to exact inventory counts. This way, the general manager has access to inventory data and can view any shortages. The more transparent inventory is across all channels, the more likely nothing will be overlooked and staff will be alerted.

3. Flexible service

Today, diners are ordering online, over the phone, curbside, and in person. Restaurants that aren’t equipped to process orders that come from different channels will miss out on potential customers. The best POS systems for restaurants are able to integrate delivery, pick-up orders, and in-person dining to never miss a sale. 

In case you missed the big (exciting!) announcement, Grubhub now integrates with Clover POS, offering restaurant owners access to Grubhub’s 33M+ customer pool. By some estimates, restaurants that complete the food delivery POS integration see an increase of 20-25% in profit. Find a POS system that makes it easy to offer online ordering. Take the Grubhub Clover POS integration, for instance; it gives you access to a wider market of hungry customers.

4. Reporting and analytics

Many restaurant owners have seen shifts in their busy periods and lulls due to the pandemic. The lunch rush may no longer be concentrated in the noon – 2 pm time slot, with diners shifting their routine to accommodate working from home. What used to be predictable dips and peaks throughout the day are no longer what many seasoned restaurateurs anticipate.

This is where a POS system is key. With built-in reporting and analytics, POS software helps eliminate any guesswork and enables you to generate instant snapshots of how your business is doing, complete with detailed insights into opportunities and challenges on the horizon. Create daily, weekly, monthly, and annual reports on a smart device or PC to understand when to staff up and when to offer promos. Speaking of promos…

5. Manage your loyalty program

POS systems make it easy for restaurant owners to reward customers. Launch a loyalty program directly through your point of sale software. This can be achieved by creating physical or digital rewards cards to keep your most loyal customers returning, as well as gift cards that customers can share with friends and family.

Look for a loyalty program that can integrate with SMS, email, and postal mail to allow you to send discounts and promotions using whatever forms of communication your customers prefer. Get more advanced by creating sales funnels, reminders, and delivery schedules – all executed automatically within your POS system software.

These features just scratch the surface of what a POS system, like a Clover system, can do for restaurants. Add functionality to your POS software with integrations that can automate floor plans for your restaurant, schedule happy hours for your busy bar, or handle employee payroll for your team. Visit the https://www.clover.com/appmarket to explore all the possibilities. 

Interested in learning more about what a Clover POS system could do for your restaurant? Visit Clover for restaurants to learn more.