Restaurant POS

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Restaurant POS refers to the Point Of Sale (POS) software that runs on computer systems that are usually configured with either touchscreen terminals or wireless handheld devices. Restaurant POS systems are essential to the successful operation of most foodservice establishments because they allow the business to track transactions in realtime.

Typical restaurant POS software will handle these daily tasks:

Prints guest checks
Prints guest orders in the kitchen, bar & other preparation areas
Processes credit/debit/gift cards
Runs reports which show important statistics the restaurant owner needs
Manages the "purses" or "banks" that servers build up over their shift
Tracks labor
Tracks sales
Streams closed caption video from a security system
Handles reservations/waiting lists
Tracks open/closed tables
Runs wireless devices like pagers, pick up notifiers etc
Monitors a drive thru or curbside pick up area
Allows orders to be entered via palm size computers
Captures signatures electronically
Performs bookkeeping & accounting tasks.

The punch-list above is not complete as there are countless features in even the most basic POS software packages. The primary goal of any POS software is to generate sales, labor & payment statistics in an efficient and reliable way in order to save costs for the end user. A typical restaurant owner will utilize less than sixteen percent of the POS software's feature set^{[citation needed]}... a statistic which shows that 'training' may be the biggest ingredient POS software companies are ignoring. However, most computer savvy restauratuers today are looking for less feature sets and better functionality in order to take ownership of their product.^{[citation needed]} Training in this instance becomes much easier with a simpler system.

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Touchscreen POS systems include: PosiTouch, Touch Pro, Dinerware, Surface, Micros, Digital Dining, Maitre'D, Silverware, SunSofTouch, InfoGenenesis, Panasonic SMP, PDQ, DiamondTouch, FreePOS, Restaurant Manager POS, and Prism.

Wireless handheld POS systems include: Digital Dining, WaiterPAD, and the Write-On Handheld.

Top POS Software Solutions (based on U.S. Install Base)^[1]

Positouch 30%
Radiant / Aloha 18%
Internally Developed 15%
MICROS 14%

Total of Top 3 47%

The next seven Companies represent 28% of the U.S. install base with not one of the seven companies holding more than 6%. Most in this group are holding only 2-3%. More than half of the remaining seven solutions are no longer actively sold.