Restaurant POS systems: Everything you need to know

Table of contents

• What is a restaurant POS system?
• How a restaurant POS system works
• Types of restaurant POS systems
• What a complete restaurant POS system includes
• What to look for when choosing a POS
• Restaurant POS hardware required
• FAQs

You've probably heard the term "restaurant POS" more times than you can count, but what does it actually mean, and what should a good one do for your business? Here's a straightforward answer, covering everything from the basic definition to the hardware you'll need on the counter.

What is a restaurant POS system?

Short for "point of sale", a restaurant POS system is the combined software and hardware that restaurants use to take orders, process payments, and manage front of house (FOH) and back of house (BOH) operations from one place. It's the system your server, cashier, or online ordering platform sends an order through, and the same system your kitchen, your reports, and your stock counts all pull from.

Whether you run a quick service restaurant, a fast casual concept, or a takeaway, the job of a POS system is the same: take orders from any channel, get them to the kitchen accurately, take payment, and turn that activity into data you can actually use.

Is EPOS the same as POS?

Yes, and it's worth clearing this up early. EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) is simply the term more commonly used in the UK and Ireland for the same system described above. It isn't a separate category, and it isn't an upgraded version of POS, both terms describe the same combination of software and hardware. If you'd like a fuller breakdown of where the terms overlap, our guide to restaurant EPOS systems covers it in more depth. For the rest of this article, we'll use "POS" throughout, since the two are interchangeable.

How does a restaurant POS system work?

The easiest way to understand a POS system is to follow an order through it, from the moment it's placed to the moment it shows up in your reports.

• An order comes in, whether that's a server keying it in at the table, a customer ordering at a self-service kiosk, or an order arriving from a delivery app or your own online ordering page.
• The order routes straight to the kitchen. Ideally this happens through a Kitchen Display System rather than a printed ticket, so kitchen staff see it the moment it's placed and in the right order.
• Payment is taken, whether that's in person, contactless, or online, and reconciled against the order automatically rather than by hand.
• The transaction data flows into your reporting and inventory, updating sales figures, stock levels, and staff performance in real time.

According to Restaurant Technology News, restaurants using synced POS technology saw order errors drop by up to 42%, largely because that connective step between the order and the kitchen removes the manual re-keying that causes mistakes in the first place. A system that doesn't connect these steps automatically isn't really a modern POS, it's just a till with extra steps.

Types of restaurant POS systems

Most restaurant POS systems on the market today fall into three broad categories. Which one suits you, or which combination, depends on your service style and floor layout.

Cloud-based POS

Cloud-based systems store your sales data, menu, inventory levels, and reservations on a secure remote server rather than on a local machine in the building. In practice, that means you can check performance from any device with an internet connection. A fast food POS system might run on fixed tablets in-store while the owner checks daily sales from their phone at home.

Tablet-based and mobile POS

Tablet and mobile POS systems turn an iPad or smartphone into a full ordering device. They're a cost-effective option for food trucks, pop-ups, and small cafés that need a flexible setup without investing in dedicated terminals.

Handheld POS

Handheld POS devices let staff take orders and payments at the table or anywhere on the floor, cutting queuing and improving table turnover. They suit full-service restaurants, pubs, and venues with large or outdoor seating areas.

Most restaurants end up using a mix of these rather than settling on just one, tablets at fixed stations, handhelds for the floor, all feeding into the same cloud-based system behind the scenes. If you want to see what a complete restaurant POS system looks like in practice, take a look at the Flipdish POS.

What a complete restaurant POS system includes

A POS system that only takes orders and payments is doing half the job. Here's what a complete restaurant POS system should cover, and why each part matters.

Order management

Every order, whether it's placed in-store, on a kiosk, through your own online ordering, or via a delivery app, should land in your order management system in the same format and get pushed through automatically. If a member of staff has to manually copy orders in from a tablet or a third-party marketplace, that's an extra step where mistakes and missed orders creep in.

Kitchen Display System

A Kitchen Display System (KDS) connects your front of house to your back of house, pushing every order straight to the kitchen and displaying it in the order it came in. For a small operation it might be a nice to have, but for any restaurant handling higher order volumes, a busy Chinese takeaway with an extensive menu, for example, it's close to essential for keeping the kitchen organised and errors down.

Payments and hardware

Your payments setup needs to handle however your customers want to pay: cash, contactless cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and in-app payment by card or mobile wallet. This only works smoothly if it's properly integrated into your POS hardware, terminals, card readers, and cash drawers that are built to work with the software rather than bolted on as an afterthought.

Reporting and analytics

Your POS should turn everyday transactions into decisions you can act on. Good reporting and analytics covers end-of-day, weekly, and monthly sales reports as standard, letting you spot your peak trading times and best-selling menu items without having to dig for the numbers yourself.

Inventory and stock management

Inventory management should be a genuine feature of your POS, not just a stored data point. Tracking ingredient usage against sales lets you catch variance and food waste early, which is especially important for menus with a lot of moving parts. A pizza restaurant, for instance, relies on this to make sure service isn't disrupted by an ingredient quietly running out mid-shift.

Staff management

Staffing is one of the biggest costs in any restaurant, so your POS should help you manage it rather than leave it to a separate spreadsheet. Look for built-in staff management tools that handle clock in and clock out, rotas, and shift data, or at the very least, a POS that integrates cleanly with the scheduling software you already use.

Multi-location and franchise support

If you run more than one site, or you're planning to, your POS needs to work across all of them from a single view. That means seeing sales data per location as well as high-level performance across the whole estate, without having to log into each site separately. This is one of the areas where a lot of restaurant POS systems fall short, so it's worth testing before you commit, particularly if franchising is part of your growth plan.

Loyalty and CRM integration

Your POS is already collecting customer order and payment data, so it makes sense for your loyalty and CRM tools to be built in rather than bought separately. A built-in system makes it far easier to run promotions, track repeat custom, and get real value out of the data you're already generating with every order.

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What to look for when choosing a restaurant POS

As a complete restaurant management system, a modern restaurant POS has a lot of ground to cover, but the features that matter most depend on the type of restaurant you run. For example, a pizza restaurant POS system needs strong inventory tools so service isn't affected by ingredients running low, while a QSR POS for a UK restaurant needs a support team that understands the specific problems that come with fast turnaround, high volume service.

Here's how to judge whether a system is genuinely built for the job, rather than just ticking a list of features.

Health and food safety

A weak implementation treats this as an afterthought, a checklist bolted onto the side of the software. A strong one builds health and food safety tools directly into daily staff workflows, with temperature logs, cleaning schedules, and documentation that's ready to hand over the moment a health inspector calls.

Payment processing

Weak payment processing means separate systems for card payments and order data, leaving you to reconcile the two by hand at the end of the day. A strong setup processes payment and order data together, so what you took and what you sold always match without extra admin.

Reporting depth

Basic reporting gives you an end-of-day total and not much else. Genuinely useful reporting lets you break sales down by menu item, time of day, and location, so you can actually act on what the numbers are telling you rather than just filing them away.

Delivery driver tracking

If you manage your own delivery drivers, driver tracking built into the POS lets you see where every order is in real time and assign new deliveries efficiently. Without it, you're relying on phone calls and guesswork to know where your drivers actually are.

CRM and loyalty

A weak CRM is a bolt-on tool that never quite talks to your sales data properly. A strong one uses the order and payment information your POS already holds to run loyalty schemes and promotions without any extra data entry.

What hardware does a restaurant POS need to function?

Once you've chosen your POS software, you'll need the right POS hardware to run it on. Getting this right matters just as much as the software itself, so it's worth thinking carefully about your goals and budget before you buy. Our restaurant POS launch plan is a good place to start if you want to get this right from day one.

Here's a breakdown of what you'll typically need:

Restaurant POS system terminal

A POS terminal is the physical device your point of sale system runs on. Most restaurants use a mix of mobile tablets, an iPad POS system with a stand that turns it into a countertop device when needed, for example. Tablets can effectively replace a desktop computer, though some operators still prefer to view reports on a full-sized screen. With cloud-based restaurant POS systems, you have the flexibility to choose hardware that suits how you actually work.

Kitchen Display System (KDS)

A Kitchen Display System is the back of house extension of your POS. It takes the orders your servers or online channels take and displays them for the kitchen in chronological order, so nothing gets missed and nothing gets cooked out of sequence. For smaller operations it may be optional, but for any restaurant handling a high volume of orders, it's one of the most valuable pieces of hardware you can add.

Customer display system (CDS)

Just as the kitchen display system improves visibility and efficiency in the kitchen, it’s also handy if your system can be used for customer displays as well. Customer-facing screens can be used to let customers know the progress of their orders and when to collect them, but they can also display dynamic menus, promote special offers or be used for advertising.

Driver display system (DDS)

A Driver Display System can be installed in the driver waiting area or parking area to show drivers the status of orders and keep them organised. Having this capability built into your restaurant POS system allows you to keep your delivery operations running smoothly and efficiently without having to employ extra staff to manage your drivers.

Receipt printer

While email receipts are becoming increasingly popular, it’s still important to offer paper receipts. To do that, you need a receipt printer.

Restaurateurs can typically choose between two types of printers:

• Impact printers use wax, resin or ink-soaked ribbon in cartridges to print receipts. Impact printers are usually used exclusively as kitchen printers because they can function in high-temperature environments without breaking down.

• Thermal receipt printers are the most common type of printer in restaurants because they’re cost-effective. Since they use heat to print (like a laser), restaurants save costs on ink cartridges.

Payment terminal

For customers with credit cards that do not have a near field communication (NFC) chip, they need to pay using a traditional card reader - the ones that allow them to swipe their cards.

For patrons that want to pay by tapping their credit card or smartphone, you need a contactless credit card reader. This lets them pay using and device with an NFC chip that’s connected to their banking information (like a credit card or their digital wallet).

Cash drawer

Even with the rise of contactless and mobile payments, it's still worth supporting customers who want to pay in cash. Most POS systems work with a range of cash drawers that connect via USB or Bluetooth, each with a bill and coin tray. Check your POS provider's hardware page to see which cash drawers their platform supports.

How much does a restaurant POS system cost?

This is one of the most common questions about restaurant POS systems, and a fair one, but it's unwise to base your decision on cost alone. The features and suitability of the system matter far more than shaving a few pounds off the monthly bill.

That said, restaurant POS systems are typically paid for in a few different ways, depending on the provider. The costs may include:

• A monthly subscription for the software, usually anywhere from $50 up to a few hundred dollars a month depending on the features included.
• An upfront cost for hardware, which can run from $500 upwards. If you use a device-agnostic cloud-based POS, you may be able to use hardware you already own instead.
• Transaction fees, a small percentage charged on each payment processed.

Weigh up the cost of each provider against the value it delivers rather than the price tag alone. The cheapest option is rarely the best one in the long run, so choose a POS with the features you actually need. See our pricing page for a full breakdown of what Flipdish costs.

Restaurant POS systems: the real takeaway

The right restaurant POS system needs to match what you need to run your business today, while giving you room to grow into it. Now that you know what a POS system actually is, how it works, and what a complete one should include, the real test is seeing how a system holds up against all of this in practice.

That's exactly what the Flipdish POS is built to do: order management, a built-in Kitchen Display System, integrated payments, proper reporting, and support for multiple locations, all in one platform rather than stitched together from separate tools. If you've read this far, you already know more about restaurant POS systems than most buyers do, so the next sensible step is seeing one in action.