Choosing a POS for a Caribbean restaurant

A restaurant's point-of-sale system is used hundreds of times a night, by people in a hurry, on a connection that may drop just as the dining room fills up. Choosing the wrong one costs more than the subscription: it costs slow tables, wrong orders, cash that doesn't balance and stock nobody can explain.

Here's what to check before you choose, with the questions to ask any supplier — including us.

1. Does it keep selling when the internet drops?

In much of the Caribbean, the internet goes down at the worst moments. A cloud POS that stops taking orders when the connection blinks is a liability.

Ask: If the internet goes down mid-service, can I keep ringing in orders, taking cash and printing receipts? What happens to those sales when it comes back?

Aurient's till keeps selling and printing offline and sends everything when the connection returns.

2. Tables, tabs and courses

A restaurant isn't a shop. You need the floor plan, tabs that stay open while people eat, orders by seat and course, and the ability to move between the bar and the table.

Ask: Can waiters see the floor plan on a phone or tablet? Can I open a bar tab by name? Can I send starters now and mains later?

3. Kitchen and bar screens (or printers)

Orders should go straight to the station that makes them, with the time they've been waiting. Paper tickets work, but screens don't get lost, show what's late, and mark what's served.

Ask: Can I send drinks to the bar and food to the kitchen automatically? Does the screen warn when a ticket has waited too long? Can a counter order show the customer's name?

4. Paying: splits, service charge and tips

Groups want to split. Some want to pay by card, some cash, some both. Service charge and tips need to land in the right place — and tips belong to staff, not to sales.

Ask: Can I split by item or equally? Are tips kept separate from takings and paid out to staff properly?

5. A cash-up that actually balances

End of night is where small losses hide. A good system has the cashier count the drawer before they see what it should hold, checks the card machine's total against what the till recorded, and records any difference with a reason.

Ask: Does closing the till compare both the cash and the card machine total? Will I see differences the next morning without digging?

6. Stock and costs, not just sales

Most restaurants lose more money in the stockroom than at the till. If the POS doesn't know what went out of stock, you can't tell what each dish really costs or what's walking out the back door.

Ask: Does stock come down as I sell? Can I record waste with a reason? Can I see margins by item?

7. One price, no surprise per-terminal fees

Count every tablet, waiter phone, kitchen screen and office login. Per-terminal or per-user pricing grows fast in a busy restaurant.

Ask: What will I pay with three tills, six waiters, two kitchen screens and an office manager?

8. Local currency, tax and support

Prices in your currency, VAT or GCT the way your tax authority expects, receipts that look right, and someone in your time zone who answers when something's wrong.

A simple way to decide

Shortlist two or three systems, then run a real evening through each on a trial: ring in a busy table, split it, send to the kitchen, drop the Wi-Fi on purpose, and close the till. The one that gets through that without a workaround is your answer.

You can try Aurient's restaurant plan free for 14 days — start here.