EPOS system restaurant buyers guide: what the quote leaves out

An epos system restaurant owners buy in the UK is the software and hardware that takes payment at the counter. It usually arrives as a package: a screen, a card machine, a printer, a monthly licence, and somebody to come and set it up.

This guide is about the parts of that package nobody circles on the quote. Then it covers what a restaurant EPOS does not do at all, which is most of what happens after the customer leaves.

Both halves matter, and they matter in that order. The first will decide what you pay for the next three years. The second will decide whether the customer comes back at all, and no amount of counter hardware has ever answered it.

What a restaurant EPOS actually includes

The core is narrow and it is worth being clear about, because the sales conversation tends to widen it.

An epos for restaurant service takes an order, prices it, takes payment, prints a receipt, and reconciles the day. Around that core sit optional modules: table plans, stock, staff rotas, reporting, loyalty, and connectors to delivery apps. Each is usually priced separately, and each is usually weaker than a product that does only that one thing.

What the quote leaves out

Ask for these in writing before you sign anything. Every one of them is a real line on a real bill somewhere:

• Installation and configuration, as a one-off, plus the day rate if it runs over.
• Menu re-programming. Ask what a price change costs if they do it, and whether you are allowed to do it yourself.
• Training, including the second round after your staff turn over, which they will.
• Card processing, which is often a separate contract with a separate term.
• Support tiers. Ask what response time the standard tier gives you on a Saturday night.
• The integration fee for each app you connect.
• Early exit. Ask what leaving in month 14 of a 36 month term costs.

Then ask for a two year total with everything you actually intend to switch on. The monthly licence is rarely the line that hurts.

"Owners compare monthly figures across three quotes and sign the lowest. Then the bill arrives with the configuration, the training and the processing on it, and the lowest quote was the second most expensive."

— Tanzeel ur Rehman, co-founder of Get Menu

What HMRC needs, and what that means for your system

Two things are worth checking rather than assuming.

The first is whether you are registered for VAT at all. The government publishes the VAT registration thresholds, and a growing restaurant crosses one without anyone announcing it.

The second is how your returns are filed. Making Tax Digital for VAT sets out the record keeping and submission rules, and your EPOS is where most of those records begin. Ask the supplier directly how their exports fit that, and get the answer from them rather than from your accountant afterwards.

Where a restaurant EPOS stops

Your EPOS serves the person at the counter. It cannot do any of the following, and no amount of module buying changes that:

It cannot put your menu in the hand of somebody at home. It cannot message a customer who is not in the room. It cannot remember the regular who came every Friday until six weeks ago, and it certainly cannot notice that they stopped.

That is a different job and it needs no hardware:

• Your own ordering page, with 12 page layouts so the menu reads the way you want it to.
• A QR menu for the tables and the window, printed from a designer rather than a generic sticker.
• Table routing. The code carries the table, so nobody writes a number down.
• A menu you edit yourself, with options and add-ons carrying their own prices, and required choices the kitchen can trust.
• Orders that price themselves. Every line is re-priced from your live menu at checkout.
• Messages nobody types. A confirmation to the customer the moment they order, a ticket to the kitchen, and for delivery a link carrying the GPS pin dropped at checkout. That is 3 messages in about 2 seconds.
• Live stock that greys an item out at zero rather than selling what has gone.
• One bill for a table when everybody orders from their own phone.
• Loyalty stamps, and tiers your regulars grow into, each carrying its own automatic discount.
• A wallet card in the customer's phone with no app to install, with a designer for the card's colours and logo.
• VAT invoices carrying your registration number, downloaded as a PDF without the customer logging in.
• Coupons, upsells and bundles with caps, exclusions and expiry dates, and never two automatic discounts at once.

Who owns the data, and how you leave

This is the question that decides whether the next decision is yours or theirs.

Ask whether you can export your sales history and your customer list yourself, today, without asking anyone and without a fee. If the answer involves a support ticket or a format nobody can open, your data is in their custody rather than your possession.

Ask the same about the contract: the term, the notice period, and what leaving in the middle costs. Suppliers answer these questions plainly when they are confident, and vaguely when they are not, and that difference tells you more than any feature comparison will.

Commission against a flat fee

The other cost worth putting beside the EPOS quote is the delivery marketplace. It takes a share of every order it sends you, every month, and a good share of those orders come from people who already knew your restaurant existed.

Your own ordering page takes no commission on your sales, so your hundredth order in a week costs the same as your first. Our own pricing is on the pricing page rather than in this article, and the trial runs 15 days without a card, which is long enough to put a real fortnight through it.

Payment stays yours: cash or your own card machine. There are no online payments in the system, so no card details are stored in it, and old order details are cleared automatically after 120 days.

Frequently asked questions

Is Get Menu a restaurant EPOS?

No. It does not run a cash drawer, a card terminal or your end of day. It is the ordering, menu, stock and loyalty layer that runs alongside the EPOS you already have.

What does an EPOS system for a restaurant cost in the UK?

It varies too much for a figure in an article to help you. What does help is asking every supplier for the same thing: a two year total, with every module you will actually use switched on, and the cost of leaving early written down.

Do I need an EPOS to take orders online?

No. Online ordering is a separate layer and does not need any hardware. Plenty of restaurants run an ordering page beside an old EPOS quite happily.

How do customers pay if there are no online payments?

They pay you when the food arrives, in cash or on your own card machine. The software carries the order and never touches the money.

What should I ask before signing an EPOS contract?

The term length, the notice period, the cost of leaving in the middle, who owns your data, how you export it, and what a menu change costs. Ask all six in writing.