Restaurants Payments

Why Your Restaurant Payments Need POS Integration Now

Sahana Ananth
August 16, 2024
1 mins

Table of Content

With everyone preferring mobile payments, the average transaction value per person shot up to about $2,100 a year in 2023. The biggest fans? The 25 to 34-year-old crowd, who make up almost 30% of mobile POS users. 

This is proof that integrating restaurant payments with your Point of Sale system isn’t just a bonus anymore. It’s essential. It improves operational efficiency and the customer experience. Ultimately, these perks can lead to your restaurant's success and enhance profitability. This blog explores how you can get started with your restaurant's online payment systems.

Why Integrate Your Restaurant Payments with Your POS

When you integrate your payment system restaurant with your POS, you're improving the customer experience, as the integration makes your operations smoother and keeps a closer eye on your finances. Here's how:

Improved Customer Experience 

Paying for order

Not having restaurant online payment systems integrated to your POS makes the checkout process slower. This might make guest payments frustrating and leave a bad impression of your restaurant, which can definitely hurt repeat business.

On the other hand, a well-integrated system makes restaurant payments smooth and quick. This cuts down on wait times and makes dining out more enjoyable. 

Consequently, you get happier customers who are more likely to come back. 

Well-managed Operations

Young waiter writing order on touchpad while serving guests in a bar

You're more likely to be looking at errors and operational bottlenecks without a POS integration, which can seriously mess with your restaurant’s flow. 

But once you integrate your restaurant online payment systems with your POS system, it makes processing orders and payments efficient. It also cuts down on errors and keeps the workflow smooth. This is more specifically required in a quick service restaurant setting. 

Better Financial Tracking

Manually keeping tabs on finances can be a hassle and prone to errors. Consequently, managing your restaurant payments becomes a lot more difficult. On the other hand, integrated systems give you accurate, real-time financial data. Ultimately, tracking sales, managing finances, and making smart business decisions become a way easier. 

Super Helpful Data Reports

A practical POS system integration like OneHubPOS gives you access to detailed data reports about your restaurant. When you know how operations are running and what your customers are up to, you can better manage and grow your restaurant. 

  1. Guest Total Spends

Guest total spends show how much each customer spends on average. It helps you spot high-value customers and understand spending patterns. Then, you can tailor promotions and rewards. This is a smart tactic to encourage repeat visits and build stronger customer loyalty.

  1. Average Spend Per Cover

The average spend per cover is the typical amount each customer spends. It helps you understand spending habits and tweak your pricing strategies. Suppose you find the average spend is lower than you’d like. Then, you can try upselling or making menu changes. This would encourage customers to spend more, which can help increase your revenue.

  1. Menu Items

POS integration gives you detailed insights into menu pricing. You can check how your items are performing, which dishes are popular and which aren’t. It allows you to make changes to your menu accordingly. 

  1. Designated Servers

Integrating POS systems gives you a look at your restaurant’s sales and customer interactions. You can track how individual servers are performing. This helps you spot your top performers and see where others might need a bit of extra training. Using this data, you can reward great service and increase customer satisfaction.

  1. Reservation Times

Tracking reservation times helps you figure out when your restaurant is busiest and when it's quieter. This insight lets you manage staffing. You can bring in more staff during rush hours. Plus, you can do happy hours during slower periods. These decisions can help you draw in more customers and make the most of your tables.

7 Steps to Integrate Your Payment System with Your Restaurant POS

You can tackle the restaurant POS-payment system integration through a few clear steps. This approach ensures a smooth transition, minimizes disruptions, and helps you get the most out of the integration.

Step 1: Assess Your Current POS System

You need to take a close look at your current system to see if it’ll work with the restaurant online payment systems you're considering. Check whether you need any software updates or hardware upgrades for the integration. 

Step 2: Choose the Right Payment System

Choosing the right payment system is a big deal and needs a good amount of thought. You should weigh key aspects like cost, features, and the level of support available. 

For example, some restaurant online payment systems come with amazing features like contactless payments or loyalty program integration. They can really improve the customer experience and add extra value. Plus, you must pick a system that offers strong customer support. This would help you out if any issues pop up during or after the setup.

Step 3: Plan the Integration Process

When you're planning the integration process, you must map out a detailed timeline. You should also figure out what resources you’ll need, like staff time and tech support. 

Make sure everyone involved knows their roles and what’s expected of them. This planning stage makes the transition and daily operations running smoother while the integration is underway.

Step 4: Configure POS System Settings

Setting up your POS system to work with a new payment system means adjusting certain settings like tax rates, payment types, and user permissions. For instance, if you're adding mobile restaurant payments or connecting to a new payment gateway, you'll need to modify these settings so your POS can handle everything perfectly. 

Step 5: Work with Vendors and Providers

If you collaborate with your POS and payment system vendors, it is likely to lead to a smooth integration. After all, their expertise can help tackle any technical hiccups and make sure everything works well together. Keeping in regular touch with them will also help solve problems quickly. This would reduce any disruptions to your operations and ensure a perfect transition.

Step 6: Test the Integration

You’ll want to run test transactions, check for any errors, and make sure all features are working as they should. This testing phase helps catch and fix any issues before the system goes live, so it can run smoothly and efficiently right from the start.

Step 7: Train Your Staff

Thorough training on the new system helps staff get comfortable with any new procedures or features and makes sure they're ready to use the integrated system smoothly. Good training will cut down on disruptions and help your team handle the system efficiently, which means a better payment experience for your customers.

How POS Integration Improves Operational Reporting

Linking your payment system with your POS lets you generate detailed and precise reports. Restaurant analytics offer helpful insights into different areas of your restaurant’s operations.

Flash Report

Manually putting together business reports can be a real hassle. Often, it takes up too much time and risks errors. With POS integration, creating a flash report — a quick snapshot of your restaurant's daily performance — becomes way easier. 

After all, the integrated setup can automatically pull data from various sources, and you get an accurate and timely overview of the day’s activities conveniently. For instance, a manager at a bustling restaurant can use a flash report to quickly check daily sales, compare them to targets, and make smart decisions about staffing and inventory.

Recipe Costing

Recipe costing helps you figure out how much each dish costs to make, and integrating your POS system can make this a whole lot easier. When your POS and payment systems are synced, they automatically update ingredient costs and sales data. 

As the ingredient costs change, menu prices get tweaked. This means you get accurate, up-to-date info to keep your restaurant profitable. This way, your restaurant is likely to stay profitable no matter how prices fluctuate.

Menu Engineering

Menu engineering helps you make changes to your menu to make it more profitable. It gets a major boost from having an integrated POS system. With these detailed sales data at your fingertips, it's much easier to spot which dishes are flying off the shelves and which ones are dragging. 

For example, if your POS data shows that certain dishes are super popular, you can adjust your menu to feature those more prominently or promote items with higher profit margins.

Smart Scheduling

With a lack of or delay in getting insights about your restaurant, you might end up with too many or too few staff members. This can mess with both your labor costs and customer service. But when you pull in real-time sales and customer data, you can create schedules that match up with demand.

For example, with integrated data, you can see exactly when your restaurant is the busiest. Then, you can schedule more staff for those peak times. On the same lines, during quieter periods, you can cut back on staffing to save on labor costs. This way, you go beyond just filling shifts. You're making sure your staff levels are on point.

Smart Operations

When you get a detailed look at sales, inventory, and customer preferences, you can make smarter decisions that improve efficiency and profits.  

For instance, with integrated data, you can manage inventory better and cut down on waste. You can also make sure your best-selling items are always in stock. This not only keeps your customers happy but also helps your bottom line.

Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Here's a table showing what challenges your payment system can present you with if you integrate it with your POS system, along with how to overcome them:

What POS Integration Means for Financial Reporting

Linking your POS system with your payment system helps you get accurate and timely financial reports, which are essential for cash management.

Daily Sales Summary

POS integration gives you real-time to improve daily sales summaries, which means everything is accurate and up-to-date. This helps keep tabs on performance and making smart decisions. Otherwise, your sales summaries might be off and delayed, and that might make it hard to get a clear picture of how you're doing. 

For instance, you can instantly pull up a daily sales summary to check performance, see how it stacks up against targets, and decide on promotions or staffing changes on the fly.

P&L Statement

A profit and loss (P&L) statement gives you a snapshot of your revenues, costs, and profits, but it becomes more effective when you use an integrated POS system. This setup keeps your data accurate and up-to-date, easing management of your finances and making smart business decisions. 

For example, with a precise P&L statement, you can spot cost-saving opportunities. You can also track your financial performance over time and make strategic moves to increase your restaurant's profitability.

Labor Data

Incomplete or inaccurate labor data makes it tough to manage labor costs and staffing levels effectively. But tracking employee hours and sales performance in real-time gives you helpful insights that help optimize staffing and improve efficiency. 

For instance, with integrated labor data, you can spot peak hours, tweak schedules as needed, and match labor costs to sales. This smooths out operations and helps cut down on labor costs.

Ready to Integrate Your Payment System with Your Restaurant POS?

Integrating your payment system with your restaurant POS helps improve efficiency, amp up the customer experience, and manage finances better. The perks are pretty clear: quicker transactions, precise reporting, and happier customers — all leading to your restaurant’s long-term success. 

Investing in a reliable payment integration system can really kick your business into high gear. OneHubPOS gives you useful insights, smooths out operations, and helps you win over customers. Just book a call with OneHubPOS today!

FAQs

What is a restaurant payment system integration?

A restaurant payment system integration is the process of linking the processing system of your restaurant payments directly with your POS to manage transactions and data management.

What are the benefits of integrating a payment system with my POS?

OneHubPOS integration speeds up transactions, gives accurate reports, cuts down on errors, improves customer experience, and provides useful sales insights for better decision-making.

How do I choose the right payment system for my restaurant?

Think about and assess transaction volume, security features, costs, ease of use, compatibility with your POS, and customer support. This way, they can make an informed decision of choosing the right payment system for your restaurant.

What challenges might I face during integration?

You might encounter technical issues, training demands, data migration complexities, and potential downtime. But OneHubPOS integration support can help you dodge these issues.

How can I train my staff on the new integrated system?

To make sure your staff understands the new integrated system perfectly and can help users get rid of any possible issues, give comprehensive training sessions, hands-on practice, easy-to-follow manuals, and follow-up support.

What Is a POS API?

A POS API allows different software applications to communicate with your POS system. This way, you get flawless data exchange and better functionality.

AUTHOR
Sahana Ananth
Director, GTM - OneHubPOS

Sahana is a seasoned GTM leader with a passion for building startups. She excels in crafting GTM strategies for tech products, driving revenue growth.

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