Will Credit Cards Go Obsolete Using This New Payment Method?

Inside Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless chip technologies, and First Data, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing services, today announced they have signed a three-year agreement to develop contactless payment stickers, which First Data will market as GO-Tag products. With this agreement, INSIDE will supply MicroPass payment sticker prelams exclusively to First Data-qualified card manufacturers for production.

The agreement helps leverage the core technology from INSIDE Contactless and First Data’s issuing and transaction processing power. First Data will be marketing and distributing GO-Tag products to financial institutions, major U.S. merchants, and other distribution channels in a variety of form factors.

“First Data’s GO-Tag Solution represents an important step in the evolution from today’s plastic cards and fobs, offering a bridge to the future of mobile payments,” says Barry McCarthy, general manager, Mobile Commerce and Point of Sale Solutions for First Data. And that the partnership with INSIDE Contactless gives them the ability to offer consumers an opportunity to turn just about any personal item, from a mobile phone to an employee ID badge, into a useful payment device.

“This agreement highlights the versatility of our MicroPass platform to support a variety of contactless payment applications and form factors, including stickers,” says Charles Walton, executive vice president of payments for INSIDE Contactless.

Since Contactless credit card technology becomes more common in the marketplace, it can be a good idea to update your restaurant POS system with them in the near future. And we all know that customer service is all about the speed and fast transaction to a restaurant point of sale terminal, the better the service is the better your customer experience will reflect on the value of your services.

The author of this article writes for POS-For-Restaurants.com, a VP of Customer Relations with over 20 years experience in restaurant point of sale system, helping restaurant owners nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits.

To learn on how our national POS network of restaurant point of sale professionals can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times, visit POS-For-Restaurants.com.

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Growing Your Profits

In today’s economy, every cent counts and adding them to your bottom line is possible despite the economic doom and gloom reports. These steps will make you increase your profit and decrease expenses, as well as blocking theft so your business can grow much bigger.

In the food service industry, if you’re running a restaurant point of sale system then this tips can greatly help you grow your business!

Checks

They are still widely used, especially among older customers. If you haven’t been accepting checks, start soon. There are many good POS equipments that can scan checks as fast as debit cards, check out and measure them against a nationwide database of bad check writers, electronically deposit the money, and can guarantee that you’ll receive the funds within a few days. In addition, it costs less than for credit cards and can add 10% to 15% of your sales—and possibly more if you have many senior customers.

Accepting All Cards

Of course, you’re already accepting cards like Visa and MasterCard. What about Discover and American Express? Particularly, the latter accompanies larger transactions in general. You might have hesitated because of the high fees, but do reconsider—a 1% difference may not look worthy of consideration for you, and because American Express transactions are often larger than those of other cards, you’ll make it up in gross profit. Furthermore, customers may keep coming back because they’ll know that your business accepts all forms of credit cards.

Do Your Research

Most merchants think their fees are 1.69 percent plus $.19 because that’s their qualified rate on a pricing program tier. Though fewer than 20 out of 100 transactions receive the low qualified rate and all the rest downgrade and cost one, two, or even three percent. Researching alternate programs that offer different interchange rates could end up saving more than you think.

Insist on Understanding

Neither you nor your bookkeeper would have to scratch the back of your heads over complex credit card statements that just doesn’t add up. A few companies have made extraordinary efforts to simplify these reports. You should be able to reconcile your statement and rates without exceeding 15 minutes.

Get Reports Over The Internet

You’ll never have to wait for the post office to deliver a letter disputing a charge. With Internet reporting, you’ll exactly know what’s up within 24 hours, allowing you to aggressively defend against chargebacks. This type of quick action will increase your success rates and reduce your losses.

So you won’t have to scratch a head over a complex credit card statement, as well as your bookkeeper.

Use the Card Validation Value and Address Verification System. These highly effective fraud screens are proven to reduce losses, and by using them the right way, you can achieve the lowest possible discount rate.

Also, you need to avoid computer hackers by being PCI compliant. Hackers can cause merchants mammoth of fines, and they can drive you out of business. Find time to read Visa’s report on noncompliant systems, you need to be alert in order to protect your business.

How To Lessen Chargebacks

If you run an online or phone ordering business, it’s always a great idea to implement the “Verified by Visa” or “MasterCard Secure Code” plug-in on your web site. This will eliminate cardholder nonauthorization chargebacks. The state of being legally obliged and responsible for these chargebacks is shifted away from you to the issuing card bank, and you qualify for the lowest discount rate available. This simple step could eliminate up to 80 percent of all chargebacks and increase your profits.

With over 20 years of restaurant point of sale experience and helping businesses in the food-service industry nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits, the author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

You may visit POS-For-Restaurants.com for further understanding of how our national network of restaurant point of sale professionals can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times.

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Focusing on restaurant credit card security measures

The credit card industry has been coming down hard on many restaurants that have not fully protected their customers’ credit card information from potential theft, with Visa, MasterCard and financial institutions that process electronic payment over recent months sending warnings letters and holding seminars. With these moves, it forces restaurants to take in consideration additional steps on how to safeguard their customers’ credit card information.

On the side of companies that process card transactions, tens of thousands of eateries are not complying with credit card industry security rules.  Any company that takes plastic is required to follow a set of security regulations instituted by Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

With the data recorded by Visa indicates that since January of 2005, around 40% of the incident wherein criminals gain unauthorized access to credit card info is made up of restaurants — provides the largest percentage of incidents for a merchant category.

Separately, there are reports from a Chicago-based data security auditor, AmbironTrustWave, for merchants that 62% of the security violations it witnessed during the prior 18 months occurred in the restaurant industry.

These violations includes various security lapses such as the poor guarding of wireless networks — which easily enable thieves to access sensitive information just outside of the parking lot using a laptop — and lax systems that makes it a lot easier for a staff with criminal intention to gain access to credit card information.

Mostly, consumers are not aware when their credit card information is in danger. Not all security breaches produced successful fraud, and most merchants do not recognize these incidents unless there is a significant likelihood that a major fraud will take place or has already been identified. Furthermore, credit card issuers don’t usually close a customer’s account unless fraud has taken place.

Restaurateurs may have a rough time with credit card security rules, since its regulations can be very difficult for small merchants. Hearing from the restaurant owners who thought they complied with rules, the National Restaurant Association trade group found out their systems were not functioning properly and were penalized.

An amount of 0,000 or more in some cases have been fined to restaurants that violated the credit card industry rules by storing credit card information. Visa fined merchants across all categories .6 million for security violations in 2006, an increase from the .4 million in fines the previous year.

After recently conducting special security briefings with several hundred restaurants, although they declined to provide a breakdown of merchant types, Visa believes a merchant group needs additional attention.

At the same time, companies that process credit card transactions are also turning up the heat on restaurants. Credit card companies, as punishment, will end services to those who do not follow security regulations.

Credit card companies are especially worried about specialized software restaurants use, which combine such features as tabulating bills, delivering orders to the kitchen and tracking reservations. Since credit card companies cannot require software makers to abide by their security rules, they instead apply pressure to restaurants. Visa’s web site maintains a list of software programs that meet its requirements.

But software makers that even with the best software, restaurants could still be in a lot of trouble if they disregard password protection or firewalls. Software companies say it is not up to them to let restaurateurs know what they must do to be in compliance with credit card rules.

The author of this article writes for POS-For-Restaurants.com, a VP of Customer Relations with over 20 years experience in restaurant point of sale system, helping restaurant owners nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits.

To learn on how our national POS network of restaurant point of sale experts can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times, visit POS-For-Restaurants.com.

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Restaurant POS Software and Hardware

If you want to run your restaurant business to success, learn the basics: good food, good service and the right location. These days, there’s another important consideration: the restaurant software you use to run your POS system.

Even though physical components like the monitors and computers are the most visible, the software is the heart of the POS system. Doing a careful evaluation of restaurant POS software is key to getting a system that will satisfy both employees and customers.

What to look for in restaurant software
First of all, it’s important to know what exactly you need the software to do. Your restaurant POS software is able to handle checks per customer or per table, track orders per server, move diners from the bar to a table, manage waiting and reservation lists, and more.

Once you’ve found that restaurant software that can meet your basic requirements, test it and see for your self how to use it. While there will always be a learning curve for your staff when you adopt a new POS system, having a restaurant software that’s easy to use can reduce the learning curve to manageable levels.

You may learn more about ease of use by having one or two of your servers involved in the evaluation. They’ll try out different kinds of oddball situations and changes that can cause problems with some software.

• Security – each employee should have their own user account. With this you are able to limit your employees’ access to sensitive data and functions (such as comping meals) to managers, if desired.
• Flexibility – your servers can manipulate checks to match your patrons’ whims: easily splitting checks and tracking special orders, for example.
• Reporting – this is one of the best features of POS software it can create detailed report which is a great advantage for restaurant owners. So you better make sure to choose the right software that gets detailed information either per check, per server, or overall, ranging from daily to annually.
• Multiple location support – if applicable, make sure that your POS system is able to track and record on multiple locations, including local differences in staffing and pricing.

What to look for in a hardware
Of course you’ll need to invest in restaurant POS hardware as well: computers to run the restaurant software on, touch-screen displays for servers to enter order, and printers to produce order slips for the kitchen. Along with POS software is hardware – The only big deicision with it comes to using hardware is how many will you need.

Now, are you willing to start your business right? Find more information at POS-For-Restaurants.com and receive free unbiased quotes from the experts in restaurant POS systems serving your area.

The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience meeting the automation needs of many restaurant owners all over U.S.

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Start out the year right for your restaurant POS system. Let’s talk about some of the most common and crucial mistakes that are made in regard to some very simple configuration aspects of the computer system. Some of these mistakes can cost restaurant owners thousands of dollars in wasted time and money. And even worse… it can frustrate your guests and employees.

Whether you already have a computer system or you’re going to configure a new one yourself — it’s important for you to make sure everything is done properly.

Don’t let me give you the wrong idea. I do not always recommend configuring your own computer system! I recommend letting a computer professional do it for you. But I’m sure some of you will do it yourself no matter what I say. So this is for those that insist on doing your own computer installations and for everyone else to double check and make sure everything was done properly. This could help you avoid some major problems and save hours of precious time.

So here are some simple retail computer system configuration checklist for a Windows network you could use as a guide:

1) Using a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
The number one cause of electronic component failure is from fluctuations in electricity (up and down). A good UPS can solve this problem by regulating the power. I recommend that you at least put a good UPS on your server. And it’s a good idea to use them on each of your worstations too.

2) Plug All Your Cables Into the UPS
Check if all cables that power your computer and network are plugged into your UPS. It’s also important to make sure cables that can carry electrical charges are plugged into a surge protector or UPS. For example, the phone line for your modem can fry your computer if it’s not plugged into a surge protector. So make sure your modem line, network cables, and power cords are all plugged in properly.

3) Passwords and Security
It is advisable that you lock your server with a hard-to-break password on all Windows accounts so that no one will be able to access it especially hackers who will [intently damage your server].

4) Intalling and Configuring Security Tools Like An Antivirus Software and AntiSpyware Software
It’s also very important to configure that software to update automatically every day, so you don’t forget.

5) Limiting Employee Internet Access
Employees will surft on anything they can on the internet. Anti-virus and anti-spyware software does help but if an employee unintentionally downloads the wrong program or accepts the wrong message, it can cause some serious problems to your system. You can avoid this by disabling internet browsing on your computers. Or another option is to protect internet access with a password.

For restaurant owners, this is very important! In order to protect secured files from evil hands, limiting employee internet access is a must. A retail business owner has to enforce rules to protect his business as well as his profit. Otherwise, what good will a restaurant POS system do if it’s run by a misbahaved or ignorant personnel.

6) Configuring Your Back Up To Run Regularly
As well proven in many situations, it’s best to configure your back up to run automatically after work hours. But you still need to remember to change your back up device (like tapes) every day.

7) Testing Your Back Up At Least Once A Month
Can’t remember how many times I’ve chatted with business owners that have hard drive failure and think they have a good back up plan to restore. But when they try to restore they find it hasn’t been working. That’s why it is very important to test your back up at least once a month by restoring files so you would know that it your back up is working properly. By the way, you should restore to an alternate file location so you don’t mess up your existing software.

So please check your computer system now. If you don’t, you might regret it later. Have a happy and successful 2009!

With over 20 years of restaruant experience, the author and Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com, helps you use your technology to be more efficient and more profitable.

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For the longest time, most people thought of their point of sale system as a fancy cash register. With technology moving forward at such a quick pace, most innovations have become standard features within the retail POS industry. So here are a few more tips to help you grow your profit:

1. Scheduling Your Employees. Many restaurant POS packages includes the feature “staff scheduling”. You can expect to increase efficiency and dramatically reduce overall labor costs by controlling time-ins and time-outs, utilizing forecasting tools and control staffing levels. This smooth feature allows easy schedule access, shifts and multiple job positions for each staff. You can tie in any number of security functions to all job position. In addition, some of the packages has a feature that allows you to post schedules to a website and even automatically email the schedule out to your staff. Focus more on lowering labor cost and increasing staff performance by simply managing efficiently and effectively your time & attendance information.

2. Software Upgrade Assurance (SUA). SUA gives you a distinct advantage when purchasing a POS system. You are able to help stretch your investment and prolong the usable life of your Restaurant POS system. Customers who are on an SUA plan will always have the latest version of their POS software. This basically keeps their POS system new. Every time you receive a software upgrade it’s just like buying the latest POS system in the market with the newest, most up to date features for your restaurant. The most current features of POS systems set ensures that you have the best possible ROI by allowing you to have full advantage of what its POS software features offer.

Another advantage of having a SUA is that no additional software purchase is required if you’re upgrading or replacing hardware. When hardware needs replacing there is a drastically reduced cost to upgrade.

Typically, these programs work on a yearly fee for you to acquire their benefits. Ma customers are satisfied receiving the huge benefits of this program that helps your business reap the full return on your POS investment.

3. Handling Tips. Some POS software products have tip tracking built into their time in attendance module. Once you set an employee as a tipped employee, the system will require tip declaration prior to clocking out. All servers who ring sales will have their total sales tracked. Tips collected through credit card sales are also tracked and shown on the server closeout report. Before signing off, the servers or waiters will be shown their total sales, tips collected collected and then asked to declare their cash tips. By this, you will be able to track and manage smoothly all declared tips, charge tips and hours worked for every tipped employee.

4. Frequent Diner & Customer Loyalty Programs. As the restaurant owner you would like your POS system to provide accurate customer information on their buying habits, number of visits, frequency of visits, entice repeat visits and purchases through reward programs. You are able to do all this while managing the programs and preventing “sweet hearting” by employees. Prevent retail loss at all cost! Sweet hearting happens when an employee promises a deal to a customer so that he/she can close a sale.

Some POS packages come standard with a frequent diner or customer loyalty package that does all these things and more. They utilize secure methods of tracking your guests and their buying habits. Establish a database of customer’s information with an account number. You may use their phone numbers or any number system you want. In what ever approach you choose, the most popular and secure method is through magnetic cards with a logo of your restaurant. These cards act as a constant reminder of your restaurant by having your business logo in their wallet or purse. The POS software will secure the reward programs you put in place and preventing the server or waiter from giving away food. Rewards are given only when earned through purchases, frequent visits or for items on your menu that you wish to highlight. By establishing reward programs takes your staff out of the game and place you in charge of everything.

If you look closely, you will find that there are many ways ways to run your business more efficiently by paying enough attention to your exact needs. You may have the latest restaurant POS equipment in town but your business doesn’t really require one, you’re just dropping money down the drain.

The author is the VP of Customer Relations for POS-for-Restaurants.com. With over 20 years of restaurant experience, POS-for-Restaurants.com helping business owners you their technology to be more efficient and more profitable.

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Your computer hardware acts as the core component of your POS terminal, it runs all the applications on your POS terminal such as your POS software. You can purchase a complete PC-based POS systems for your restaurant or buy each component separately, but make sure you check them for their compatibility. If you’re going to buy your components separately, I suggest you buy them all with the same reseller. Because then it’ll be easier to setup and for ongoing support.

An average POS computer should be able to get the job done, but always rememeber that some POS software requires newer OS, so better be prepared for regular updates. If you want to buy separate components from different POS system sellers, make sure that you coordinate and keep in contact with them should any problem arise, especially when it comes to compatibility problems.

Avoid using your restaurant POS computers for anything other than POS! Because some business owners couldn’t resist connecting their POS computers to the internet for browing the web and sending emails, many of them end up having corrupt files, data loss or suffer from system crashes. That’s is why a good back plan is a must to be able to restore all your files back to normal. But this doesn’t stop your POS computer from receiving future damages, so don’t use your POS computer on anything other than POS! Or you’ll end up wasting more money on repairs.

Your POS Software

It is very important that you check first a POS software before buying it. Is it compatible with your system? Does it have the features your retail business needs? Is it affordable? Does the price seems reasonable? These are just some of the things you have to figure out before buying any POS software for your computer.

Powerful POS software tools allows you to easily create checks, place special orders, generate waiting list, move diners from the bar to a table and even track orders per server! You can also add more features to your POS terminal for handling different volumes of customers and for your convenience as well.

Internet data boards: This part of your POS terminal takes a snapshot of the day’s business which you can access from anywhere with a web connection, may come very handy if you want to view your other branch’s business performance. You can also donwload data from other branches and have total peace of mind, knowing that your other branches are performing as expected.

Multimanagement: From the multi-manager approach in business management. This a vital factor to consider when managing multiple branches. Because different branch managers have different sets of skills and area of specialties, neither all of them or just by one manager can handle all branches. That’s why each branch manager’s assests is assessed and carefully pick two of the best to smoothly manage all the branches. Avoiding conflicts and making business management more efficient.

A multimanagement POS software allows sharing of data and allocation across multiple branches[By using a multimanagement POS software, it allows multiple branches to share data and allocation across multiple branches].

Program for frequent diners: This useful POS software lets you assign points for each meal or item, allowing diners to accumulate points which they can later exchange for free dessert, discount or gift certificate. By this, you can help boost your sales as well as your low-performing items or meals.

For a growing restaurant, you may want to consider adding more POS software to enhance your business performance and increase your profit. You’ll find it easy to add and change POS systems, install new software and replace old computer components. What’s really important is you must know first the type of restaurant POS equipment or software your business needs before heading on to the nearest POS seller in your area.

Further more, you can receive free competitive price lists from local suppliers who will be willing to provide you any any type of POS system you require. Just by simply requesting for a FREE POS system quote, you’ll immediately get connected with the most qualified POS suppliers serving your area. So you don’t need to tire yourself manually searching for reliable suppliers and POS systems.

Always rememeber to check the POS software or hardware first before buying. You may also want to check if the user interface of your POS software is easy to learn and navigate, so your employee can serve customers quicker and more accurate.

For more information or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry near your location contact you find more information on our website POS-For-Restaurants.com.

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Input devices – Restaurant Point of Sale (POS) Equipment 

Point of Sale (POS) Equipment: Keyboards and touch screens

One of the first choices you will have to make about your POS equipment is whether to go with a touch screen or a programmable keyboard. Most businesses choose touch screens. The only market where programmable keyboards are more popular is grocery stores, because it can program individual keys for specific item codes and prices.

Touch screens are more intuitive to use than keyboards for many users. They also provide more flexibility in the user interface and programming. You will find most touch screens today are all based on flat-screen LCDs unlike the traditional CRT monitors. While LCD touch screens are a bit more expensive (typically $600 – $1,000 instead of $400 – $500), they last longer, doesn’t use much electricity, and saves up space. They also look much better. When purchasing touch screens, avoid touch screens that are overlayed on top of regular monitors – they tend to breakdown easily and even causes unnecessary complications to your system.

About keyboards, some has the standard 101-keys model similar to any computer. For smaller keyboards, there’s the flat-panel membrane keyboard that’s more POS-specific, common in fast food outlets. Often, they come in with built-in magnetic stripe readers for processing debit cards. Most programmable keyboards usually ranges between $150 and $300.

No matter which POS equipment you choose, make sure to take in consideration the environment where you would want to place it. You’ll find both keyboards and touch screens have varying levels of spills and dusts proofing.

POS Scanners
POS scanners reads an item’s barcode and sends the information back to the computer. They typically connect to the system through Y-connectors called wedges that make them function as an extension of the keyboard. Bar code scanning has an improved accuracy and speed things up during checkout.

Low-end scanners are based on charge-coupled device (CCD) technology. They can be inexpensive, but usually have limitations – an item being scanned needs to be 1 to 3 inches from the scanner. In a typical retail setting, this should be fine.

Laser scanners, which use a beam of light to read a bar code, offer better scanning ability with the ability to scan at longer distances. There are also “autosensing” laser scanners that turn themselves on automatically when an item is placed in front of them to scan a bar code, and then turn off again. Omnidirectional scanners send out 15 or 20 lasers simultaneously, making bar code scanning from any angle easy. And the top of the line are embedded scanners, which you commonly see in supermarkets located below the counter.

Choose a scanner based on your customer volume. If the counter line has only one or a couple of customers, the CCDs or entry-level laser scanners should. A fairly constant flow of customers might call for an autosensing model, and very high volume businesses should investigate omnidirectional or embedded scanners. Their prices may range from below $100 to $350 or more.

Handheld POS terminal
The latest type of input device is the handheld, wireless terminal. For PDAs, which wirelessly transmits orders back to a base station. A distinct advantage this POS equipment can provide to a restaurant is that they increase the amount of time servers spend on taking orders on the floor and interacting with customers, because they never have to go back to a terminal to process orders.

Newer still are write-on handhelds: the combination of a touch screen interface and PDAs, this tiny input device allow servers to simply write the orders down. Handwriting recognition software parses the order then sends it on to the kitchen and bar as needed.

These handheld terminals are more expensive compared to a traditional touch-screen order terminal. However, these devices can make up for their cost by allowing your servers to spend more time up-selling more desserts and drinks. If you are evaluating handheld terminals, make sure you ask about the “drop test” – units are rated for toughness according to how much of a fall they can survive. You can easily find out if your business is a candidate for handheld POS terminals by comparing multiple POS equipment vendors and check out their offered products and services.

Need more information or perhaps an online resource?

You may visit POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.

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Start out the year right for your restaurant POS systems. Let’s discuss some of the most common and vital mistakes that restaurant owners make in regard to some very basic configuration aspects of the computer system. Mistakes can seriously damage a restaurant or any other retail establishment, not to mention the amount of time and money. Even worse than that… it can frustrate your customers and employees.

Whether you already have a computer system or you’re going to configure a new one yourself — you better make sure that everything is done properly for your own sake.

Don’t let me give you the wrong idea. I do not always recommend configuring your own computer system! I recommend letting a professional do it for you. But I know some of you will do it yourself no matter what I say. So this is for those that insist on doing your own computer installations and for everyone else to double check and make sure everything was done properly. This could help you avoid some major problems and save hours of precious time.

So here’s your retail POS system configuration checklist for a Windows network:

1) Install a UPS
The number one cause of electronic component failure is from fluctuations in electricity (up and down). A good UPS can solve this problem by regulating the power. I would recommedn getting a good UPS for your server. And it’s a good idea to use them on each of your worstations too.

2) Making Sure To Plug All Cables Into the UPS
All cables that powers your computer and network must be properly plugged into your UPS. It’s also important to check if cables that can carry electrical charges are plugged into a surge protector or UPS. For example, the phone line for your modem can fry your computer if you do not plug it into a surge protector. So you better make sure that all cables are plugged properly. Your modem line, network cables, and power cords can cause severe damage if not plugged properly.

3) Passwords and Security
At the very least, I suggest locking down your server with a password on all Windows accounts so your employees and hackers have more difficulty messing with your server.

4) Intalling and Configuring Security Tools Like An Antivirus Software and AntiSpyware Software
Make sure that all your secirity tools are configured to automatically update every day, so you don’t forget.

5) Limit Internet Access
Employees will surft on anything they can on the internet. You mave the lastest antivirus and antispyware software installed but if an employee unwittingly downloads the wrong program or accepts the wrong message, it can cause some serious problems to your system. You may limit them by disabling internet browsing on their computer stations. Or another option is to password protect internet access.

For a restaurant, this is very important! In order to protect secured files from evil hands, limiting employee internet access is a must. A retail business owner has to enforce rules to protect his business as well as his profit. Otherwise, what good will a restaurant POS system do if it’s run by a misbahaved or ignorant personnel.

6) Configure Your Back Up To Run Every Night
As well proven in many situations, it’s still best to configure your back up to run automatically after work hours. But you still need to remember to change your back up media (like tapes) every day.

7) The Importance of Testing Your Back Up Regularly
I have talked to many people who think they have a good back up plan for restoring damaged files. But when they try to restore they find it hasn’t been working for months or years. That’s why you need to do a “real” test restore once a month to make sure it’s working. By the way, you should also remember o restore to an alternate file location so your existing software won’t get messed up.

So please check your computer system now. If you don’t, you might regret it later. Have a happy and successful 2009!

With over 20 years of restaruant experience, the author and Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com, helps you use your technology to be more efficient and more profitable.

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We are living in a world of immens technological advances. Cars are parking themselves, sheeps are being cloned, and humanoids are being developed. Your business needs to be updated with technology or the competition will quickly leave you behind. If you’re in the food-service business, we have a suggestion for you to help put some pep in your step.

In the middle of all the great technologies of today, a business cannot afford to spend a great amount of time on the basic operational and record-keeping needs. A point-of-sales system (POS), computer software and hardware network, that can immediately record sales as they are occurring.

What can an efficient restaurant POS system do for your business

With this advanced system at hand, it can provide businesses “real time” updates of inventory and serves as a better leverage when future business plans based on sales. The following describes why your business will benefit from using POS systems:

– Automatically record sales. I bet you’ve been wondering why there is a deviation from using books. This will not be a problem any longer. A business cannot put a price on a flawless accurate sales tracking.

– Implementing sales and other promotions to attract customers. This can cause you a whole year of headache if items, prices and dates are not accurately logged. POS systems can process these automatically, so the tracking and calculations will not become an area of confusion and frustration.

- For small to medium-sized business owners, who can’t be present at all times. This problem can create high anxiety for the owner and disorder for the business. POS systems basically run the inventory and sales tracking portion of your business for you at all times whether you are present or absent.

- If you have a small to medium-sized business with multiple locations, maintaining consistency can become a concern. Prices may or may not vary depending on location, but the number of customers and their demands will differ. Using a POS system allows a business owner to keep track of all the inventories in multiple locations and affords the possibility of accounting for meeting different demands and product.

- With the rise of new technologies so is the hassle of having them all. Tools and parts that come separately can become costly and confusing; a progressive POS system will offer many business tools in one package.

– A good POS system will not only help track inventory and pricing, but will grant more time for employees and the owner to concentrate more towards the the business and customer needs, and generating revenue. Finding the roots of miscalculations and in remedying the problem can cause a great amount of time; this will not be an issue with a business that institutes a POS system.

Need more information or an online resource?

Go to POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving the automation needs of restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.

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