POS software for restaurants
4.7/5 (1063 reviews)Pros
Square POS was very easy to set up. The first card reader you receive (a simple plug in to an iPad or iPhone) was free. We created an account online, attached a bank account, and created a menu of items/services we provide. Then we simply chose photos for each service or product category so that it looks nicer in the app for our employees. The result was a very simple set up and a very clean looking POS.
What's also nice is that Square POS is good at being able to refund patients if something was charged incorrectly. They also get receipts if they choose to via text message or email.
Changing the prices and adding or deleting items on the service/products you sell is quite easy. You simply log in to the website and make changes. Also, you can turn in options such as giving customers a choice to tip or not.
For being an office that used to take cash only, choosing Square POS was the way to go in entering the world of credit cards. We have no regrets and have no had problems. The correct amount of $$ we received (minus 2.75% of every transaction) gets deposited into our account every week. And we no longer have to hire a collections agency to go after those who don't have cash or mail in checks because they will simply pay through credit card now.
Cons
Square does take 2.75% of your transaction each time. You can find cheaper alternatives, but not with the ease of set up and use that comes with Square. The bigger con about Square POS is that if you have take a payment over the phone and manually type in their credit card information instead of typing it, they charge extra at 3.5% of the transaction.
Also, the first card reader they send you is a simple swiper, but we found that it didn't always work well. Most cards these days have chips, and if you want a good and safer reading you'll want to purchase the Chip reader at $49. We don't regret the purchase though.
Lastly, if you are a restaurant and choose to include the option to allow customers to tip, know that square takes 2.75% of your ENTIRE transaction (including the tip your customers add).
If you're a business owner and you sell products or services, especially if you have multiple sites and/or have a mobile sales force, this product is a must. The access is easy, the interface is friendly, and the payment system is quick.
Pros
EASY to set up and use! In short time, we were able to set up our entire library online and make it simple to purchase and sell products. Once set up, everything is available to every member of team, so that one of our book sellers in California has access to the same products as a book seller in Michigan the moment the product is placed online. I also love that we can easily create multiple price points for products and can easily access them from the apps on various mobile devices, desktops etc...
The percentages paid to Square are as small as any other you will find, and they deposit funds into your bank account within 24-hours, with same-day options available for an extra, nominal fee. The no hassle, ease-of-deposit, process is a MUST for our small business.
Customer service has been off the charts good, and every small issue has been resolved quickly. I also love that so many web sites integrate with Square so that we can maintain one payment portal for 99% of what we do.
The technology (swipe devices, Point of Sale stands, card tappers/reader...work flawlessly with each and every device we've thrown at them (iPhones, iPads, Android, laptop...) and they look good, too.
Cons
Honestly, there is little to NOT like about this system. I've tried several others and since switching to Square 5 years ago, I've never looked back.
We take all of our credit/debit card payments through Square, as well as Apple Pay, Android Pay & Samsung Pay. The ability for a customer to pay, sign, and get a receipt e-mailed to their phone while they are still standing in front of me brings a nice sense of trust and completion to each sale.
Pros
It is free to set up and implement initially. Square will even send free card processors (they're the cheap ones that let you take a card payment from your phone/tablet, but it will let you start swiping cards immediately). They help keep track of your sales/accounting for non-card payments, too, as long as you enter in the sales data for them. Additionally, the ability to edit & customize withdrawal options is very helpful. I can get funds deposited on a schedule or whenever I choose to (even instantly, although this incurs an additional 1% fee). It is much cheaper and more convenient than a standard CC payment processor, so anyone with a small or mobile business would be wise to check this out.
Cons
The customer service is a bit lacking. I've never had a real issue with them that didn't resolve itself pretty quickly, but there's been one or two times where I have an issue and get what appears to be an automated response about it. Not a big deal, but when you Google it, on the Square help forums, this kind of response seems to be the norm for most questions/concerns. Fortunately, their system is pretty self-explanatory, that additional personalized help isn't usually needed.
At the ice cream parlor I work at, the register is programmed with all of the items we sell. You can program buttons to create discounts either by a percentage of the sale or with a flat dollar amount. This program tracks sales by day and by product sold. We have used this for probably 2 years now and it allows us to track sales from the years past to see what the trends are. For example, how busy were we last Mother's Day or when to our sales start dropping as we head into/winter fall. This allows us to make informed decisions on how much staffing we need and what hours to keep our business open for. We can also see how well certain items are selling. So when we introduce new items it allows us to see if they are selling well and gives us insight as to how we need to market for our business. This replaced a simple cash register that we used to have, but it is so much more than a cash register with all of the information you can track and use to make decisions for your business.
Pros
This is an easily programmable software that can be used to create a point of sale register. I work at a coffee/ice cream parlor and we use the software for our register, and it stores our sales information and has been very helpful in marketing and determining what products have been selling well or poorly
Cons
I don't know if there's anything I don't like about this program. It's user friendly and I haven't really found any limitations or holdbacks to our business because of this
Overall, as an independent artist, I'd recommend Square in a blink to anyone in that position. Free reader, easy to use, mobile...It's perfect. For small businesses, I'd also suggest Square - I've worked with the alternative, Clover, and it's so very slow and not as user friendly - but I think Square needs to continue evolving to keep up with those demands. And I'm sure they will given they've already created the flippable platform.
Pros
Square is simple to use and that's what makes it so popular. The card readers are simple, organizing your inventory is simple. It works really well for me as an independent artist at art fairs and such. I've never run into any trouble using it in that context.
The new flip screen platform is also super wonderful for retail stores and cafes as it takes the pressure off of the employee and the awkwardness of asking for tips etc... disappates. It also seems to run smoother by virtue of the platform not running other apps. Definitely love that Square is expanding their market to meet the needs of larger companies.
Cons
It gets overloaded and laggy pretty quickly when used in a more dense environment. When I've used Square at small businesses as a sales employee, I've experienced lag between pressing on an item and having it go to the item menu or add to the cart. Also, the free square readers that go into your audio jack are awfully temperamental with continued use and you either have to keep re-ordering them, or just buckle down and buy a reader. The only time the latter hasn't worked was when I had to be mobile while taking orders.
An ISBN scanner would also be super cool integration and would allow Square to be used in more places.
Square helps businesses grow and track sales through their app. With reader, you can accept payments on the go so you'll never miss a sale. I bump into potential customers in grocery stores, paying my cable bill or while at the doctor's office etc.
Pros
I have used Square for 3 years. I found them while searching for web site builders. I was happy when I located them and read through their policy. Aside from setting up and designing my site, Square provided me with a reader. I plug it into my phone and swipe credit cards. The payments are in my account within two days minus a small fee for using Square's pos reader. I use it along with the app, you can also enter credit/debit cards manually and have the customer sign the screen. I email the customers their receipt. If a customer pays in cash, I can still take the payment and enter cash instead of paying by card. I still send them a receipt. I can set up gift cards and discounts to items online but I choose not to. I keep my items priced low enough to avoid these incentives.
Cons
They provided me a free reader, decals to stick on my register and window. I have no issues with this company. They are great.
I log into Square every day to check the sales of our coffee shop, as I don't work there day to do, but lead the management team. I use the various reporting tools weekly as well, to track how we are doing compared the previous weeks and years.
Pros
The software has a very low buy in cost and if you aren't processing payment through them it is free. But in the end the best way to use it is to process credit card directly through your Square POS. It was so easy for our staff, but no real POS experience, to figure out how to setup our coffee shop using square. The way you are able to build in all the variables that make up what you charge the customer took the guess work out of things for our person running the POS. In the end, it meant errors in charging the customer were eliminated. We also love that the customer can reply back directly to us via their email or text receipt. Giving us feedback and allowing us to refund them if they had a negative experience.
Cons
The rewards program has changed a couple times and it was a little confusing for the customers how to use it in the past. though a recent update fixed a lot of that for us.
I love Square! We've used it for years and will continue to use it at our events.
Pros
Square is easy to use and very reliable.
I love that I can send out user codes to volunteers at our fundraising events and not worry about sharing a main login in order to have multiple people collecting money for our organization. We use Square at all of our fundraising events and it is very reliable. It is also very easy to train a new person on how to use the Square app and reader, which is very important at events when I have volunteers who've never used Square before.
The dashboard is easy to navigate and the reports are easy to read. Square's fees are very reasonable and they are very good about providing Square reader devices for point of sale transaction.
Cons
The standard Square readers don't work with the latest Apple iPhones that lack the phone jack. This can be challenging so it's good to check with volunteers before an event to get an idea of what type of phone they have.
For large events or occasions when lots of transactions happen in a short time frame it can get hard to see who paid for an item or to match up transactions to items sold. If you do need to track who bought an item or if a transaction was for multiple items (like a person who won several items in a silent auction) then make sure to add notes and have documentation for your staff volunteers on how to add notes while running transaction, otherwise this because hard to sort out afterwards.
We've been with Square since about 2011, and have seen a lot of changes take place over that time. Square is still easily one of the best solutions out there for small businesses that want to pay when they profit, instead of draining out to a merchant account or such, however recently it's also seen a trend towards "Form over Function" which is a bit troubling considering that it's sole focus should be ease of use by businesses for the purpose of minimizing overhead and increasing revenue.
Pros
Free app, pay when you make a sale, reliability is decent, don't have to purchase your own hardware. Still a strong contender despite it's more recent frustrations.
Cons
Square has reached a point of maturation in which it's starting to feel like they are inventing new "features" for the sake of doing so (or for the sake of justifying growth to investors), instead of focusing on issues that are most commonly stated in community forums, and requested daily to devs. which would actually help lead to increased market share.
Square would rather overhaul the look of your dashboard to make it look pretty than say for instance create a method in which UPC/EAN's could be stored alongside SKU's for easy internal, and external interfacing of inventory from suppliers.
Square removed the ability to sort by "low" and "out of stock" on the backend without having email notifications enabled, resulting in thousands of needless emails yearly (which we have to filter out) where we used to be able to login, click "sort by" and see a list of what was close to, or out of stock for re-order.
Square changed it's item creation page to require not one, but two additional clicks, and increased scrolling to edit even trivial item options. This used to be able to be done in one click, and all fields visible. Also, the "Delete" button is now directly beside the "Save" button, make sure you don't click it by mistake.
Had engineers followed up (as promised) to any of the three phone calls made about these issues I would not be as harsh, but as they haven't, here you go.
I can look at reporting from my house, most other POS systems don't allow for that. I can also add to and take from my inventory and item list, I don't have to be tied to my facility to make it work.
Pros
It's simple to setup, simple to use and most importantly -- simple to train. It's so intuitive that the staff took to it in less than 5 minutes of training. Also, because their dedicated POS system "Square Register" is purpose built, we are able to use iphones and ipads to do tableside ordering which makes the workflow and throughput of the bar stools that much faster.
Cons
The reporting is not granular enough with time. You have to find out the hard way, when you want reporting from 9am on Monday through 2am on Tuesday, you have to run two separate reports. And to top it off, you have to learn the hard way that when you select an hour, it will show you everything through XX:59:59 of that hour, if you select the next hour, you're adding that hour's data to your report. They should offer software updates to improve reporting and maybe consider add-ons that are industry specific.
Square has been a great experience to use and I will continue to use it for years to come. The ability to send text confirmations to customers and an email to the client simultaneously has increased my business tenfold! Easy to use and easy to access features make running business simple and easy for not only myself but my workers as well. It is HIPAA compliant and works great for any and all business models. Put simply this is a solid 10/10 software!
Pros
Square POS has been the most helpful feature for my small business. I have used Square on a daily basis for about a year and am still blown away by the features. Square links easily with any type of smartphone and the easy to use website makes handling the day to day business routine a breeze. Features include an appointment calendar, online booking, sales tracking, item tracking, payments, and much more!
Cons
The only downside I personally have experienced with this software is that Square does not do tiered pricing. For my business, I have a tiered cost for service (I.E. Tier 1 equals $, Tier 2 equals $$, Tier 3 equals $$$). This makes it difficult for online booking services and scheduling appointments. Luckily, you can put in discounted rates to help make the price accurate which is easy to setup but can effect your end of year outlook if you use Square alone to follow your income.
Pros
When I worked on commission as an artist, mostly scraping by a living by selling my wares at conventions or craft shows, Square was the single best companion I had. Not only was I cleared to take every type of credit card imaginable, which was amazing, but the customizability of the POS interface was stellar. I could prompt my customers to tip. I could quickly and easily change prices on my inventory, add buttons or lists of inventory, and re-organize my UI at the drop of a hat. I didn't even bother reading the instructions; I figured all this out on my own, through experimentation. Square POS makes the best use of a tablet's inherent intuitive design. Can you tap a screen? You can use Square.
Besides using it for my own side business, I've also worked for several small businesses (<30 employees) who used Square POS. Restaurants, convenience stores, tattoo studies, ice cream parlors - if you're selling something, Square POS can make your life simpler.
Cons
If I had to pick something I didn't like - and this is a stretch for me to do - it would be that the price for the dock and software can be steep for someone just getting started as an artist. But seeing as you get far more value than what you pay, I can barely call that a "con". This is a very safe investment.
We are a water sports rental company and we use Square for our on site rental locations. Some of our locations are completely offline with no cell or internet service. Square has an offline mode that allows us to accept credit cards offline and charges once the device has service again. Obviously, you have to take a few precautions accepting cards offline but this feature is a must for us. Square has a fairly high card fee but the software is free and the readers are inexpensive. The system and reports makes it easy fro us to add customer profiles and get the info we need. The best part is you can simply switch from one device to the other and have multiple locations no problem and for no additional cost.
Pros
Easy to set up, it has basically every feature a POS software needs but makes it a little more simple. It's really easy go mobile and great as a back up for larger retail POS software in case a system is down. The Square POS is free to download. The card readers are inexpensive and look nice and again are easily transported and can switch from different devices. Inventory tracking and simple shortcut displays for quick check outs. Offline mode is a great feature.
Cons
The credit card fees are not the cheapest out there. Some of the UI could be better organized like adding a new customer. I think being able to connect card readers to a laptop would be convent as well as an app for laptops.
Having tried Quick Books for many years (which was too complicated for some in my business), Square is a breeze to use. It's immensely convenient for a small business, and has options for storing sale information when we don't have internet access, such is helpful to not burn through data.
Pros
Square is immensely easy to use and is very convenient. Having worked retail for many years and dealing with credit card companies and contracts and different fees and charge rates, it's very convenient having one flat fee all around which also covers the use of the square (-even though some of the credit card companies charged less, it's a convenience factor) . I also loved that the original card swiper was free, but they then charged for the card reader with the transition to chip cards (don't like that). I also like the option for tracking inventory and sales in the newer versions
Cons
I don't like that they now charge for a chip card reader.
Overall I like square and would recommend
Pros
Square makes it so easy for us to complete a point of sale order. A patient that comes in and wants to buy something in our showroom can choose what they want to purchase we have all our products (non serialized only) loaded in the square so it’s makes checkout quockc& easy. At month end we print out our square sales and add the square transaction into out practice management software. This so so successful that last month we ordered square registers for our additional 10 locations as we were only using it previously in our corporate office/store. All of our delivery personal also have square readers on there phones which allows them collects payments while at patients home.
Cons
I receive daily emails with square transactions for all our locations so I receive at least 50-100 emails a day.
Square has made it super simple as a small business owner to get started and to keep track of my accounting.
Pros
I am a small business owner and square is so easy and affordable and it allows me to access all kinds of information about my business that I would have no idea that I needed until later when it was difficult to gather that information. Its affordable and is set up so I pay for my fees as I go with each transaction instead of a huge fee at the beginning or end of the month. It is also easy for me to run transactions on my phone, so when I am at a show or sending invoices, I can process payments on my computer or phone without having to carry around big heavy outdated technology. I also love that square has the same fee so I can accept every type of payment. Square also syncs products up with Etsy or your square website and has simple free website options or more detailed and professional options.
Cons
I wish that I could somehow accept payments through Venmo as well as PayPal. I also sometimes have trouble syncing updates for products from my computer to my phone but not the other way around and I haven't quite figured out if I'm doing something wrong or not.
Pros
I am a freelance business, so whenever clients want to pay with credit card, I have Square as one my options. I also use an invoicing software that takes credit cards as well as an online website that run through a different system. Square was the first system I used when I first started out and it's a solid system, but I've found better alternatives throughout the years though I still use it occasionally. It's great for quick sales that don't require an invoice.
Pros
Quick POS capabilities
Ability to charge a "tax" that will essentially pass on credit card fees to the customer
Immediately emails receipt to customer so that I don't have to worry about it
Square is great for goods, while I would recommend Wave for services. It's more robust and you can pull lots of different reports related to accounting through Wave. The one thing about Square that does have Wave beat is the ability to add a "tax" that essentially passes on credit card processing fees to the customer. It's easy to do on Square, while in Wave I have to manually calculate the percentage and add it as another item.
Square also is portable and quick and you don't have to create an invoice for it if you don't need one, so that's also a plus.
Cons
No ability to create invoices for services.
I have the old Square attachment for my phone and it doesn't take the new chip cards. I have to purchase the new one in order to process those cards and that's kind of a nuisance.
Overall, I love Square and the ideas they have rolling. I would be more inclined to use Square if it were a bit more organized and user-friendly. They have many more options than PayPal but, need to sharpen these options up in order to really pull ahead in the game.
Pros
I love the ease of use that comes with this program. The fact that I can send invoices from my account through my phone or computer makes my busy life that much easier. I love the fact that they have payroll now. I also love the reports you can generate and print out, it makes tax time a breeze. Square has quite a few more options than PayPal which is why it's hard to choose between the two sometimes. Where they beat out PayPal the most is allowing much easier payments for those not signed up with their program.
Cons
The biggest aspect I noticed was that the entire program seemed a little unorganized. I'm sure they have a lot of great ideas of where the software could go. However, it seems like they tried to do too much too quickly and it turned a little messy in the process. Some functions are available on mobile that aren't easy to find on PC and vice versa. The invoice parameters I set on PC didn't carry over to mobile so I had to setup both. This isn't a huge deal but, it would be nice for all aspects of the account to sync up. I use Paypal for my second business and find it much easier to use for about the same cost. PayPal doesn't offer as much which is why I think Square has some real potential if they slow down and really round out the options they already have.
I hightly do recommend this program for anyone that is out and about doing flea markets, trade shows and any business that wants people to be able to use their credit cards for payment. I like the idea of making money this way rather than losing money not having the program. Try it i think you will like it. It worth to make money and get the money in your bank.
Pros
i have square point of sale. What is great about this is that when you make a sale then money goes straight to your bank account. Square point of sale is connected to your bank account is where the money is sent. Which is nice also. Square point of sale does take a small percentage out for their use of their program. Kinda like having a credit card charge swipe. Then the money goes into your bank in 2-3 days but it does goes in the bank. The percentage taken out is like 30 cents which is not bad when you make a large profit on sales.
Cons
What i least about this program would be having to wait 2-3 days for the money to get in the bank. That would be the only thing. Otherwise it great program that helps with business. Using the square point of sale swipe to use credit card payments is really a great technology.
Pros
Charging someone through a credit or debit card has never been easier than it has been with Square Point of Sale. It's extremely easy to manually put in the price you want to charge someone, or you can set pre-determined prices on a page, just in case you charge the same for products and services and want to save some time. You can also check all of your transactions on a separate page, which helps when you want to check how much you've made in the past couple of days, all the way up to when you started using Square Point of Sale for your business.
Cons
The only true issue that I had with Square Point of Sale is that sometimes the app would go to offline mode for me. This isn't necessarily that much of an issue, but it got a little frustrating having to go back online after seeing that I'm in offline mode. Overall though, there are little to no problems with Square Point of Sale, and I recommend every merchant to use this if you take credit card payments, since it makes it so much easier, as you can tip through the app, and even send virtual receipts through it.
Pros
I love how easy it is to setup Square and immediately be able to accept credit cards literally anywhere. We have the Square stand (point of sale setup) and also on all of our mobile devices to be able to accept payments on the go as well. The processing fees are low and after about a year or so they also will offer you a business loan (advance) through Square Capital based on the volume of your sales and take a small additional fee from each credit card transaction until it's paid off.
Cons
There is really not much of anything I don't like with Square, but if I had to pick one thing I would say the most recent software update does not play well with the Apple iOS 12.1 update, but I am quite sure that it will be fixed very shortly
Square has provided my business the ability to accept credit cards without the hassle of a contract and batch fees. It has also allowed me to track sales while away from the store. I am also using the following features provided by Square: Payroll, Loyalty Program and Marketing. For my business, it has been an all around wonderful and important part of our daily business.
Pros
I love that it is always available and the money is in my account the next day. If I need it faster, I can also do an instant deposit that has the money in my account immediately.
Cons
My least favorite feature is not really the software, but the customer support. Would be useful if they provided the ability to chat online for any issues that arise. Luckily, I have only tried to contact customer support a couple of times over the course of 9 years.
Overall ok. Worked most of the time and I like that you can hook up your phone to the little swiping dude. Fix the tipping section at a buyer's checkout stage and you will do wonders. Lower CC fees please.
Pros
Working at a restaurant, this software made life easy for everybody (most of the time). Easy to set up a menu and add images, calculate tax, and reports.
Cons
When wifi went down so did our morale. However, the worst thing about this program was the Tipping Section. Customer's can't read the fine text at the tip checkout phase. They are deer in headlights. "Where do i sign?!" "What do I do" There is a big hiccup at this stage of the check out. Please bring up to your UX team. Square needs to make it simpler for end users. Bless them. I heard the fees are higher than most competitors.
We used this system to accept payment when on the go at farmers markets, for tracking cash payment, retail sales to coffee shops, and as payment for business transactions. It performed great under these scenarios and I would recommend it to any small business trying to operate in this capacity. While I cannot speak to its use on a larger scale I am under the impression it would hold its own.
Pros
The flexibility of payment types
Great ease of use especially on the go
Customers trust this method of taking payments
Made accepting payments for any type of business easy
Easy to plug in and accept payment and response time is great if you have cell service
Flat rate option is great once a certain business volume is reached
Cons
There is not much bad I can say about this software. For its intended purpose, it performs wonderfully. It may not be the perfect POS system for your business but generally speaking if suits a very broad spectrum of business needs.
It gave my business a really nice boost in revenue that i didn't realize i was loosing all along.
Pros
So the first thing about this POS system is that it so user friendly and easy to use!
When I first though about using a POS system I was worried about having to learn about accounting and such, (Was cash only) and it was so straight forward as far as the fees .
There was no hard intimidating arithmetic involved in the process, that for whatever reason I expected....
So this has been great to help INCREASE sales because well most pepole these days dont carry cash, so vendors need to get with the times.
I also like it includes tipping, and sending them and email so that helps build your emailing list up too. so lots of pros here, Also to I find the Square system super pretty!
Cons
I really cant think of any cons, but the thing that I like the least as a consumer is the cost , LOL It would be nice if it was cheaper, maybe they can offer different plans for smaller or larger companies? Which they don't, so I suppose that can be a con for you.
Great. Simple and easy to use. People have said that their customer service is extremely hard to get hold of, but we have used it for 3 years and have had no reason to contact customer service.