Merchant Services and POS

[rgs2rchs]

I’m new to this and belive I understand what is needed but looking for validation. We would like to be able to accept credit cards, debit and gift cards and from what I understand we will need the following.
1. POS system (software/hardware)
2. Merchant services for processing
3 A terminal for the connection
I have read post on POS’s but din’t see much on merchant services. If you are will to share who you use for your merchant services and how satisfied you are. Please provide a post.

If I’m missing something your comments are welcome.

Sean

 

[Jackson]

Hi sean,

If you plan on doing less than say, $15,000 per week in sales, you do not need a POS system. A new POS will cost in excess of $5000.00.

Look for a new or used cash register that has time clock capabilities. One of the most valuable tools you can have to run a successful coffee house will be an hour to hour labor percent report. Cost of goods is fairly easy to calculate by hand with a simple spreadsheet program.

As far as merchant services are concerned, I would use your bank. Typically, banks are fairly competitive with rates, and you will be able to access the funds faster if you go through your bank.

Credit card equipment is where most merchant services salesmen make their cash. If you need to save a buck or two, (who doesn't?) ask your bank about compatible equipment, and shop on E-bay.
Last but not least, do not use dial up for credit card processing!! It is way to slow.

 

[Comfy Place]

I would have to agree with Jackson on virtually everything, except for dail-up when processing credit cards. We are using dial-up for processing our credit cards, and other than a short delay, it really hasn't been a problem for us. Perhaps my experience is a bit different than others, but so far I don't have a really compelling reason to change it to faster processing.

BTW, I'm looking at times around the 10 seconds or less mark, so it isn't very long at all for us. Again, perhaps my experiences are more unique than I realized, but its been working great for us for over a year now. Cheers!

 

[rgs2rchs]

Thanks for the information and recommendations

 

[RMC]

POS

This is for Jackson,
I want to open a drive-thru and basically took for granted I would need a sophisticated POS system. Aren't they capable of telling you your peak periods and what drinks you sell the most of? Can't you use that info to help determine your hours of operation, when to have more than one employee on hand, what syrups you need to keep more of and which to order less of, handling the time clock and figuring your required withholding, as well as using for purchase orders and other data and reports? I'm concerned that I'll be overwhelmed with so many other things that I could use whatever help a good POS system will provide. Is it your opinion that this is not a fiscally responsible purchase? I welcome your advice, cause maybe I'm just freakin' myself out. Thanks!

 

[Jackson]

RMC,

If you want to have hourly sales reports and menu mix reports (number of each item on your menu that you have sold), I would watch E-bay everyday for an old Panasonic register. A Panasonic 5000 or 7500 would be perfect for a drive-thru application. You may find an old machine for between $300 and $600. As long as you do not want a remote printer or monitor, these machines are fairly easy to program.

Wendy's used these machines for years and may still use them today. This is not something that you would want to network to a back of house system (although you can for $$$), but you can certainly run all reports to the register printer.

There are many other cash registers on the market that work like POS systems, so do not limit yourself to just one brand. I worked for 3 concepts that used Panasonic, so I am very familiar with how they work.

 

[jdandtracy]

I’m new to this and belive I understand what is needed but looking for validation. We would like to be able to accept credit cards, debit and gift cards and from what I understand we will need the following.
1. POS system (software/hardware)
2. Merchant services for processing
3 A terminal for the connection
I have read post on POS’s but din’t see much on merchant services. If you are will to share who you use for your merchant services and how satisfied you are. Please provide a post.

If I’m missing something your comments are welcome.

Sean

We use Quickbooks POS on a computer out front, and it is networked to a computer in the back office running Quickbooks Pro 2007.

QB Pro was $160 on Ebay (new)
QB POS 6.0 with cash dwr, bar code scanner, receipt printer, and credit strip was $1320 on Ebay (all new).
I built the POS computer for pretty cheap (AMD San Diego 3700 core, 1 GB ram, DVD drive, and 160GB HDD... all for about $300 from Newegg.
It seemed to be a little glitchy at first, but works really well now. Total cost was around $2000. It keeps track of all kinds of things, and you can run custom reports.

I checked with a professional POS sales rep and he wanted $6000 for a basic system. Too steep for us, and Quickbooks works fine.

No matter who you choose, you will have 10-20 merchant services sales reps walk in your front door after you are open, and another 100 or so call you on the phone. They all claim to have the best deal...
We talked to some other coffee shops and found a company called RBS Lynk that has a service program set up for shops with low ticket averages. Our average ticket after three months and 7000 customers is $4.72. We expect that to go up as we start selling more whole bean by the pound. We average total fees of about 3.5% of credit sales.
We paid for the machine, but had a number of sales reps offer us free machines after we had already gone with the other company. Their fees were a little higher, which makes up for the cost of the machine in the long run. Just shop around and choose the best deal you can find, and try to get a free machine and a good rate. You will be surprised by how many cheesy merchant services sales reps come out of the woodwork AFTER you are open for business.

I have my credit card processing on DSL broadband. I wanted cable, but our building did not have cable internet available. We also ran an extra phone jack and the credit processing switches over to dial up automatically if the DSL goes down (which has happened once or twice).
On DSL, credit processing is pretty much IMMEDIATE. On dial up, it is about 5-10 seconds, but I have seen it take 30-60 seconds at my friends shop. That doesn't sound like much, but when 8 people behind them want to order, get their coffee, and get to work, it can be a problem if everyone is paying by card.

JD Anderson
Nemo's Coffee
Colorado Springs
www.nemoscoffeeshop.blogspot.com

 

[FairviewCoffee]

POS Quickbooks

JD,
is quickbooks POS an operating system, or does it have to run on top of Windows? Also, I thought that Quickbooks 2007 required Vista, any issues with that for a newbie? I know you have quite a bit of computer background, but I've heard difficult things about Vista and linking that together.

Thanks,
Angelo

 

[morrisn]

Quickbooks is not a operating system but is a program that must run on top of windows

 

[jennyparsons]

I’m new to this and belive I understand what is needed but looking for validation. We would like to be able to accept credit cards, debit and gift cards and from what I understand we will need the following.
1. POS system (software/hardware)
2. Merchant services for processing
3 A terminal for the connection
I have read post on POS’s but din’t see much on merchant services. If you are will to share who you use for your merchant services and how satisfied you are. Please provide a post.

If I’m missing something your comments are welcome.

Sean

hi if you looking for merchant services check www.fetchflow.com/blog/authorize-net-invoicing this will help you

 

[Royallie]

Did you think about creating your own merchant?