Our experts encourage business owners to think about what they need out of their system before they make their final decision. For example: If they run a retail location, they’ll require additional nested features like inventory tracking, compared to restaurants that might benefit from table management features. Once a final determination is made about what the business needs, owners can shop by feature list and choose the most complete solution for their needs.

Generally, retail POS systems like Square or Clover should include inventory management, barcode scanning, sales reporting, and employee tracking. Owners should also ensure systems include integration with ecommerce platforms and customer loyalty programs, as centralizing operations through a singular POS can save time and money in the future.

Most small business payment processors are incredibly careful when it comes to security and compliance, as trust is paramount for both them and their customer bases. Most, as a result, remain PCI compliant, tokenization and multi-level encryption to ensure transactions and data remain as secure as possible. We recommend business owners ask about security features and steps related to every payment processor they are considering to ensure that they wind up with the safest options possible.

Most restaurant POS systems should include features like order customization, table management, split check tabulation features, and kitchen integrations. Restaurant owners looking for more customized features should consider a POS system with a flexible API that can facilitate their custom build.