When you start out looking for a POS system as a Business owner, the first thing that knocks you off your feet is the price. So if you don’t want to use a simple cash register or a cigar box, you will have to resign yourself to eating the cost and making the commitment.
Buying a POS is sort of like getting married. There’s going to be love, spats, emotional turmoil, love and settling into a long and trusting relationship. Back in early to middle 2000’s, I married AccuPOS, for better or worse. I have to say for the most part it has been better, NO, really, really good! Micros, and Aloha are for the Big Boys, and you will never have a relationship that goes beyond waiting for a tech. There are hundreds of POS systems on the market and I wish you luck if you want to test them all out, and see if they work for your business. We started a Café and Catering business back in 2003 and wanted QuickBooks integration, ease of use, and management tools to help us.
After all, if you are not part of my solution, you’re part of the problem! (a quote from my Dad) It’s not going to be an easy process, and in fact, it’s going to take time and dedication on your part to learn the AccuPOS System and tailor it for you needs. This will absolutely hold true no matter what POS you purchase.
With us, It came down to the fact that back in 2004 very few systems could be set up for a Café’ – Gourmet Prepared Food sales using embedded barcodes from a Scale – A Restaurant, and Retail Items: being effective at ALL of these requirements.
AccuPOS was the only system that could accomplish this at any cost. Not only was the system and software able to handle everything we threw at it, it was able to do it flawlessly! Since we first started using AccuPOS, we have been through too many revisions and upgrades to count. Each and every one has been better, BUT, not always the first time. This is where their support comes in. Please everyone stop whining about paying for support, and upgrades. Engineers and Software Designers like to be able to put gas in their cars and food in the fridge too! Aloha and Micros are going to hit you for support fees so, get used to it… it’s a business expense. I will agree with other reviews you may have read that for a short time, AccuPOS had issues with support, getting through to them, and endless waiting on the phone.
Happily, THAT has ALL changed! The beauty of AccuPOS is that they listen, REALLY they DO listen, and they have taken many of my suggestions to make better software and easier to use software. In fact, we asked them to customize some of the buttons and keys that we needed, and in a scant few days, we had our own custom button layout that fit into their design parameters. Of course they were not going to re-design the program for me, but they were able to add and take away function keys to make our operation easier to run. Fast forward to this past week; we decided that we were going to have to migrate our business off of the older 2013 Version and onto the 2015 version.
Now this is not going to make a difference to you if you’re starting from scratch so I’ll be brief. The entire layout and screen has changed from the older version to the new 2015 one, and oh boy, is it AWESOME! It’s like moving from a Prius, (tried and true) to a Ferrari which is slick perfection. A POS system must be logical and intuitive. You can’t spend your time hunting and searching for items, and performing customer centric functions. The time you put into preparation, SKU’s, item descriptions, key layouts, and page design for items will pay dividends in the end.
I have been using their system for years so we have perfected our page layouts and key where using AccuPOS in our restaurant is second nature. Their sales and support teams are fantastic at getting you started and teaching you the world of POS. Way back when, the install and support team taught me how to set up sku’s in QuickBooks, how to define items, how to think POS, and it is a new language. Embrace it, don’t fight it, and call their support teams if you get lost or into trouble. I still do, and at this point, I know the AccuPOS system very well.
Our migration to Version 2015.2 had some glitches, but with tech support, on the phone with me and their being logged into all of our POS Stations at the same time solved every issue on the punch list. Problems did creep up after the install and I really don’t think that I had to wait for a tech form more than 3-4 minutes at the most. So I have to say, getting to a tech to solve an issue has been easy, and I’ve made about 15 calls across the week since we did the upgrade. No question is too stupid for them, and you’re treated with respect. I’m happy they embrace my level of experience but if you’re not a POS geek, don’t worry. There were some times where tech support was logged in, and I just went to get a coffee. I sat and watched my screen as all the new software was installing.
Certainly as a new POS user, they will take you through every step of the way, and you’re going to have questions, a lot of them! So, a week after the install, every server, café worker, and myself have agreed that this is indeed the finest version of AccuPOS to come down the pipe to date. It is an awesome POS program that continues to do everything we throw at it. It is stable. It doesn’t crash or lock up, and I never thought I’d say POS software is fun to use but this is a real tool to make you money, speed up customer transactions and get the job done.
On a side note, we are using Mercury “Token” Processing through AccuPOS and I have had a great experience with them as well. You can call them directly to discuss any issue and they are very responsive. Some things on my AccuPOS wish list would be ApplePay integration and the ability to use some of the high end VeriFone Color Signature Pads with swipe and the Embedded Credit Card Chip reader. I have heard rumblings that the sig pad is in the works, along with more enhancements. AccuPOS certainly doesn’t sit on their hands given the latest offerings. I highly recommend AccuPOS!