If you are a restaurant owner, point-of-sale systems (POS systems) allow your restaurants to accept payments and record sales. The basic functions are simple enough, but setup and options can vary between brands, which we’ll go through as we compare the different PoS system providers in Hong Kong.
Traditional PoS systems used to be cash registers, but they have since evolved into sleeker, more sophisticated platforms that also manage customer service, sales promotions, and operational activities on top of revenue.
With so many features, you might be wondering what the best POS system is for your restaurant in Hong Kong. Let’s go through 5 of our recommendations and their features.
iChef HK
iChef is a point-of-sale system provider that specifically serves F&B clients from Taiwan and has also expanded to Hong Kong. It claims to be “the only POS system to win the iF Design award” and the most awarded POS design, with over 8000 restaurants using iChef POS system in Asia.
Features
- Recording customers’ basic information
- Wait list management e.g. adjusting the waiting list sequence of tickets in line
- Takeout order management e.g. taking orders, setting takeout service charge, and quick access to the takeout waiting list
- Table management e.g. table status overview, setting placeholders, and quick table changes
- Cash payments, credit card swiping, and bill splitting
- Fraud prevention e.g. setting up staff ID, recording cash expenditure and shortages, and setting up permissions to access the primary operations
- Analytics report, e.g. comparisons of average revenue for the same period, individual item sales records, revenue overview, table turnover rates, etc.
- Integration with Google My Business
Check out iChef POS’s Specs for the full list of details.
Pricing
iChef charges HK$788 per month for 1 iPad per store, with each additional iPad per store costing HK$198 per month.
Check out iChef’s full pricing details on its official website.
Caterlord
Caterlord offers a cloud-based POS system for restaurants in Hong Kong. They focus on providing an all-in-one system that allows you to manage multiple brands and stores and configure multiple operation modes (ex. fine dining restaurants, takeaway shops, and cake shops and sushi bars) from a single account.
Features
Caterlord offers basic POS features as well as features for security, table, order taking, billing, printing, take away and delivery, time slot management, inventory management, in-store POS admin, HQ cloud admin, and CRM functionality. Here are some of their exclusive features as highlighted on their official website:
- Smart combo set
- Real-time cloud data backup
- Intelligent table lock to avoid duplicated orders
- Composite item
- On-screen display sold-out or remaining items
- Minimum charge by table or by order
- Switch bill language on billing
- Order in one language and print in another
- Search customer records by phone number
- Manage multiple brands, multiple stores from a single account
- Real-time sales reports
Pricing
For their economical solutions, you can consider their SOLO bundles:
- Package A (Window Surface 3 Bundle): HK$9,800 per set
- Package B (Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Bundle): HK$18,800 per set
- Package C (AIO POS Bundle): HK$16,800 per set
If you need something more, you can get a quote or request a demo for Caterlord PRO from their website.
Something to keep in mind is that there are additional charges for various items and platform usage, for example, HK$600 extra for 150+ menu items. For more details, check out their pricing page.
Eats365
Eat365 is a feature-rich yet easy-to-use iPad-based POS system for small businesses, restaurant chains, and even multinational enterprises in the F&B industry.
Features
- Menu management, e.g., combos, bulk item management, and categories setting
- Staff management, e.g., clock in and out, end of day reports, user and security settings
- Analytics and reports, e.g., best-selling item analysis, shift reports, accounting, and staff report
- Multi-language support
You may visit the official website here for full feature details.
Pricing
Contact the Eats365 team to get a quote.
Square POS
Square, a leading digital payment company based in the US, sells POS software via the Square POS app. Although Square is not based in Asia, its international presence empowers it to be one of the best POS system providers that provides a proper all-in-one solution.
Features
Square POS has payment, inventory, analytics, and even CRM features, including:
- Accepting credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and gift cards as payment methods
- Payment protection e.g., dispute management and fraud protection
- Checkout customization e.g. modify toppings and add-ons and itemized refunds
- Customer service e.g. customer contact management, order notes, and customized receipts.
Visit Square POS official website for all feature details.
Pricing
There are no monthly fees or setup fees. Instead, you’ll only be charged a processing fee of 2.6% + US$0.10 when a transaction occurs.
You can inquire for a custom pricing package if you process more than US$250k in card sales with an average transaction size over US$15.
Loyverse
Loyverse, which stands for Loyalty Universe, offers a range of POS applications that enable businesses to manage sales, customers, inventories, and employees on top of their restaurant POS system, which is one of their key products.
Loyverse products are available in over 25 languages (including traditional Chinese) and are recognized in over 170 countries on both Android and iOS.
Features
- Order management e.g. splitting, merging, and moving items between tickets, assigning tickets to a table, and quickly creating tickets for orders
- Customisable menu screen
- Options to include toppings and add-ons
- Manage dining options such as dine-in, takeout, and delivery
- Apply discounts and make notes to items or orders
- Kitchen displays that synchronize orders
- Pair an unlimited number of kitchen display and printers
- A loyalty program
- Employee management e.g. workload per hour, track employee’s sales performance, and manage employee access to sensitive information
Pricing
Loyverse POS, Dashboard, Kitchen Display, and Customer Display are all free of charge. There are optional add-ons, such as employee management and integrations that cost a monthly fee.
Check out Loyverse’s Pricing page for more details.
POS system for restaurants in Hong Kong: Conclusion
Doing proper research on your restaurant’s needs and the POS systems that meets those needs is critical to your restaurant’s success, as it is much more difficult to change systems down the line.
Trialing different POS systems then is one of the best ways to find the most suitable system for your team.
You may also want to consider setting up an accounting service to handle the mountain of receipts you’ll have to record. Binery is one of the best accounting service provider’s for F&B businesses that will help you take care of all your receipts, audits and monthly reports for an affordable price.
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