What a POS system does in a restaurant

A restaurant POS (point of sale) is the system your staff use to take an order, send it to the kitchen, take payment and record the sale. It is software running on a set of devices: a terminal at the counter, handhelds for servers, kitchen screens or printers, and card readers. Online ordering, delivery apps, payroll and your reports all draw on it.

Think of the POS as the record of what you sold. A website, kiosk, delivery app or phone line works best when it writes into the POS as a real order. Then the kitchen works from one queue, and the reports count each sale once.

What are the parts of a restaurant POS?

Part	What it does	Examples from vendor pages
Terminal or station	The main screen where staff ring orders and take payment	Square Register has two screens; Clover Station Duo pairs a 14-inch staff screen with an 8-inch customer screen
Handheld	Lets servers take orders and cards at the table, on the patio or in a line	Square Handheld; Clover Flex, with a built-in receipt printer; Toast Go 3
Kitchen display (KDS)	Shows each station the items it makes, in place of paper tickets	The Square KDS app, with ticket routing and timers, on Android screens
Printers	Print receipts at the counter and tickets in the kitchen	Square sells an impact printer it describes as built for kitchen tickets and high heat
Card reader	Takes tapped, dipped or swiped cards	Square Reader for contactless and chip; Square Terminal, which has a receipt printer built in
Cash drawer	Holds cash; usually opened by the printer or terminal	Square sells a printer-driven cash drawer
Software	Holds the menu, modifiers, floor plan, staff, reports and payment settings	Runs on the devices and in a web dashboard for managers

Some systems run on a tablet you already own. Square Stand is a swiveling stand for an iPad, and Square's hardware page lists the iPad models it fits. Toast's pricing FAQ says its services run only on Toast-approved hardware. Ask which devices you must buy from the vendor before you price a setup.

What does a POS record?

• Items and modifiers: each dish, its size, its add-ons and any note such as an allergy.
• Checks: the table or seat, the server, and the dining option (dine in, pickup or delivery).
• Payments: cash, cards, gift cards, split payments, tips, voids and refunds.
• Staff: who rang each item, when they clocked in and out, and the tips they earned.
• Inventory: counts that drop as items sell, if you set them up, and items marked sold out.
• Reports: sales by hour, item, server and channel.

How does the POS connect to other ways of ordering?

For each channel, ask one question: does the order land in the POS as a real ticket with every modifier, or does someone type it in again?

• Online ordering: POS makers such as Square and Toast sell online ordering that feeds the POS. Square's pricing page includes an online ordering profile on every plan, and Toast's pricing page describes commission-free takeout and delivery.
• Delivery apps: Square lists third-party order management that gathers orders from delivery partners such as Grubhub and DoorDash in one place. Check that the app's modifiers match your POS menu.
• Kiosks: a self-order kiosk writes orders into the POS the same way a register does. Our kiosk buyer's guide covers what to look for.
• Phone orders: staff key the order in, or a phone-ordering service writes it into the POS. Maple Pro takes phone orders into supported POS systems such as Toast, Square, Clover and SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine). Maple's drive-thru and kiosk units, in early access, write orders into the POS as well.
• Menu changes: Square says menu edits sync to every location and channel, including POS, online, kiosks and delivery apps.
• Payroll: hours and tips pass from the POS to payroll. Square Payroll starts at $35 per month + $6 per person paid. Toast offers new restaurants a POS and payroll bundle starting at $69/month + $9 per employee/month.

What do the common POS terms mean?

Term	What it means
Check or ticket	One table's or guest's order and its payments
Modifier	A choice attached to an item, such as a size, an add-on or "no onion"
Fire	Send items to the kitchen. Coursing fires starters and mains at different times.
Bump	Clear a finished ticket from a kitchen screen
Expo	The station that checks a whole order before it leaves the kitchen
86	Mark an item sold out
Tab and pre-auth	An open bar check held against a card. Square describes pre-auth as a temporary hold for a set amount, to check the card can pay the bill.
Void, comp and refund	Void cancels an item or payment, comp gives an item free with a reason, and refund returns money for a paid sale. Decide which staff roles may do each.
Card present and keyed	A tapped, dipped or swiped card, or a card number typed in. On Square, keyed cards cost 3.5% + 15¢ and in-person cards 2.4% to 2.6% + 15¢, by plan.
Payment facilitator	A company that offers card processing by partnering with processors. Toast describes itself this way.
Offline mode	Taking orders, and sometimes cards, while the internet is down. Payments go through when the device reconnects.
Dining option	Dine in, pickup or delivery. It can change which screen gets the ticket and how the order is bagged.

What happens to one order, from call to report?

Here is a made-up Friday pickup order at a burger restaurant, traced through the POS.

1. 6:05 pm, the call. A guest orders two burgers, one with no onion, and a large fries for pickup at 6:25. Staff ring it on the terminal, or a phone-ordering service writes it into the POS. The POS opens a check with the dining option set to pickup.
2. Payment. The guest reads a card number over the phone, so staff key it in. On Square's and Clover's printed rates, a keyed payment costs more than a tapped card. If the guest pays on arrival instead, the tap counts as card present.
3. 6:06 pm, the kitchen. The POS fires the order. Both burgers go to the grill screen with "no onion" shown on one, the fries go to the fry station, and the whole order appears at expo.
4. 6:20 pm, the bump. Grill and fry bump their items. Expo sees both done, bags the order and bumps it. If the system sends order-ready texts, the guest gets one now. Square lists this on its Plus and Premium plans.
5. 6:25 pm, pickup. Staff hand over the bag and close the check. If you track counts, the POS takes two patties and one fries portion off inventory.
6. Close of day. The manager runs the day's report: sales by channel, card and cash totals, and tips. Hours and tips go to payroll. Card funds move to your bank on the processor's schedule.

Every step depends on setup. The item has to exist with its modifiers, route to a station, and match across channels. When an outside channel sends an order the POS cannot match, a person has to retype it.

To compare what systems cost, see Toast vs Square and Clover POS pricing. For kitchen screens, see our KDS guide.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted explainer combines Square, Toast and Clover product and pricing pages with an original glossary and a made-up order walkthrough. It does not report hands-on testing of any POS or recommend a system.