Do not go to a showroom and watch someone else ring one coffee. Have the person who closed the till last Friday run your own menu, prices and machines from power-on to close. No salesperson coaching. No manager doing the taps for them.
At each step write: what should happen, what did happen, how long it took, and how you keep selling after a miss. Only three verdicts: passed, failed, still unknown. A salesperson saying “it can” or one coached success does not count as a pass.
Opening
Tills, printers and card terminals come up; people can log in; today’s dishes, prices and tax are right; leftover tickets from overnight are cleared first. Write who must look before the first real order goes out.
Peak
Examples: two tables into one, a split bill, extra portion no coriander, void before the kitchen, cash plus card, kitchen ticket does not print. The busiest hour is done by the person on shift, with no coaching. Tickets still open at handover cannot sit with nobody. If a card fails, they must be able to tell whether the money was taken.
When it breaks
Do not assume there is an offline mode. Pull the network, kill one station, unplug a printer, freeze the card terminal — one at a time. Decide in advance which backup you use, how tickets are written, how you reconcile later. Who calls the recovery, and which pass holds the spare paper, goes on the same sheet.
Close
Match orders, payments, changes, voids and refunds the way you already close. Export the file you usually give accounting, then make one mismatch on purpose and see if you can find it. Next morning the previous day’s records are still there, and unfinished work lands with the right person.
Related short answers
- How do you test a POS on a real trading day—and how do you record results?
- Capability overview: Features
Back to Restaurant POS selection checklist.