Choosing an EPOS System – Good Till & EPOS Now

Author: Samantha Hart (ACCA), Senior Digital Manager

An EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) System is the name given to the software used by retail and hospitality businesses to process goods and services payments and orders through a till, card machine and printer, which allows you to run your business effectively – be it a small/medium restaurant, hotel, café or retail outlet.

As a digital firm we delight in sharing our knowledge of EPOS systems with clients and implementing systems to integrate with cloud accounting software to enhance business performance. Let’s explore the options in light of our two most recently adopted EPOS solutions.

Why use EPOS?

Firstly, why is EPOS a good idea in the first place? One of the key benefits of EPOS is its capacity to measure and manage business activity in a way that allows you to make insight-driven changes. By building a clear and accurate view of your business performance you can then set about improving it.

For example you can spot trends hourly and monthly and seasonal sales to better manage stock and staff, increase stock on popular items, discontinue unpopular ones and push surplus stock. You can also see what certain customers are buying and target ‘push promotions’ to their email or mobile devices.

EPOS cuts down on time spent on your admin with inventory management, accounting and staffing. It allows you a clear view of incoming revenue and outgoing costs, making spotting opportunities for savings easy and can even link to your marketing software (e.g. EPOS Now) allowing you to send email campaigns to signed up customers.

So what are the options? Recently as a firm we introduced two new POS software solutions,’The Good Till’ and ‘EPOS Now’, let’s start with those.

The Good Till

‘The Good Till’ is an iPad based EPOS (electronic point of sale) system offering direct integration with Xero and QuickBooks. It’s fast and simple to use and suits table-side and central location ordering and payments.

The iPad start-up bundle gives you everything you need to get started with costs varying depending on whether you can get your hands on an offer. Standard monthly costs can be as little as £29/month for core functionality and depending on your sector you might then opt for some additional service addons such as self service, in-room ordering and table ordering.

Extra functionality includes table service, advanced stock control, kitchen display screen and advanced promotions (buy one get one free, time-based offers, multi and cross buys, gift cards, coupons). There is also a 1 iPad versus 3 iPad option (the latter being £141 per month). The hardware ranges in price from £684+ upwards to over £1.5k. The basic hardware gives you one iPad, 1 receipt drawer, 1 iPad stand and 1 card reader.

This EPOS system allows you to navigate easily on its intuitive interface, keep an eye on stock and view best sellers. Another positive note is it is fully customisable to your business. The software is part of ‘Sum Up’, a system that allows you to take card payments while taking a minimal percentage of daily sales (currently at 1.69%). The Good Till integrates with numerous accounting apps at no additional cost.

EPOS Now

We also use ‘EPOS Now’ at LHP. As a recommended EPOS it can be used with a variety of different systems, from a traditional till to your mobile phone device and is well suited for example to clothing, grocery shops, gift shop companies, hospitality point of sale and table and kitchen management.

A complete EPOS Now system starts from £399 a year with a tiny percentage of card sales taken. This POS system is simple and easy to use and allows you to sell in multiple ways to reach customers anywhere including online, delivery, collection and multi-channel.

Let’s Talk

The EPOS Now system integrates with over 100 apps, the only difference here being an additional monthly cost in doing so. There are other EPOS systems that integrate well with our online accounting software LHP members of staff have had dealings with such as;

• Zettle
• Square Up
• Vend

We are happy to use a number of other EPOS systems to connect to your Xero cloud accounting software. Check out the options out on the Xero App Store, we will always consider the best-match for you and your company. If you are interested in getting an EPOS, why not let our digital team talk you through all of the available options? Let’s talk.