What does a POS system do in a New Zealand restaurant?
POS stands for point of sale. In a restaurant, the POS is where a table is opened, an order is recorded and the bill is settled. It is a separate system from the booking, menu and stock tools on this site.
Short answer
- A restaurant POS system is the point of sale where a table is opened and an order is recorded.
- Orders taken at the table go to the kitchen, and the bill is settled at the POS or on an EFTPOS terminal.
- New Zealand does not require a special cash register for sales, but your records must meet Inland Revenue (IRD) requirements.
- 4restaurants.net covers bookings, the floor plan, the menu, orders, stock and reports, and it does not replace your POS for payments.
What sits in a restaurant POS setup
The components of a POS setup in a restaurant with a kitchen
| Component | What it does | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Table order | Records the dishes at the table and sends the order to the kitchen | On the floor, on the device the team uses |
| Kitchen | Receives the orders sent from the tables | In the kitchen |
| Till or EFTPOS terminal | Takes card payment and settles the bill | At the till, alongside the POS |
| Stock and recipes | Shows ingredient stock levels and the recipe card of each dish | In 4restaurants.net, next to the menu |
| Reports | Sales by day, by dish and by waiter | In the dashboard |
What the rules say
- New Zealand does not require a special cash register for sales. Your sales records must meet Inland Revenue (IRD) requirements, so check the detail with your accountant.
- The application does not replace your POS or EFTPOS terminal, so payments are handled on those devices.
- Food control plans and national programmes under the Food Act 2014 apply to the kitchen, whatever system you use.
- Business customers who need a GST tax invoice are served by your own invoicing software, not by this application.
Practical example
Example: table 12 orders two pasta dishes and a glass of wine. The waiter sends the order from the floor device, and the kitchen receives the dishes with the time of the order.
At payment, the EFTPOS terminal and your POS settle the bill. The daily report in the application shows sales by dish and by waiter, and you check the stock levels separately.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a system that is expected to take payments, and finding out after you sign that it does not.
- Not noting each order clearly with its table and time, so you cannot tell what has left the kitchen.
- Leaving dishes without a recipe card, so you do not know which ingredients each sale uses.
- Not noting the reason for each cancellation, so you cannot easily see what happened to a cancelled order.
How 4restaurants.net helps
- The order taken at the table is sent to the kitchen from the same application.
- Payment stays on your POS or EFTPOS terminal, which the application does not connect to.
- Ingredient stock levels sit in the same application as the orders, so you can check them in time.
- Reports by day, by dish and by waiter show the sales of each service.