TouchBistro vs. Upserve: 2023’s Best Restaurant POS Systems

The world has just entered a new year and decade. It’s the perfect time to assess what you’ve been doing in your business and decide whether or not it’s time for a change. Legacy systems should be updated and vendors should be reevaluated. This is even more important when it comes to your restaurant POS system.

So much is riding on the POS software you use every day in your business. Is it truly delivering the efficiency and cost savings you expected when you signed up? If not, it may be time to make the switch to a new restaurant POS system. The right POS system will help you achieve your business goals over the long term.

This article compares the best POS systems on the market head to head. You’ll learn how they excel, where they’re different, and whether or not it’ll be the right choice for your restaurant going forward.

4 basic features a restaurant POS system should have

There are basic restaurant POS features that should be available within every system. Without those features, the POS software and hardware isn’t worth your time. Here’s a quick rundown of those features which both TouchBistro and Upserve have. That way, it won’t be necessary to mention them again and the rest of the article can focus on how the platforms go above and beyond the bare minimum.

1. Ease of use

Ease of use may be the single most important feature in any restaurant POS system. Even if you choose the most powerful point of sale tool on the market, it doesn’t matter if you or your staff are unable to use it. The best restaurant POS of 2020 takes this into consideration when creating the interface.

You and all of your staff should be able to learn the ins and outs with a single training session. If it isn't intuitive from the get-go, there should different forms of customer support available for you. This can include video, knowledge base articles, and phone support. Tied in with being easy to use, your POS should be fast. A slow system holds up everything else in your restaurant and results in unhappy customers.

2. Inventory and menu management

Completely manual inventory management is a relic of the last decade. It’s time-consuming and causes headaches for even the best managers. With the right POS software, inventory management can move from a cost center to one of your biggest profit centers.

You should be able to add inventory directly to your system and monitor it from a central location to unlock granular control over usage and waste. The best POS systems will let you monitor individual ingredients and items, gain efficiencies, and increase margins.

3. Reporting

Of all the restaurant POS features you’ll use on a daily basis, reporting is one of the most integral to the success of your business. When you have easy-to-understand reports, you’ll be able to make better decisions.

The ideal restaurant POS system will give you detailed information on critical business areas such as gross margins and revenue. It’ll also have information that’s useful to restauranteurs such as average table turnover and sales by waiter. You can use these insights to understand if you’re hitting your KPIs and confidently make decisions that’ll have a positive impact on your bottom line.

4. Table and floor management

The last essential restaurant POS feature is the ability to manage your tables and floor plan. Without this feature, it can be difficult to efficiently manage your front of house operations. This can lead to long wait times and confusion for your hosts which then causes frustration and dissatisfaction amongst your guests.

With table and floor management, you’ll be able to understand the status of your tables at a glance, evenly distribute guests among waiters, and create a better flow for everyone involved. You’ll also be able to take reservations while creating a seamless experience.

Now that there’s a baseline for what your restaurant POS system should do, it’s time to compare two of the best POS on the market – TouchBistro and Upserve – and understand what they bring to the table. When you’re done, you’ll know whether or not they’re a good fit for your needs.

TouchBistro

TouchBistro is an iPad restaurant POS system that combines flexibility and restaurant management tools you need to increase your profit. One of the major draws of TouchBistro is the seamless integration between the front of house and back of house. You’re able to use the platform itself or choose from a number of third-party integrations to create your own setup.

The software has key features such as tableside ordering so orders get sent to the back of house as soon as they’re made. Staff management features include employee scheduling, activity tracking, and even chat capabilities. It doesn’t end there: TouchBistro also helps you calculate staff wages and the cost of labor, reduce theft with robust security controls, and keep an eye on overall performance.

Furthermore, TouchBistro has a built-in CRM system that makes it easier to deliver a seamless experience for your regular customers and reward loyalty. Use the customer accounts in the CRM to pay for orders, open tabs, track customer preferences, and even collect advance payments. With TouchBistro Loyalty, you’re able to give rewards for continuing patronage, which has been shown to increase average order value and word of mouth.

Source: TouchBistro.com

On the hardware side, the most important piece of equipment is the iPad which will be used as your POS terminal. Beyond that, a credit card reader (for the iPad or handheld), a cash drawer, a Mac minicomputer, and a receipt printer are good choices to get you started. There are many more options that depend on your preferences such as a wireless mouse and keyboard.  Beyond that, you can set up a kitchen display system for orders to be routed to the back of house and even a self-service kiosk so guests can pick what they want and reduce the stress on waitstaff.

Everything within TouchBistro gives the appearance of being designed to make it easier for you and your staff to work more efficiently. It’s a complete system that does much more than process payments. Whether you have one location or one-hundred, the TouchBistro restaurant POS system is worth a closer look.

Upserve

Upserve is another powerful restaurant POS system that acts as a self-contained solution to power your restaurant. It goes beyond a simple POS system by incorporating reputation management software. This software finds and aggregates reviews of your brand online so you can do damage control or display them prominently. You can also do competitive sentiment analysis by setting Upserve to keep an eye on competing restaurants.

Like TouchBistro, it has customer relationship management features that make it simple to reward customer loyalty. What's nice, though, is that it takes it a step further. You’re able to track marketing campaigns from within Upserve and understand whether your promotions are yielding a positive ROI and repeat business. Do more of what works and cut the rest as you improve your bottom line.

Upserve offers a unique way of helping you understand individual server performance. Each server has a “report card” which gives you information such as sales, table turn time, discounts, etc. This allows you to identify who’s performing well and learn from them and who’s underperforming and coach them. The end result is a better utilization of limited resources.

Source: Upserve.com

The hardware options are limited but custom-built for a restaurant environment. Choose from tableside ordering and payments equipment, POS terminals, kitchen displays, printers, and more. Most of the equipment, like Upserve Tableside – the tableside ordering device – can be purchased directly from the company. Others require purchasing from third-party vendors.

One of the major draws of Upserve is the deep reporting it offers. You’re able to get insights at a high level as well as drill down to understand exactly what’s contributing to your revenue. It’s a solid choice for your POS needs.

Conclusion

While it’s not a requirement to change your POS system in the New Year, it’s the perfect time to do it. This article compares two of the best restaurant POS for 2020 and why they’re both so highly recommended. If you’ve been on the fence in the past, now is the time to take the plunge and improve your business with the right tools.