Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/84829
ALONG WITH THE POS SYSTEM, Square offers a "Pay with Square" app for the iPhone. "Square started as the easiest way to accept credit card payments, but our goal has always been to help small businesses," said Katie Baynes with Square. The company has its sights on carrying all credit card transactions in the future. The acquisition of Starbucks' credit card processing in August demonstrates Square is banking on a big future as a major POS player. Its appeal is direct: the system is easy to set up, offers low fees per transaction (a flat 2.75 percent), and demands no monthly fee. The Square POS is supremely simple and allows for a list of menu items, custom amounts to be entered in an open sale transaction, tax to be calculated, a tip option predetermined on a percentage or an open tip line, and simple end-of-day reports. It is so simple that Holly Migliaccio at Rook Coffee Roasters, which has cafés in Oakhurst, Long Branch and Ocean, N.J., noted that Square made POS training for staffers nonexistent, something unheard of for those using complex systems like MICROS or Aloha. "Square Card Reader was designed with the individual in mind, enabling quick and easy payments from an iOS or Android device," Katie says. "Square Register is a more robust, full point-of-sale solution that enables merchants to customize and organize their inventory and track Beyond Square Ben Sandler and Jen Lim at the Queens Kickshaw in Astoria, N.Y., began using an iPad for a POS upon opening in spring of 2011 for the appeal of a minimal design and the small amount of space it required. The iPad was a cool POS, and unique at the time. The startup cost was low and it allowed multitasking. The iPad could not only be the POS but also allow baristas to look up directions for customers, use the calculator, and research new beers for their tap selection. Ben and Jen chose not the Square, but a POS system called Revel that often overloaded, and have now switched to Breadcrumb, which functions better for the coffee shop/bar/gourmet grilled cheese spot. For the Queens Kickshaw and other cafés that serve food, Square may not be the best choice for a POS, as the tickets cannot be split up or sent to separate printers. Other downsides of the Square stem from Internet connection frustrations. Eric Hammond of Pearland Coffee Roasters in Pearland, Texas, an early adopter of the Square since 2010, reported, "Occasionally the Square shuts down unexpectedly." Pearland began busi- ness with a used POS system that ended up costing close to $10,000 with upgrades and switched to the more affordable Square. Square's low, flat-rate transaction fee tends to be the most attractive feature in winning over users. David Myers of Mighty Good Coffee "I worked with a software development company here in Montreal to program the app, but the concept was in my head after working on all kinds of inefficient and ineffective POS systems and cash registers over the past 10 years in different cafés," says Anthony Benda of Café Myriade their sales and growth." It also enables wireless connection to a cash draw- er and receipt printer. "Both applications let merchants list themselves in the Square Directory, which introduces them to new customers and allows them to publish details about their business," she adds. Interactive Goes Intergalactic One of its main advantages is the iPad-based POS system's mobility: It is not tied to a counter. Square allows employees to process cards via iPhones, making the system a potential roaming army of registers. "I think customers like it because it's interactive," says Danielle Riggins at Lazy Hummingbird in San Diego. Interactivity is only beginning for the iPad- to-iPhone connectivity. As a customer, you are able to set up a personal Square account, keep a credit card and picture on file, and pay and order once you get into the range of the Wi-Fi signal for that shop. "It also has the option of a virtual punch card that is linked to whatever phone number or email address that you have your receipts sent to, with or without a Square account," says Alexandra LittleJohn of Verve Coffee Roasters in Santa Cruz, Calif., who describes the Square app as "pretty handy." "All the device integration allows ultimate convenience as our mobile devices continue to become an extension of the self, or the exo-brain," wrote "Dilbert" comic creator Scott Adams in a 2009 blog post about the phone as a person's external brain and assistant. While interactive options continue to increase customer convenience, internal infrastructure for management could still use development. Square does not offer an inventory management system, so Rook Coffee Roasters created its own. "They also don't currently offer features to scale with and support businesses with more than one retail location. We have to use separate usernames and passwords to access information for our different stores," says Holly of Rook. "Overall, for our business, the upsides outweigh the downsides. Although we hope for some changes and updates from Square in the future, we've been happy with how things are working out so far." 58 barista magazine Roasting Company in Ann Arbor, Mich., says, "I used ShopKeep for about a year and am currently a listed reseller, too. I recently switched to Square Register and Square processing. While the Square Register has some nice features, from a data management standpoint, I still prefer ShopKeep. But the bottom line wins, in this case using a 2.75 percent flat rate processor" was the better option. According to David, both companies have made it easier, faster and cheaper to run a café over a traditional POS system. In the newly hip world of iPad POS systems, Square may be the most talked-about, but it is certainly not the only system on the market. ShopKeep, Breadcrumb, and Revel are all popular systems without card reader mechanisms. ShopKeep offers the most all-encompassing system with report capabilities, cloud syncing to a main computer for management and inventory, a receipt printer, barcode scanner, and guest signature on screen. It does, however, charge a $49-per-month fee per register, which could amount to a big expense in multiple-register cafés. Jason Duncan at Café Evoke in Edmond, Okla., switched from ShopKeep to Square in order to avoid fees for multiple registers and the $25-per-month merchant service fee. "ShopKeep was better on reporting and setting up new items on the iPad, but we thought the ability to add more registers outweighed that," Duncan says. Revel is a competitor in the $300,000-and-above sales category, and markets its system not as mobile, but as a more reliable Internet connection that runs off a router tapping into the iPad's 3G or 4G system. It offers sub- menus, discount options, time card functions, and many other features of a full-service POS. The initial setup runs $1000–$2300, in addition to the $100-per-month cloud fee. Breadcrumb's hardware runs significantly less expensive at $500 with no fee for the software. It is, however, $99-per-month, per terminal. Its design is suited for the Apple crowd, appealing to visual minds with its organized but interesting layout. GoPayment does provide a card reader, but has slightly higher fees than Square. With a fee of 2.7 percent plus 15 cents on each transaction,