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EMV Transition Has Been A Nightmare For Businesses. This Guide Should Help.

EMV Chip Card

EMV Transition Has Been A Nightmare For Businesses. This Guide Should Help.

EMV Chip Card

 

Transitioning to accept EMV chip cards has been a nightmare for businesses, small and large. And the result of this confusion has been loss of millions of dollars and growing, in fraudulent chargebacks!

So here is a must-read EMV transition guide that will walk you through everything you need to know step-by-step.

What is EMV?

EMV stands for Euronet, masterCard and visa. It is a security standard adopted by the payment industry to reign in on billions of dollars of credit card frauds committed every year in US alone. This security standard has been adopted in most parts of the world, but is still fairly new to the United States. It just had it’s first year anniversary.

EMV is also popularly referred to as ‘chip card’ as well.

Why should I upgrade my equipment?

For starters, EMV Compliance is NOT a law as many people assume. You are not doing anything illegal if you still using the old “Swipe and Sign” process on your terminal or integrated POS.

However, it is important to know that you will be held liable for any fraudulent transactions that happen at your location because you did not upgrade to an EMV compliant equipment.

Previously when you fell victim to a chargeback, the issuing bank investigated and based on the proof submitted, covered you for the disputed amount.

But starting October 1, 2015 the responsibility has been shifted to the merchant or the one with the weakest link in the payment process.

The image below is a great illustration to help you understand these changes:

emv-email-img-blog-1

 

Chargebacks have been on rise exponentially, in thousands of dollars every month, especially at Lounges/Bars, High-End Restaurants, Liquor stores and Gas stations.

A discovery channel video below shows how easy it is for credit card fraudsters to make fake credit cards and use at your locations.

How to upgrade and how much it cost?

The first step to upgrade to EMV is to understand your needs. Do you need to be able to accept EMV chip cards only or you need to adjust tips as well on those EMV transaction.

Or you  want your customers to enter their debit card PIN on those EMV transactions?

There are various different features that you need to be aware of and then decide the terminal model.

Especially if you are a business that takes tips.

Not ALL terminals support tip adjustment at the end of the day. It depends on the type of terminal and the processor that supports it.

There are 2 components that make up your EMV compliance.

  1. Hardware – The equipment needs to have the slot to enter the chip card
  2. Software Certification – Software needs to be certified by the processor for that particular hardware to accept EMV.

Every processor supports different terminal/hardware for EMV and Tip Adjust. So for example, if Ingenico ict220  is supported by First Data for EMV + Tip Adjust, does not mean all other processors will support the same hardware for EMV + Tip adjust.

The terminals below are certified by First Data to accept chip cards.

  1. Verifone Vx520 – Accepts chip cards, Accepts Tip adjust after the sale.

           Recommended for restaurants or businesses that accept tips.

 

Verifone Vx520

 

 2. Ingenico ict220 – Accepts EMV chip cards + Tip adjust.

Recommended for businesses that need to accept tips.

 

Ingenico 250

 

Approx: $250

3. Clover Mini – Accepts EMV chip cards with Debit PIN + Tip adjust, Apple Pay and Android Pay and can connect using Wi-Fi.

Features to Note:

  1. Customer can sign using their finger on screen and opt for text, email or paper receipt.
  2. Clover Mini can also be connected to cash drawer and replace your old cash register.
  3. Retailers can also download Register software and turn this into a full fledged POS SYSTEM.

Recommended for any businesses that need to accept debit cards with PIN, better receipt management or POS functionality.

clover-mini

Approx: $450

  1. FD 130 – Accepts EMV chip cards + Tip adjust, Apple Pay, Android Pay and can be connected using Wi-Fi.

Recommended for businesses that need to accept tips, and Debit PIN

FD 130 EMV

 

Approx: $350

Once you figure out what features you need and what terminal you want to buy, it’s time to go shopping.

BUT, let me warn you – Don’t just buy from the cheapest place you can find. You might buy something that’s totally worthless for you. Not all equipment will work with your processor. Usually, the terminals are locked to a specific processor just like how your cell phone is locked to works with a certain wireless provider.

Don’t just buy from the cheapest place you can find. You might buy something that’s totally worthless for you. Not all equipment will work with your processor. Usually, the terminals are locked to a specific processor just like how your cell phone is locked to works with a certain wireless provider.

Usually, the terminals are locked to a specific processor just like how your cell phone is locked to work with ONLY certain wireless provider.

Option 1:

If you already have a service provider you can call them and ask for their pricing but make sure they are not locking you in multi-year processing contract, a lease or any monthly rental fee.

It’s ALWAYS best to buy your own equipment. Not only will you get the best deal on your processing but you have the flexibility to move your processing to someone else and use the same terminal.

The saying ” There is NO free lunch” cannot be more true in credit card processing industry.

A brand new Verifone VX520 should not cost you more than $250. If the provider quotes anything more than that, here are two things you should do:

  1. Buy your own terminal online and stay with your current company if you are happy with their processing rates. But before you place an order, ask your processor if they support Verifone Vx520 or any other terminal you wish to order and will provide all the features you need.

Pitfalls to look out for while ordering online:

  1. Never buy a used terminal as they may be locked to work with certain processor only.
  2. Avoid buying from Ebay, Craigslist, or Amazon or any other reseller sites. Many companies will sell you very cheap just so they can get you into processing agreement with them. Just make sure you do your homework.
  3. Look for a new company that will provide a terminal at a fair price or subsidized price for the equipment.
  4. While hardware equipment is one component of your merchant account, processing rates are something that must NOT be ignored.

Always make sure you are getting a fair deal without any contracts. To understand a little more about the same, definitely read through our post on how to get best deal on your merchant processing.

Or better, subscribe to our FREE Savings course and learn how to save ridiculous amount of money on credit card processing by clicking  HERE.

We hope this guide was simple to understand and will help you in implementing the EMV migration successfully.

We here at Onesto Payments believe in absolute transparency and love to educate our customers. Feel free to contact us to get our equipment and credit card processing rates. You will be glad you did.!

 

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How To Open A New Restaurant – Part 3

How To Open A New Restaurant – Part 3

Running a restaurant is not a one man show, it requires the efforts of an entire team. Similarly, the food menu is the main driving force in getting customers to your restaurant and to make sure they want to pay for the quality that they receive.

And if you are building a brand, then you can’t ignore social media. After all, it is the ultimate platform for getting the word out in this fast paced world. 80% of people read about a restaurant online before their first visit.

So even if you have a strong business plan and a fantastic location or hold necessary licenses and permits to run the restaurant or make use of the best technology, everything falls flat without the right employees, food menu and promotional tactics.

Your staff matters, so choose well

Acquiring new employees is an exciting process. Look up job portals, career sites and referrals to get the most suitable talent onboard. Did you know that the turnover rate at restaurants is as high as 62%? This poses as a serious loss of time and money for any business, so be creative while hiring.

Websites such as Indeed.com, Craigslist, LinkedIn and even Facebook can help you spread the word, if not reach out to the correct people. When you are posting about the vacancies online, don’t be vague. Be as descriptive as possible.

Even if you receive less number of applications, the quality will be high and save you much time. At the initial stage of hiring, you must focus on hiring a head chef, assisting cooks, a restaurant manager, a host, waiters and a bartender (if necessary).

The staff size entirely depends on the “size” and “concept” of your venture. So estimate properly.

There has to be a “second-in-command”

Let’s face it: you can’t do everything on your own. You need to have someone to fall back on during emergencies. Therefore, identify one person from the lot that can take charge confidently in your absence.

If you have a business partner, a restaurant consultant or a close family member who has invested in your venture, then the problem is sorted. Otherwise, choose a person from the newly hired group. See who is genuinely excited to be a part of the team. Check their personal and professional backgrounds.

If you wish to take a leadership test, go ahead. You are the boss. The onus of making a good or bad hire will ultimately fall on you. Therefore, erase all doubts and take your time to select the right person for this “important” job!

In the end, it’s all about food

Yes!

It is and the sooner you and your head chef understand this, the better it is for the business. Therefore, strategize menu offerings with him or her. Depending on the type of restaurant you own, list down the food items and beverages that will go best with it.

For instance: if you are running a PAN Asian eatery, how many kinds of cuisines do you plan to serve? Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean? Be specific about the many avenues you plan to take. If your head chef is a master of them all, it’s fine.

But if he or she is not comfortable about meeting such varied food demands, then focus on one cuisine. 55% of chefs will make efforts to adjust dishes to be more healthy. Make your restaurant famous for that. In addition to this, involve your staff to try out and vote for different dishes.

This way, you can keep those items that were well received and chuck those that needed some work. Once this is done, get a menu designed that is in sync with your restaurant’s ambiance. Be competitive while finalizing the F&B prices.

Promote, promote and promote

Don’t forget to let everyone know that you are here and how! Before the big opening, make a huge splash on the digital platform. 75% of all online customers use social media regularly. Invite your potential clientele via this channel. Lure them with a complimentary bottle of wine, if they attend the party.

Share a nicely written press release, throw in a couple of social posts and even run a digital campaign before you finally let the cat out of the bag. You can take help of any budding digital marketing agency here to help you with all promotion-related efforts.

Don’t forget to send an invite to journalists and fellow restaurateurs as well. The more people turn up, the more they will talk about your restaurant. Don’t worry. It will be all good. Just keep working hard and focus on quality deliverables.

All the best!

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How To Open A New Restaurant – Part 2

How To Open A New Restaurant – Part 2

In the last article, we learnt about the basics of starting a restaurant: vision, business plan and location. Once these three steps are completed, you know where you stand presently and how you want to achieve your business goals.

65% of restaurants are not protected if there is an interruption in daily operations. And these obstacles can be anything – government interference, angry customers, zero bank balance, etc.

While nothing can be done about the second point until you start running a restaurant, first and second points can be totally taken care of.

On the other hand, quite interestingly, the hottest technology trends in this business include tablet computers (27%), smartphone apps (25%) and mobile/wireless/pay-at-the-table (19%).

It is a fact: to do your job better, you need to make use of state-of-the-art software that keeps all your payments and POS challenges at bay.

To make sure your restaurant business has a smooth start, you must strengthen the foundation in three key areas: accounts, legalities and technology.

Get your basic accounting and financing in place

The customer-servicing side of the business is exciting. You are bound to have a lot of fun fixing special menus, sorting logistics and managing your staff. There is no doubt about that!

However, you also have to spend a considerable amount of time analyzing your ledger, submitting taxes and doing other accounting tasks.

This is the reason why you must learn the basics of restaurant finances so that you can spend your money wisely. As a restaurant owner, you need to look into every possible expenditure: employees, furniture, liquor, food delivery, laundry, linen, general repairs, etc.

Besides, your budget should also keep aside a certain amount of money to tackle emergencies in future. Therefore, when you are starting off, be sure to be extremely realistic about how much you can “actually” spend.

Please remember that it will take you a couple of months (or maybe a year) to break even.

Once your venture has taken off, here are 5 restaurant metrics you should track:

  • Cost of goods sold (COGS) = Beginning Inventory + Purchased Inventory – Final Inventory
  • Prime cost = Labor + COGS
  • Food cost percentage = Food cost / Total sales
  • Gross profit = Total sales – COGS
  • Employee turnover rate = Lost employees / Average number of employees

Research and apply to legal licenses and permits

You have an idea to grow, a business plan to execute, a location to call “your restaurant” and a budget in control. So what is the next step? To get all legal formalities done before it is too late.

The most frustrating part of the process is to acquire the right permits and licenses. However, to make your business official, you have to go through tons of legal procedures, haggle with the local government officials and most importantly, wait before your restaurant can be termed “legal”.

Since the requirement of every local government is different, make sure you check out their website and note down the requirements beforehand. The sooner you start with the registration process, the better it is for you.

Here is a list of most common restaurant licenses and permits:

  1. Business license: This is required to open and operate your business. To find the application, google “[your state] restaurant business license”.

Example: New Jersey Restaurant Business License

  1. Employee Identification Number (EIN): This is a tax ID number which is issued by the IRS. Since only one is issued per day, apply ASAP.
  1. Certificate of occupancy: This is to state that the building has been properly constructed and maintained. Google “[your city] certificate of occupancy to download the application.
  1. Food service license: This is issued by city or county health departments that certifies that your business is in compliance with all food service safety regulations. To get the application, google “[your city] food service license.”

Get the latest technology to operate

79% of customers believe that technology increases convenience. 70% of themthink that technology speeds up restaurant services. Therefore, excite your customer base with top notch technology!

Invest in a POS system that helps you measure the total sales, number of daily/weekly/monthly customer visits and day-by-day sales performance of your restaurant business.

Luckily, Onesto Payments can take care of all your payments and POS challenges. With absolutely no risk of being cheated on by technology providers, this software equips small businesses with the best of the best technology in hand,

It also shares knowledgeable information such as which menu item is bringing your customers back, which server is generating the most revenue, which marketing efforts are working for you and what your customers are saying on social media.

While you get busy calling Onesto Payments @ 201-546-5555 or visiting theirwebsite for a free POS consultation, let us remind you that the last part of this series is still left.

Till then, good luck!

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How To Open A New Restaurant – Part 1

How To Open A New Restaurant – Part 1

According to National Restaurant Association in the USA, 1 million restaurant locations are currently competing for customer attention. It’s because of this huge number that there is a strong need for new restaurants to carve a niche for themselves in the market.

Despite the tough competition, more and more people are dreaming of owning an eatery of their own. Yes, opening a new restaurant is a risky business venture. But which profession is not? Moreover, with smart planning and rational financing options, it is possible to turn this dream into a reality.

If you are passionate enough to grow your restaurant idea and learn the ropes of the game, the key is to start with the basics:

What’s so different about your restaurant?

It is good to have faith in your idea. But being overly confident about it is sheer foolishness. Before you decide the concept, conduct a thorough market research. See what is trending, what did not work in the past and what you think can work in the future.

Learn customer preferences and demands. Once you are done with this, decide the restaurant concept. Is it going to be fine dining or a quick service establishment? Are you going to focus on fast food or a specific cuisine?

What is the restaurant’s serving style going to be like? It is going to a self-service? A buffet? Consider the ambience of the place. Furniture, lighting, glass and dishware, linen, music and server’s uniform are some of the things you must have a clear picture on.

Most importantly, how are you going to pitch the restaurant to consumers, investors and potential employers? Pull out pictures from décor & lifestyle magazines and online portals of furniture, cloth swatches, decorations, lights and food items. Place them aesthetically in the mood board.

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Now try writing one line about the concept. If you are able to write more than that, it means you do have a clarity of what you want to accomplish in the coming months. Share the draft of the pitch with your colleague or family. Note their feedback and make improvements thereon.

What’s your business plan?

The thought of having to curate a plan to fund your business through investors can easily drop you at your wit’s end, isn’t it? It is because of this “fear factor” that lots of business owners prolong the process of writing business plans.

However, if you want to grow your idea, you need funding and that is not possible until you reach out to investors and impress them with your business plan! Many restaurant owners make the mistake of avoiding this path altogether.

Don’t be like them. In fact, having a business plan will help you get an idea on more technical aspects such licensing, legal and construction. A business plan is your roadmap to success and you must never undermine its importance.

source

Draft a plan and then request your colleagues or family members to go through it. Re-write and re-discuss it as many times as possible. It is always good to have your flaws pointed out by people who want the best for you, rather than by those who are waiting to pull you down.

So make sure your business plan covers all the necessary information before the main pitch. Don’t hesitate to put all your efforts.

To know about making business plans in detail, check out this blog post.

What’s your restaurant’s location?

This is an exciting phase because everything you have planned for till now is going to be executed here. Choosing the right location for your restaurant is critical. Before you start scouting locations, you must do extensive research on demographics, competition, rent costs, visibility and history.

Based on your findings, narrow down a few locations you think will fit. You can even connect with a realtor to help you further. Remember to focus on what the space can become rather than what it looks like in its present state.

Keep the following points in mind:

  • Target market and ideal customer profile
  • Market conditions, including foot traffic and nearby areas of interest
  • Other eateries near the location – Who poses competition?
  • Size of the place – It should be spacious!
  • Previous tenants – Who occupied the space in the past? Why did they leave?

Don’t forget to choose a location that seamlessly aligns itself with your restaurant’s vision and aesthetics. The place and neighboring area should be neat and clean. You must also check out the parking facility, if available in the area. Everything about the place should be convenient and not pose as obstacles in the future.

Now that we have covered the basics, next step is to look into the legalities of setting up the restaurant. But we will cover that in the next article.

Stay tuned!

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Top 7 Must-Haves For Restaurant Managers

Top 7 Must-Haves For Restaurant Managers

Being a restaurant owner is a lot of work. From managing employees and checking in on the kitchen from time-to-time to fine-tuning menus, ordering inventory and analyzing restaurant sales – the onus of getting everything and anything done falls on you.

To be the super businessperson you are, you need a system that simplifies all your every-day tasks and enables you to focus on core competencies of the business. Here is a list of management must-haves to streamline your restaurant processes considerably and rev up your sales:

1. Paytronix

In this digital age, everyone’s on the lookout for instant gratification. And in the business like this, free food means a lot to people! Therefore, you can’t expect your guests to be happy with just a coupon or a punch card. They need more than that and this is where Paytronix comes into the picture.

The tool drives incremental sales by creating guest loyalty. So what does it exactly do? It’s an engagement platform that curates intuitive reward programs, handles the guest email management system and makes gift cards accessible to the customers.

Although available for Android and Apple, the pricing of Paytronix varies.

2. BlueCart

A free and simple tool, BlueCart makes inventory ordering simple. Restaurateurs can actually place all their orders to the complete list of suppliers in just one click, enabling the latter to manage all orders and accounts from one platform.

source

You can conveniently avoid using excel sheets and spending extra hours in the back office dedicated to sorting through binders. With BlueCart, you can easily connect with all your suppliers at the same time and make your life a little less hectic.

BlueCart is available for Android and Apple.

3. Onesto Payments

An effective way to develop your restaurant’s payment strategy is throughOnesto Payments. It offers POS and financial solutions to help you measure total sales, average sales, number of visits, day-by-day sales performance of your restaurant business among other things.

This tool is apt for kinds of retail formats. It ensures that the customers remain free from the risk of being cheated by technology providers during payments. With Onesto Payments, you can also find out what your guests are saying about your restaurant on social media.

Want to know more? Give a call @ 201-546-5555 or head to OnestoPayments.comfor a free POS consultation right now!

4. Expensify

Calculating restaurant expense reports is a challenging task and requires lots of time and energy from your side. Thanks to Expensify, you can capture receipts, track business travel and create expense reports quickly and easily.

All you have to do is take a picture of your receipt, select the report in which the expense goes to and you are good to go! The technology in the tool will reach the receipt and create the expense – on its own- and eliminate any manual entry made.

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You can even import credit card transactions and create expense reports on-the-fly. Another feature of Expensify is that it supports worldwide currencies. It’s tree and available for both Android and Apple.

5. Crunch Time

Want a robust back office system for your restaurant, look no further. CrunchTime is the right solution for you. It manages food cost, inventory and labor and also takes care of dashboards and alerts.

Basically, CrunchTime gives you access to complete functionality as an all-in-one system. The tool integrates with your restaurant’s POS data, so that you can obtain in-depth insights from your sales. It is available for Android and Apple, but comes at a cost.

6. Restaurateur

Download this app if you have plans to sketch out the entire strategy for you restaurant – especially the “finance” bit. For instance, you can enter the size of the space, price per space unit, average check amount, monthly expenses, cost ratios, etc. in the app.

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Restaurateur will quickly create a Profit & Loss statement for you and even calculate the breakeven in sales and checks. The app also sends alerts when the ratio falls outside the industry guidelines. If you are obsessed with numbers, this app is apt for you!

Restaurateur is only available for Apple and it is free.

7. KeyIngredient

The key to a successful restaurant is its ability to offer delicious yet trending cuisines. KeyIngredient is a smart app for saving food recipes and emptying the counter space in the kitchen by going paper-free.

You can ask the chefs and their assistants to organize their recipes conveniently into different “cookbooks” on the free app itself and then share them online at any time! They can also create a grocery list based on the items they require to make a specific recipe.

KeyIngredient is available for Android and Apple.

Go ahead: Download an app or purchase a tool you think will take care of the nitty-gritties of your restaurant business. With the right choice, you can make your restaurant a more profitable initiative and keep your guests happy and satisfied.

Bon appétit!

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Everything You Need To Know About NFC & Mobile Payments

Everything You Need To Know About NFC & Mobile Payments

Have you recently noticed customers standing in a queue, with their mobile phones in hand, in a grocery store during  check-out? Well, that’s because they are likely to pay with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Android Pay. This type of “wireless” transaction is called NFC or Near Field Communication payments.

A recent report from analyst firm TrendForce has revealed that consumers across the globe will use their mobile phones to spend a total of $620 billion on all forms of mobile transactions in 2016 – a 37.8 percent increase from last year. Also, total mobile payment volumes will reach $780 billion by 2017.

trendforcegraph530

Today, many retailers such as Target, Macy’s and Walgreens have already installed terminals in place to make mobile payments smooth and easy. Phones compatible with Google Wallet, along with Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can be used against these terminals.

How NFC Works

The technology allows two devices, equipped with an NFC chip and placed within a few centimeters of each other, to exchange data. There are two kinds of communication processes that take place through NFC:

a. One-way communication: Remember how you are issued a faux credit card every time you go to the food court in your favorite mall? And, whenever you buy something from one of the eateries, the payment terminal subtracts money from your card? This happens because the terminal is powered by NFC and your credit card reads and writes the amount to the NFC chip.

b. Two-way communication: Here, two devices read and write to each other. For instance, you can touch two Android devices together, using NFC, to transfer data such as contacts, photos, audio files, etc.

Why Use NFC To Pay

This technology revolutionizes the payment structure. It safely accepts any form of payment that comes across the counter and is beneficial to both retailers and customers.

Here are three major reasons why it is worthwhile to accept NFC mobile payments now:

TransferJet-Near-Field-Communication-Technologies-to-Launch-at-MWC-2013-2source

1. It is secure: NFC acts as a shield for customer wallets against theft and fraud. The mobile payment structure is highly complex and that makes any hacking or intercepting a difficult task. One-time tokens are created, for each transaction, that act as a stand-in for the credit card number.

Apple Pay, for instance, has a physical chip available only in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. This chip is the Secure Element (SE) that generates a random one-time use code number in place of the credit or debit card number.

Apple Pay also makes use of Apple’s fingerprint technology, Touch ID to restrict its access to just one person i.e. user. So even if you lose your phone, no one can access your financial credentials.

2. It is super fast: NFC mobile payments are quick. All customers have to do is hold their mobile devices close to the NFC-powered terminal/reader with their finger on the identification button to complete the process.

This is because of the advent of EMV chip cards. In December 2015, it was reported that 53% of cards processed on Square Stand were EMV chip cards, as compared to 12% in January 2015. EMV also prevents security and fraud.

3. It saves device battery: If the NFC feature on your mobile phone is on, you should turn it off to avoid the battery from secretly draining in the background. Despite this, it still uses considerably less power, unlike Bluetooth. This aspect is especially important because mobile phones may, one day, completely replace wallets.

Moreover, NFC completely eliminates the process of discovering the device, pairing it with your phone and then, entering the pass code to enable the transfer – which in turn cause the battery to drain at a fast pace. NFC provides a seamless platform to make payments.

Devices Using NFC Technology

It is available on iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, Apple Watch, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, including their newer versions.

Other devices using this technology are:

20140524042754-NFC_Enabled_Phonessource

For retailers, especially, making secure and transparent transactions is important.

Onesto Payments, for example, offers solving payments and POS challenges of small scale businesses. The solutions provided them are perfect for all retail formats. Moreover, they protect the customers from the risk of being cheated by technology providers.

Want to learn more about keeping payments simple and smooth?

Visit the website or call on 201-546-5555 to book a free POS consultation right away!

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