Tag Archives: payments

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.

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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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A complete guide for Merchants to accept EMV payments

A complete guide for Merchants to accept EMV payments

Small businesses can’t ignore the fact that EMV payment method is going to be implemented for all credit cards.

I am carrying five credit cards, and banks have already upgraded my three cards with EMV technology. When I go shopping, I always prefer that my card is being inserted into EMV machine.

What is EMV?

EMV is a new technology with chip-based credit cards. You know very well about the black color magnetic strip on the credit card that is swiped at the POS terminal for processing the payment. EMV is additional microcomputer chip on the credit card that makes customer information more secure.

Magnetic strip based credit cards became vulnerable to the hacker world. According to research by Business Insider, US alone suffered the loss of 7.1B from credit card fraud in 2013.

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Magnetic strip bases cards have poor security. Fraudsters can copy data stored in a magnetic strip with simple and inexpensive card reader machine. Do you remember listening to songs from tape cassettes? It is as simple as copying songs from one tape cassette to another using recorder machine in old times.

Let me touch base how EVM ensures security without going into many technical details. EVM chip stores customer data and creates dynamic cryptograms when the card is used at any payment terminal. Cryptograms are digital security patterns that change after each purchase. This makes almost impossible for fraudsters to make counterfeit credit cards.

EMV is taking over US credit card market

Credit card users are getting more aware about their financial security and safety. Credit card companies are issuing new credit cards with EMV as embedded security. Millions of EMV cards have been issued by credit cards companies and they are aggressively upgrading existing cards.

According to chase bank, most of the customers will have EMV cards by October 2015

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All new POS terminals have EMV processing capabilities by default. You can still process payments by a swipe with new POS. All leading retailers like Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Starbucks, Subway, and Bestbuy are upgrading to new POS or already upgraded.

“No one wants to lose the customer because they don’t have EMV card payment processing machine. “

How Authorization works with EMV

  1. Chip and Pin

Credit card is inserted into EMV enabled POS machine, and customer has to enter PIN for authorization. That’s new security measure taken by banks which is now accepted worldwide. Credit card will not be charged if the customer doesn’t enter PIN.

  1. Chip and Signature

This is somewhat similar to swipe cards with the difference that card is inserted into EVM machine. Customer signatures are required for authorization.

  1. No CVM

Banks have waived off authorization for the minimum amount of payments. These limits vary with the bank to bank. For example, banks may auto authorize payment up to $20 without any additional authorization from the customer.

Benefits of EMV enabled POS.

  1. Become part of EVM growth story

October 2015 is last date to compliant with EVM enabled POS machines. Why wait for last date when you can get the benefit of technology from today itself. All businesses need to stay ahead in competition.

Adopt latest technology to become part of payments growth story.

  1. Reduce the chances of fraud and security related issues.

Customer and Merchant both sleep peacefully when their financial information is secured. EMV can help fighting with fraudulent transactions. It is almost impossible to replicate chips and steal PIN passwords. The only possible way of fraud is customer’s negligence. Banks are spreading awareness for customers, but you have to be prepared at your end by upgrading to the latest technology.

  1. Merchants qualified for additional benefit plans

Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express have issued plans to support merchants who are using EMV payment solutions. Visa introduced U.S Technology Innovation Program; merchants are qualified if 75 percent of all transactions originate through chip-based devices.

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  1. Limited fraud liability

As EMV penetration grows, credit card frauds will be prevented to a great extent, at least for point of contact sales. In case of counterfeit fraud, payment brands will impose liability to merchants who are not using EMV based payment methods.

Banks will not take responsibility for fraud after October 2015. It’s wise to invest in chip-enabled technology today than regret for a financial loss tomorrow.

What Merchants need to do?

You can find a variety of EMV capable smart terminal like Clover Mini, Verifone vx520, Ingenico iCT220. Get in touch with POS provider who can guide you through available options in the market.

EMV payment technology is cheaper and easier for merchants to install than ever before.

How to upgrade your hardware to EMV payment system?

  • Check you Hardware

Make a list of your existing hardware. Do you have a stand-alone system? Do you have canned or drop-in system?

  • Discuss your requirements with POS provider

You can better understand your business, but a reliable payment processing expert can match the best POS system with your business. Tell him how your customers prefer to pay and how many transactions you process on a monthly basis. Show him list of hardware you already have.

They can suggest you if your business needs an altogether new system, or additional equipment can be installed with your existing setup.

  • Purchase hardware

Compare the prices including installation costs. Purchase hardware and software required to process payments.

  • Ask for support and training

Just buying hardware is not sufficient. Ask for after sales service, support, and training. Don’t hesitate to pay extra if you have to buy additional support. It is worth when you have customers lining up for payment, but your payment system stops working.

How does right payment partner look like?

  • Honest

I would choose honest and reliable payment partner every time. The market is crowded with payment processing vendors, and it’s difficult to filter out who is genuine. You must meet a couple of people to find out the truth. Don’t fall into the trap of cheap quotations.

  • Who understand your business

Choose someone who understands your business. Someone who already served other customers in your industry. Every business have different needs. A good payment partner will showcase all products and suggest best fit for your business.

  • Provide right information at the right time

You need someone who can tell you upfront about the pros and cons of payment system. It is no fun in business if you get surprises after investing your money.

  • Minimize overall cost

Payment systems are complex because it is bundle of hardware, software and communication networks. Mobile payment solutions like apple pay, google wallet and Samsung pay are changing the way payments are done.

You might consider paying extra today to avoid the hassle of another upgrade after few months. Think about minimizing overall cost considering future requirements.

  • Minimize delay in install & support

A good payment partner will never let you down when your systems are down. Find someone who can install new system quickly and always available for support.

Over to you

Payment processing is the lifeline of your business. Don’t delay in taking essential steps to upgrade to the latest technology. Banks are upgrading customer’s credit cards so you should also upgrade your payment processing systems.

You will not have choice after October 2015. It also takes time for employees to learn new systems.

You focus on your business and let your payment processing worries to us.

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