2 Credit Card Processing Factors Restaurant Owners Overlook

We don’t talk about payment processing very often, but it’s definitely an overlooked aspect for restaurant owners that greatly affects their business.

Searching for a credit card processing provider is a pain, and pouring over different companies for decent rates is tiring.

As tempting as it is to focus your attention on only one price point, there are two other important factors restaurant owners tend to overlook when selecting a credit card processing provider.

Instead of looking solely at percentages, try looking at these two other vital price points.

#1 Ignoring per-transaction fees.

One of the biggest processing misconceptions is that percentages are the most expensive part of credit card processing. For restaurants and bars, you need to watch out for what your per-transaction fees are. Because they can add up quickly if you are mainly running small ticket items.

Think about it, if your average ticket item is $7-$20, then a per-transaction fee is going to have a large affect on how expensive your total credit card processing bill will be at the end of the month.

Fine dining restaurants that average meal tickets of $100-$200 will not have to worry as much about their per-transaction fee.

#2 Ignoring gateway fees.

Now a lot of POS systems will require a gateway fee. This is not unusual, and doesn’t mean the credit card processor is ripping you off.

However, you shouldn’t let the gateway fee be ridiculous. There are different ways gateway fees are charged across different providers, some charge a handful of cents per transaction. Others have a tiered pricing model that is tied to the number of transactions you run on a monthly basis.

It doesn't really matter what model they use, what matters is the cost to you. Do the math, and figure out your cost. We have seen gateway fees that end up approaching the same total costs as the credit card processing fees which is much higher than it needs to be.

We at BNG Point-of-Sale offer support through our sister company BNG Holdings, Inc. that provides a reasonable gateway fee for our POS systems.

Finding other companies to do this may be challenging, and finding a good company to do this is a tall order.

The problem with only focusing on one price point.

A final thought on calculating costs. When you’re searching for a payment processing provider, it’s important not to get caught up in only one price point.

All costs need to be taken into consideration. Don’t ignore per-transaction fee, or gateway fees. Especially don’t fixate only on your percentage rates.

Alleviate POS and payments processing issues.

If you’re curious about our POS and credit card processing services, read our free case study about one restaurant's success with their credit card rates.

View Case Study

St Paul MN Restaurant: Should You Buy or Rent a POS System?

It’s an old question, Shakespearean even, “To be, or not to be?” Only with a POS system, the question becomes “To buy, or not to buy?” Er, rather, to buy, or rent.

There is not a for sure yes or no answer to this question, and it will depend on your individual situation. Some restaurant or bar owners will have the finances to pay for a system all upfront, but that’s not a reality for everyone.

Fortunately, there are still options for owners who need an expensive point-of-sale system, but can’t afford to out a loan for it.

Some POS providers offer rental or leasing programs.

There are many POS companies who will do a rental program, where you will not own the equipment, but instead pay a monthly fee to use the POS system.

This can be a great option if you don’t want to drop tons of cash upfront, or just don’t want to own one.

There are some factors to be aware of when renting a POS.

When you rent a POS, you will have to sign a contract, because you are leasing an expensive piece of equipment. Read the contract over carefully to make sure there are no hidden fees, or that you are obligated to pay for any faulty equipment.

Usually with POS rental programs they come with a monthly support fee, where you will have your POS service bundled in with credit card processing fees. This can be pretty sweet because it combines the two components and lets you deal with only one provider, making your life easier.

Here’s where it can get a little tricky. It’s perfectly fine to have your POS rental fee and payment processing wrapped up together, but make sure you’re not being overcharged for processing fees, or that your rates are not going to be raised dramatically every single month without explanation.

How do you know if this will happen to you?

Well, here are some situations we have seen over the years with merchants we’ve worked with.

***Disclaimer, these numbers may be higher depending on what type of POS system you rent, along with how many service stations you need.

Look and see how much the monthly fee is for renting. A fair price, should be between $300-$500. That usually covers the fees, one service station, and support. If your contract only gives you an $80 fee for renting, you can expect to see around $1,000 processing fees, along with possible additional fees for customer support, and cheap equipment.

Some take away thoughts.

If you do decide to rent, try and get a list of clients who are currently in the rental program, and talk directly to them. Finding out how satisfied the current clients are with the company’s rental program will let you know if you’re getting a fair deal.

Interested in a renting a POS, but unsure of what it entails? Contact Us.

The Secret Tool To Managing Multiple Locations In the Twin Cities

Sometimes, as a restaurant owner, you have to oversee more than one location.

Splitting up time between all your separate venues is a daunting, and exhausting task. Even if you manage to spend a fair amount of time at each location every day, there’s still a lot that can fall through the cracks.

You likely want to cut down on your commute time, and be able to track your multiple businesses without all the driving. So how can you simplify monitoring your restaurants and cafes, and keep better track of what’s happening?

There’s a solution with Restaurant Manager. Through the power of our smart phones, their ability to process information is one of the greatest gifts to small business owners today. Now you can use that technology to your advantage and manage your restaurants more effectively.

You monitor your restaurant without stepping through the doors

A handy little app created by Restaurant Manager (which was designed with the busy business owner in mind), called RM Monitor, gives you 5 minute real time updates of all your venues. It gives you access to keep in touch with all your locations by tapping into your Point-of-Sale system on the go.

Even further, the app goes into detail of how much you’re making at any of your specific locations. The tracking built into RM Monitor allows you to see labor costs, and the profit you’re turning over for that hour. This feature lets you know when labor hits over 30% of what’s sold.

Life without these kind of applications, means you’re constantly bouncing around from location to the next, and trusting your managers to assure you’re not losing profits on too much staff and slow hours.

You wouldn’t be able to catch that 30% line, and then you can quickly start losing money. Having a tool that lets you look track your costs on your phone, then call and say “Send someone home,” will save your business from losing profits unnecessarily.

There are two options for RM app

The classic app is used most frequently by Restaurant Manager users is RM Monitor v1.3. This version presents sales data in standard report format and has become the consistent.

Now Restaurant Manager users looking for enhanced functionality can try out the new RM Monitor v2.0 app. This app is also available for Apple products, and includes intuitive graphs and charts and the ability to monitor food costs as well.

“After seeing the great value the initial release of RM Monitor has provided to Restaurant Manager customers, we knew it was critical to make this technology more universally available by developing it as a native app for the Android platform,” says Alex Malison, CEO of Action Systems. “RM Monitor provides Restaurant Manager customers a real advantage in the ultra competitive hospitality industry by allowing them to access and utilize information more quickly.”

Want to learn more about Restaurant Manager?

Check out their options with RM Monitor here, or talk to a RM specialist and see what they recommend.

How To Solve The Biggest Problem With Food Costs As A Restaurant Owner

Chances are, if you’re a bustling restaurant in the Twin Cities, you’re relying on vendors to provide your food. Unlike retail, where the day revolves around scanning every item. Running a restaurant leaves little time for scanning inventory and counting lettuce leaves.

Usually, you leave it to vendors to keep your business well stocked. Food and drink vendors can make or break a business. If you have amazing vendors, the quality of your food will be amazing (provided your cooks don’t burn it).

However, when you work with vendors, sometimes you may feel in the dark about your food costs as a restaurant owner.

It can feel like you can’t audit your food costs

Being in a position where you only receive a bill twice a week from your vendor can quickly become a strained relationship. You often find yourself wondering when looking at the bill “Am I getting a fair price for this?”

This becomes even more of a headache when you’re trying to reconcile your costs at the end of the month, and track your profit margins.

You can make sense of your costs though

Food costs can be one of the biggest mistakes restaurant owners can make, so don’t ignore your vendor statements.

Using a great Point-of-Sale system like Restaurant Manager has built in tools that help you consolidate your vendor invoices and your menu prices to track your food costs.These features can work with an additional tool, called U.S Foods Menu Builder Pro.

U.S Foods Menu Builder Pro gives you real time data of the current prices for all your food items, whether it be meat, cheese, or wine, U.S Foods Menu Builder Pro has instant updates to food prices.

What this means for tracking your food costs

This nifty little tool integrates with Restaurant Manager and other POS systems, and lets you remove some of the haze from your food costs with your vendors.

You can take your receipt from your vendors, and compare it to U.S Foods Menu Builder Pro. It lets you know if you’re being overcharged, but also allows you to see the current costs of beef, cabbage, and the rest of your menu items.

Having that kind of tracking helps you plan for the future and lets you know if you need to raise your menu prices.

Don’t live in the dark about your food costs

You can control and stay on top of your food expenses. With the right tools, you can make sure your profiting off your hard work, and covering your business’ costs through your food prices.

If you want to learn more helpful tips about managing your restaurant, subscribe to our blog.

How To Solve Delegation Problems Inside Your Restaurant Business

We get it, you are a busy restaurant/bar owner, doesn't want to delegate tasks.

You have to keep track of everything. You’re trying to make sure everything is running smoothly in the kitchen, items are tracked properly, and the overall day-to-day to keep your restaurant from bursting into flames!

You also need to breath, and calm down; the way you’re living isn’t healthy.

If your company is anything like ours, it’s full of workaholics. And trust us, we’ve struggled to overcome our go get-em personalities.

In reality that’s not going to help you run your business better in the long run, and you’re going to burn yourself out.

One of the biggest ways for a company to grow is learning how to spend money wisely, delegate tasks, and invest in things that make your restaurant or bar operate more efficiently.

With delegation you will spend less time micromanaging every aspect of your kitchen.

We get you want to do it all

There’s been a term popularized by comic books, known as “Superman Syndrome” (and no we’re not referring the the genetic term).

If you’ve never heard of this term before, it basically boils down to someone who is a workaholic, someone who thinks they’re invincible, doesn’t have an “off” switch, or feels the responsibility to shoulder everything.

Sound familiar?

If you’re trying to run every single item in your restaurant by yourself, you may suffer from Superman Syndrome.

For your own sanity, it’s best to learn to let some things go, and start delegating tasks to your other employees.

You can’t be everywhere at once, not even Superman can

Superman could not solve every problem in every part of the world. Just like you can’t be at every part of your restaurant, or bar, at every moment of the day.

Trusting another person to help run your business can be nerve wracking, especially if you have a “I can do everything personality.”

You may be able to do everything, but you might not be able to do everything well.

Why bring this up?

Well, before this becomes a complete nerd-fest, the main point is that even though Superman is a great hero, he can’t do it all by himself. Superman needed a team that he could trust.

How do you form a team?

In the beginning, your team may or may not have members that are deemed superhero’s.

That’s where you need to stop and take a look at your own business. Because in order to properly delegate tasks, you ultimately need a team you can lean on and trust.

You need to look for and consider hiring great team members and employees that are star performers. Here’s a short list of qualities to look for when hiring a team:

A lot of servers, cooks, and wait-staff should fit these hiring traits. Generally, you need to look for employees who just seem amazing at keeping things running smoothly.

Find the people you trust, and give them more responsibility. Focus on their talents, and put them in a position to win.

Also, rely on some technology

Yes, we keep recommending POS systems. And there’s a reason for that: it’s because they make your job and life easier.

Easier like tracking features and reports to help you keep an eye on your restaurant, along with alerts to notify you of theft or shrinkage. A great point-of-sale system will be the crowning jewel when building your team.

It’s time to take on the world?

Talk to our experts, and see what our technologie services can do to help your restaurant or bar.

Why a Tablet-based Point Of Sale Solution May Not Be a Good Fit For Your Business

Tablet POS systems are everywhere, and the popularity of mobile devices continues to grow in the technology world.

We’re all for staying on top of advances in technologies. We trust and recommend PayAnywhere and Revel for our merchants.

However, we wouldn’t recommend them to every merchant or business.

Why?

Tablet POS systems are not a one-size-fits-all solution

We’re going to be brutally honest here and bring down some of the hype over tablets as point-of-sale systems. Yes we praised them highly in our earlier blog, and yes we still love them.

But they are not the best solution for certain types of businesses.

If you own a restaurant or a bar, a tablet will not meet all of your needs for a POS system.

Tablet POS systems are limited in how much they can process

If you have a restaurant or bar, or run a large retail store, a tablet will not give you the best return on investment, or help you manage your store like a traditional POS system would.

When you have multiple products to track, a tablet simply does not have the capability to manage all of the applications needed.

Let’s put some perspective on this.

Imagine your tablet POS system is a regular Tablet or iPad device. Now picture a laptop or desktop computer. You have to complete a project where you will have to use Photoshop, InDesign, and Adobe Acrobat. Which tool is going to be best for the project?

Technically, a tablet can run Photoshop, InDesign, and Adobe Acrobat, but switching back and forth between the programs will be a pain, as will running all three simultaneously.

Any tablet POS system will have some limitations

Aside from Revel, no tablet POS system can run off of an Ethernet connection. Wifi can be finicky to use at times, and it becomes impossible to run online if it goes down, meaning you could take a credit card and not find out it was declined until you submit your batch of transactions for the day to be processed.

We get that traditional POS systems are pricey compared to a tablet

Even if you want a tablet based POS, in the long run you’re going to spend the same amount as a traditional POS anyway.

If you buy Restaurant Manager, it’s going to more expensive than an iPad or Tablet POS, because it essentially comes with all the hardware you’ll need to run your restaurant or bar. Restaurant manager also interfaces with more technology hardware than a tablet system would.

You could buy a tablet based system and all the pieces needed individually, but you would have to manually interface all the hardware you bought separately with a cloud based system, and you’ll manually have to program all of the hardware to work with your tablet based POS system.

So you’ll have to spend extra time programming it, and interfacing it yourself.

Restaurant Manager and StoreTender will still interface quicker than any POS tablet combined with any miscellaneous bought hardware.

Times like these, it’s better not to DIY in businesses technology.

Want to talk to technologies experts?

Talk with our technology experts, and see what would be the best fit for your
business.

Should My Business Take Mobile Payments Through My Point-of-Sale System?

The face of Point-of-Sale (POS) is changing.

Mobile payments are slowly beginning to be accepted at many businesses, from retail to restaurants. Many banks are creating apps for smart phones to allow cardholders to use their phones as a mobile payment option.

Cashless transactions has been coming on since credit cards, and now mobile payments are creeping up on credit cards.

Out of all of our POS clients, only about 20% have adapted the mobile payment option.

Despite the small percent now, mobile pay is becoming more likely to be the option of the future. Jumping on the mobile payment bandwagon is a great idea for businesses who want to take advantage of the new type of payment.

 

What are mobile payments?

If you’ve never heard of mobile payments, or just don’t understand how they work, here’s a mini crash course.

Mobile payments act as a sort of cash absent transaction, unlike a credit card though, the funds are transferred from the phone’s secured wallet into your merchant account. You then receive the payments as you normally would through your processor.

Apple has been the predominant forerunner in the shift towards mobile payment.

Apple was the first company to work with banks and credit card companies to create a secure network to allow mobile payments.

The three main options for mobile payments are Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Wallet.

Samsung pay created a magnetic strip that is similar to the one on the back of a credit card. Making it easier for credit card terminals to read the phone and take the payment. With this feature, it does not require the card reader to adapt NFC payments into their network.

If not, NFC payments work in the same matter, where the phone is tapped against the terminal, where it is accepted or declined, much like a normal card transaction.

What are the benefits of mobile payments?

Mobile payments surprisingly, are fairly easy for smaller merchants to adapt. It does not require lots of expensive equipment.

Gene Signorini, the vice president of Mobile Insights has stated as much. “Mobile has really taken away the requirement that you have to build big systems and be a large company to be successful with technology...In many ways, it is easier for small businesses to adopt mobile payment programs because they don’t have a large infrastructure to work through so small businesses can jump right in” (www.americanexpress.com).

One of the largest draws for smaller merchants is the lower processing fees. Many merchants are finding that mobile payments have lower interchange and processing rates. Saving them a bit of money every month on their processing statement.

 

Can my Point-of-Sale take mobile payments?

Chances are, yes.
POS developers have been quick to take mobile payments, adapting to the new technology.

If you read our previous blog, POS developers in France are also taking steps to integrate Bitcoin payments.

What about your current Point-of-Sale?

Chances are your POS is capable of taking mobile payments.

If you’ve bought a POS in the last few years, the ability to take mobile payments is more than likely already build into your machine.

Storetender, Revel, PayAnywhere, and Restaurant Manager all have the ability to take mobile payments.

Since mobile payments first appeared a few years ago, many developers built the technology and software needed into their POS systems.

However, if you’re running off a POS system that is 15 years old, you may not be able to accept mobile payments.

 

Should I try and accept the payments?

Yes, with the rapid growing popularity of mobile payments, it would be unwise to avoid adapting them.

Mobile payments, while still only taking up a small percentage of transactions, cardholders and providers are making the technology more sophisticated. If the rapid growth of mobile payments continues, it shouldn’t be surprising to see them become the dominant form of payment in the next few years.

 

Want to talk to a mobile payments expert?

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.

How EMV Will Affect Your Small Business' Point-of-Sale System

EMV has been making waves, causing merchants with credit card terminals to lose sleep over the new wave of technology.

However, in the rush to talk about credit card terminals, we seem to have forgotten about Point-of-Sales systems being affected as well.

Reading up on the topic has been, frustrating to say the least. Many of the articles have been misleading and making it sound like EMV is a law to be enforced, or merchants will take more fraud losses by not switching to EMV.

Panic & mayhem, and a great deal of misinformation have been pushed down merchants throats. Sometimes resulting into unnecessary purchases, and nonessential stress.

Credit Card processors have been heavily spreading chaos about the new the technology hardware through the woodwork, and many terminal markers have pushed production into overtime for EMV.

Should you panic?

No, why?

Because counterfeit card fraud is not that common.

From our experience, statistically, you’re more likely to see lost/stolen card fraud rather than counterfeit cards.

But what about for Point-of-Sale Systems?

Funny story about that.

Point-of-Sale systems developers haven’t finished the software to adapt the new EMV technology.

There’s been some complications.

A lot of Point-of-Sale systems aren’t syncing with their processor providers, and some POS software developers do not have the technology ready yet.

“Despite relatively slow EMV adoption in the United States, experts predict that the technology will go mainstream within a matter of years. According to a recent report by Javelin Strategy & Research, EMV credit card machines will become "ubiquitous" by 2018. The Wall Street Journal believes widespread adoption could arrive as soon as 2015.”

The article has a lot more promotion of EMV and POS systems, but it even mentions the mainstream availability of the technology won’t be “ubiquitous” until 2018.

The October 1st liability shift deadline has come and gone, and many POS providers have yet to release EMV software.

So why is the software development taking so long?

Point-of-Sale software is compatible, just not with all the processing platforms yet. Basically they are fine tuning the product rather than shoving out faulty software.

So it’s coming, it’s just not here yet.

The truth is that the chance of card present on a counterfeit card with a POS system is already a small slice of fraud.

If you’re a small to medium sized merchant, your chance of counterfeit fraud (because EMV only applies to counterfeit cards), with a POS system are minuscule.

Stop panicking

If you’re getting calls about being fined, ignore them.

Your POS provider or payment processor will be able to help with questions about upgrading to the technology.

Don’t get swept up in the sensationalism of EMV. You will want to upgrade eventually, but don’t be bullied by cold callers.

Wait for the hype to die down, and then upgrade when it becomes cheaper.

The software isn’t widely available for POS yet, so wait for your provider to contact you and say it’s ready.

Want a POS company that will walk you through the EMV changes?

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.

Bundling Your Point-of-Sale With A Payment Processor

We haven’t addressed much about payment processing, but it’s central to every Point-of-Sale (POS) system.

No matter if you’re in retail, service, or any other business to use a POS system, you’re going to need a processor to support your credit card payments.

When you do rent or buy a POS system, you will have to find a processing company to handle any credit card payments.

POS systems don’t just process themselves, or magically make the money appear in your account (though that would be sweet).

So should you bundle the two together?

If you can, yes!

Having a company to service both your POS system and your payment processing is a great way to simplify the two together.

Here are 3 excellent reasons to bundle your POS and payments processing.

• Communication with one company rather than multiple. Having one company to handle your processing and POS support is an invaluable resource, since you’ll be dealing with one company you trust to help grow your company. Chances of being outsourced are minimized.
• Guarantee your machines will talk to each other. If you go with a provider that covers both your POS system and credit card terminals, the machines will complement each other. Dealing with incompatible machines that will not work together will slow up your business.
• Streamlines your business to be more efficient. With the above reasons listed, streamlining your systems into one smooth process will speed up your processes, increasing your efficiency.

These make a great case for bundling your POS and processing together.

 

But there is a condition

Wait what kind of condition?

We don’t like giving one size fits all answers, because they usually are never that simple, and there tend to be exceptions.

About that condition....

 

Do you have the option to bundle them together?

Bundling these two items together is an uncommon thing, and not a huge trend for processors re-sellers of POS systems.

We at BNG Point-of-Sale offer support through our sister company BNG Holdings, but we are one of the few companies that offer such a service.

Finding other companies to do this maybe challenging, and finding a good company to do this is even more challenging.

Companies that offer everything under the sun (we’re looking at you banks) tend to spread themselves thin, and their customer experience suffers greatly.

So if you can find a company that will support both without having to outsource you to another company, bundle it up!

 

Alleviate POS and payments processing issues

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.

Become a Jedi Master of Your Point-of-Sale System

We’re all big nerds at BNG Point-of-Sale, (hence the name technologies). Part of our love of Point-of-Sale (POS) systems stems from our love of technology advances.

POS systems can aid small business through many services, giving their owners a chance to become the star of their own story.

Here’s some take away lessons you can learn from the Star Wars franchise as a small business owner.

Disclaimer: This blog is not claiming ownership of Star Wars, which belongs to George Lucas and Disney respectively. This is for educational and critiquing purposes, please support the original release.

You’re a very small fighter against a crushing empire

The Rebels in A New Hope are a straggling organization compared to the vast Empire. The reveal of the Death Star shows how much of a disadvantage the Rebels have compared to the villains.

Small business owners face the same situation. They pay a lot of taxes and pay higher fees than their larger companies. What’s worse is smaller companies don’t get the same benefits in tax breaks.

Larger corporations often use corrupt methods of tax evasion by having their corporations partially owned overseas, something not possible for small businesses.

When lost in the vast space as a small business owner; what do you do establish yourself?

Use the force

What was Luke Skywalker’s ultimate weapon?

If you said his lightsaber, go sit in the corner.

Luke’s true weapon was the force, he wasn’t limited to a single weapon, but he used his mind and the force to control the situations around him.

The force can represent your company’s payment processing and POS game plan. It’s more than a piece of machinery.

Recognize that your POS system doesn’t have to be just a piece of junk, but it can be used in multiple ways like the force.

Use it for tracking inventory, to split tabs, assign staff, and count the costs of merchandise. It’s more than a glorified card reader.

Understand your equipment can work with you to make you closer to success.

Find your Yoda/Obi-wan

This step ties into finding your weapon, but far more essential in the world of business.

You could manipulate your equipment however you want, just like Darth Vader.

That doesn’t mean any POS will help your business grow. You also need the support of someone wiser to guide you through using it.

Look for a company who will be your support like Obi-wan and Yoda were to Luke. Don’t try to run your business on your own, pick someone who will give you support.

Like Luke and Obi-Wan’s relationship, it didn’t end when he died. Your relationship with your Point-of-Sale company shouldn’t end at the transaction.

Don’t go with the lowest bidder (or you may end up with Jar Jar Binks), find a company that will be invested in your journey. Look to buy your equipment, and then have a company that will give you a support plan.

Don’t become consumed by the Dark Side

Luke was able to avoid falling to the Dark Side because he had his friends to support him.

Small business owners know they never truly get a “day off”, often working 12+ hour days, not leaving time for family and friends.

In the beginning your business will be time consuming, and we aren’t suggesting you drop everything at your business, but learn to balance your work and life.

How?

Be attuned with your allies, your POS support team should be giving you the means to succeed and not just abandoning you after you buy from them.

Make sure your equipment will help you run your business, rather than take over your life.

If your POS company isn’t interested in becoming your ally, look for another company. "“Search your feelings, you know it to be true.” (Darth Vader).

Learn how to properly use the Force

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.