Toast Review - 10 Best POS Systems

Company Profile

The Toast POS system was created back in 2012 and since then, it has served over 57,000 restaurants across the US. This is an all-in-one solution that is mostly aimed at different types of restaurants regardless of their sizes and experience level. Its interface is easily-manageable and comes with lots of useful features meant to streamline the customer experience and make your job as an owner a lot easier. Another interesting fact about Toast is that it only runs on Android which makes it perfect for business owners who would rather not invest in Apple devices. Here is everything you need to know about the Toast POS system!

Why Choose Toast

The Toast POS system is cloud-based and extremely useful for all food service businesses regardless of their type, size, and experience level. This is a good option for those who prefer web-based and online systems even if it also works offline in case of internet outages. Apart from this, the Toast system is great for those people who prefer to avoid investing in Apple products and can work very well with Android ones. The company’s hardware bundles come with Elo tablets which are already configured and ready to use. According to them, Android devices are easier to upgrade and are also more durable, which makes them the perfect solution.

What Toast Offers - Features and Functionality

The Toast POS system offers a large variety of interesting features that owners can use to help their businesses grow and enjoy a more streamlined experience. You can manage almost everything even from a distance, take care of multiple locations at once, choose your integrations, and have an overall efficient workflow. Here are some of the most important features of Toast.

Features and uses

eCommerce: Toast helps you build a website for online ordering which the customers can navigate, order form, and pay, all online. A good thing is that everything will be synchronized so you don’t have to worry about items not being in stock. You can customize the website however you want and the completed orders will all be sent straight to the kitchen;
Staff and payroll management: your payroll can be easily integrated with the Toast POS system so all of your operations are streamlined. This is an add-on that can even replace your HR department because it does everything from making hiring people easier to offering valuable insights into your available workforce. This feature can also track time, deal with taxes, administrate various sides of the business, etc.;
Loyalty program: thanks to Toast, you can keep track of your returning clients, and each time they dine at your place, their entire order history will be available. Besides making an impression on your clients, this feature also helps you track your revenue and how well you do with certain clients;
Gift cards: you can also create physical or digital gift cards for your clients that they can use in your restaurant whenever they want. They simply need to have the card scanned and they can enjoy their bonuses. However, keep in mind that these gift cards can only be used in physical locations, not online;
Add-ons: Toast partners with more than sixty companies to offer a plethora of add-ons and integrations meant to make your job easier. Some other add-ons that you can add to your system are Toast Go® 2 (for all types of payments and it costs extra), financing (to obtain a quick line of credit for your business), Grubhub (for online ordering without any hardware), and 7Shifts (for your employee schedules, payroll, and overall labor management).

Requirements

You can buy hardware from the Toast website after talking with the company but you don’t actually need anything extra to use the system. The magnetic card reader and the monitor come with the starter package and those are the most important pieces of hardware. Any other extra items can be bought separately or in bundles and include a kitchen monitor, a cash drawer, a receipt printer, a terminal, and many others.

Plans & Pricing

Toast offers four separate kits which you can purchase depending on the needs of your business. Here are more details about each of them:

The Starter Kit: this one is free and meant especially for restaurants with one single location. It contains a cloud-based POS, one terminal complete with hardware configuration, and the most important features and add-one that are necessary for a restaurant;
The Essentials Kit: this one costs $ 165/month and you can get a three-month demo for it if you want to test it out. It comes with all the features of the Starter Kit but it’s meant more for restaurants that want to grow as fast as possible;
The Custom Kit: in order to obtain this kit you will need to request a quote because this is a fully-customizable system that can be adapted to your restaurant’s needs and goals. It comes with more management features, over one hundred integrations, rewards for regular clients, etc.;
The New Restaurant Basics Kit: this one is usually available for $140/month but currently, Toast has a special offer and the kit costs only $110/month. This works the best if you want to bundle the payroll and POS and it’s a cloud-based system with many employee management tools along with payroll and scheduling lite.

Ease of Use

The Toast software is very easy to use and understand as it is but keep in mind that you will benefit from professional assistance every step of the way. This means that getting lost in all the functions is nearly impossible, even if you lack the necessary experience. However, when it comes to the necessary hardware, the company has two options. You can either choose a remote setup where a professional will guide you via phone or you can opt for on-site installation. For the latter, a Toast representative and expert will set up the hardware for you for a fee. Both options are useful and each of them is aimed at clients that have different experience levels with such systems.

Customer Support

You can benefit from specialized customer support from Toast by calling (617) 682-0225. However, before doing this, you should make sure to check the website’s resource center and blog section and get involved with the Toast community. The latter is a very good idea if you want to keep close to other Toast clients and learn from them. You can take part in events, connect, and even refer a restaurant. If you are a Toast client, you can get a $1,000 bonus whenever the referred restaurant starts using the system. If you are not a client, you can get $500 for a referred business.

Contract Terms

The Starter Kit from Toast is completely free of charge which means that any business can try it out and see if it does anything to improve revenue and workflow. You will need to pay extra for certain add-ons but this is nothing new. You can even request a 30-day free demo to try the Toast system before paying for any of the aforementioned kits.

As for contracts, the company doesn’t require you to sign one. You simply need to pay for the kit and hardware of your choice and you can even pick a flexible payment option so you can handle the costs. You can always ask your Toast assistant about all of these details and they will happily provide all the necessary answers.

Conclusion

The Toast full-service POS system is truly one of the best choices for restaurant owners regardless of its size, type, and experience level. Its platform is full of useful features, integrations, and add-ons that are meant to provide a more streamlined experience both for you and your employees as well as for your clients. This is also a great option if you are not interested in spending money on Apple devices and would much rather use Android ones. The reporting feature of the system is extremely well done and provides useful insights into what could make your restaurant do even better. Last but not least, the Toast POS system is very easy to use and install even without the provided assistance.