A Review of Toast POS in 2024

A Review of Toast POS in 2024

The Toast POS system is explicitly designed for the food service industry. This system utilizes hardware and software to streamline POS functions, ensuring smooth operations for businesses such as pizzerias, cafes, and restaurants.

Toast provides numerous features, including online ordering, automatic tipping, transaction cancellations, and integrated credit card processing. This profile will cover these features in detail, along with pricing and customer feedback regarding the Toast POS system.

An Overview of Toast POS

Toast POS is a specialized point-of-sale (POS) system designed for cafes, restaurants, and food service businesses. It is noted for its easy-to-use interface and extensive features that help businesses streamline operations, improve customer service, and increase sales.

The system includes advanced functionality for managing orders, processing payments, and providing tableside service. Its straightforward design lets servers quickly modify menu items, record orders, and handle transactions, promoting efficient and precise service.

Toast POS also provides additional features like inventory management, employee scheduling, and customer relationship management (CRM). These features help businesses maintain optimal inventory levels, effectively manage staff, and engage customers through tailored interactions.

Operating on an Android platform, Toast POS includes comprehensive reporting and analytics tools that offer insights into sales patterns, menu performance, and customer preferences. Its cloud-based structure ensures flexibility and scalability, enabling businesses to access up-to-date data and control operations remotely.

Pros and Cons of Toast POS

Pros:

  • Easy to use and link
  • Offers multiple reporting tools
  • You can customize your menu as you see fit
  • The program is easy for customers to monitor and use

Cons:

  • Contracts are necessary extra to access some functions
  • The equipment for sale can get expensive

What Features Does Toast POS Offer?

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Toast offers many uses for dining spaces to use:

  • Hardware Functionality

The Toast POS solution can be used on various tablets using an Android setup. However, Toast also offers various POS terminals, tablets, kiosks, and other display screen devices for your convenience. The hardware is available separately, but you can also order it as part of an extended package.

Toast offers various hardware devices for countertop and tableside service. There’s even a program for kitchen use that can be mounted on a wall and is rated to handle higher temperatures. The kitchen option is useful when someone in the kitchen needs to review order data and send info on when specific orders are ready for serving.

  • Manage Order

The order management system on the Toast POS setup provides a convenient solution for your work needs. You can accept orders from customers or workers, and people can send notifications when orders are ready. The management system also accepts payments with a magstripe or EMV reader, thus making it easier for everyone to process orders at a site.

The Toast system lets you split checks between people, void transactions as necessary, and produce different service areas for specific business people to manage.

  • Menu Customization

On the Toast platform, you can customize the ordering menu. You can add information on what categories of foods you serve, what they cost, and whether something is in stock.

Menu Customization

You can link your menu to your inventory system to help you review when something is open for ordering. This setup lets you ensure you’re only serving what you have and that no one will order what is unavailable.

  • Diverse Order Acceptance Options

Toast provides multiple methods for accepting orders, accommodating customer preferences beyond traditional terminals. Options include self-serve kiosks allowing customers to place orders independently and a Mobile Order & Pay feature enabling dine-in guests to order and pay using their devices. Additionally, the Toast TakeOut app supports app-based ordering, and an integrated online ordering system offers real-time delivery tracking linked directly to the POS system.

  • Support For Online Orders

One of the Toast POS system’s most popular features is the ability to take online orders. Customers can save profiles and order histories for when they want to reorder. Employees can review each order they receive, helping them ensure they can produce whatever foods people might order when online.

  • Inventory and Reporting Management

Toast’s inventory management tools allow you to track costs effectively with features like a recipe costing tool and a food cost calculator. Additionally, Toast enhances menu planning with its menu engineering feature, which assists in identifying the most popular and profitable dishes.

Beyond typical transaction reporting found in most point-of-sale systems, Toast provides added value for restaurant owners by integrating its customer relationship management system with its reporting features. This integration enables the collection and analysis of customer data, allowing you to identify frequent patrons and analyze patterns such as average spending, visit frequency, and preferred dishes.

  • Team Management Features

Toast POS includes several team management functionalities, although these are only available with the custom plan. Key features include tip handling, employee scheduling, payroll, and comprehensive team management.

The highlight is the Toast Payroll & Team Management system, which simplifies employee onboarding and payroll management and ensures timely payments for employees.

  • CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Features

Effective CRM is essential for maintaining a solid customer base, particularly for restaurants where word-of-mouth significantly attracts new patrons. Keeping customers satisfied is crucial.

Toast POS provides foundational CRM functionalities such as gathering customer feedback, conducting email marketing, and offering gift cards. However, these features are available for an additional cost.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Features

Other Features of Use

The ordering and inventory features on the Toast POS solution are worth noting, but there are many other features for you to utilize when working with Toast:

  • You can integrate a loyalty program into your Toast system. The program can save customer profiles and reward customers who order food there.
  • The analytics program helps you see which products are being ordered the most.
  • The customer management feature includes options where customers can enter a tip for a purchase, receive their receipts through different methods, or review their order histories.
  • You can assign your employees to different sections of the restaurant. The platform lets you record which employees are serving certain people, helping you keep tabs on everything you’re managing when working on things of note.

What Are the Hardware Options from Toast?

Toast provides various hardware options tailored to meet the diverse needs of restaurants. These options include:

  • Toast Flex: The Toast Flex terminal features a 14-inch screen, 16GB of flash memory, and WiFi & Bluetooth connectivity. The screen is designed to be spill-proof, which is crucial for handling food and beverage spills in busy restaurant settings. This terminal aids in efficiently organizing and managing orders, though it requires additional hardware for complete payment processing capabilities.
  • Toast Flex for Kitchen: This kitchen display system pairs with the Toast Go 2, immediately displaying orders to the kitchen staff as they are entered on the handheld device. It is built to endure tough kitchen conditions, including high temperatures and spills.
  • Toast Tap: This compact payment processor allows customers to swipe, insert, or tap their cards for payments. It supports major debit and credit cards, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. Toast Tap can be positioned on a counter or mounted alongside the Flex terminal for convenience.
  • Toast Go 2: This handheld device enables servers to take orders and process payments directly at the table. It facilitates tasks such as check splitting and billing adjustments. The device alerts servers when orders are ready and operates for up to 24 hours on a single charge.
  • Toast Kiosk: This self-service kiosk has a large touchscreen interface, which allows guests to view menu options and place orders.
What Are the Hardware Options from Toast

Each piece of hardware is designed to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing, blending well with various restaurant decors. However, the pricing details for these devices are not readily available; interested buyers need to contact the provider directly for specific pricing information.

Designed to enhance operational efficiency in restaurants, Toast POS hardware is attractive and practical, built to withstand the challenges of a busy restaurant environment with spill-resistant features.

The devices support multiple contactless payment methods, such as swipe, dip, and tap, ensuring a straightforward payment process for customers. They are equipped with a hardwired connection and an offline mode to maintain reliable performance and fast processing speeds, even when network issues arise.

Based on commercial-grade Android systems, the hardware supports regular firmware updates, helping maintain security and compliance with PCI standards. Additionally, Toast offers various accessories like card readers, barcode scanners, scales, printers, and networking devices, enabling restaurants to tailor their setups to specific needs.

Pricing Tiers of Toast POS

Pricing Tiers of Toast POS

Toast POS provides three pricing tiers:

  • Starter Kit Plan – Free

The Starter Kit Plan offers a cloud-based POS solution with essential features such as order and table management, reporting and analytics, menu management, and Toast invoicing. This plan also provides straightforward payment processing, mobile dining options, and around-the-clock customer and technical support.

This package includes a terminal or handheld kit, which can be purchased upfront, through monthly payments, or via a pay-as-you-go approach.

  • Point of Sale – $69 per month

This plan includes all the foundational features of the Starter Kit Plan and starts at $69 per month. Restaurant managers can select their preferred hardware setup and enjoy additional benefits such as payment processing, 24/7 support, and automatic software updates.

  • Build Your Own – Custom Pricing

The Build Your Own plan allows for full customization and offers features such as online ordering, delivery services, and employee benefits. It can also be tailored to include a specific hardware configuration that best suits your business needs.

Toast also promotes a New Restaurant Basics at $69 per month plus an additional $9 per employee. This package features core POS functionalities, Toast payroll, scheduling, and other efficiency-enhancing tools. While Toast does not provide a free trial, it does offer a free version of its service.

Payment Processing

Toast provides software for processing customer payments. You cannot use Toast hardware without this software; the hardware you purchased would be ineffective. The pricing structure is straightforward: 2.99% plus $0.15 per transaction if you opt for a monthly hardware payment plan, or 2.49% plus $0.15 if you pay for your hardware in full. For transactions without the card present and with hardware paid upfront, the fee is 3.50% plus $0.15 per transaction.

Businesses opting for starter kits must enter into a two-year payment processing agreement. This long-term commitment is an important factor for companies to consider when assessing their payment processing options and flexibility.

Toast restricts customers to using only its payment processing service. This can be a disadvantage as many competing processors offer lower transaction fees.

Onboarding and Getting Started with Toast POS

Toast offers a dedicated onboarding consultant to help you start using their system. They also provide various online guides for customer onboarding. An initial call with your consultant is one of the first steps. According to Toast, the onboarding process—utilizing both a guided self-onboarding system and expert advice from your consultant—generally takes about two weeks. Before shipping your equipment, the consultant will confirm your hardware needs and check your website for readiness to ensure a smooth transition.

The customization options are clear and easy to use. After subscribing, you will receive guidance on optimizing your menus, including using templates and modifiers and the option to deactivate no longer available items. The “quick edit” mode allows staff to update swiftly without a password.

Toast also provides comprehensive training materials and tutorials to simplify the platform’s use. If you need additional help, you can consult Toast’s extensive online database of information and troubleshooting tips.

The platform’s user interface is designed to enhance usability, offering different viewing options tailored to the needs of various service models. Open View lets users swiftly navigate menu items and modifications, which is ideal for quick-service venues focusing on speed. Focus View offers a traditional ordering screen layout, where users can scroll vertically, commonly used by full-service restaurants. Table View features color-coded course firing, facilitating efficient table management for servers.

How Does the Connection Work?

You can link to the Toast system through either a LAN network or a cloud-based connection. The LAN option is useful for handling mobile ordering or for situations where you might not have a consistent wireless connection to a system.

Add-Ons and Integration Options with Toast POS

Toast POS offers a variety of add-ons that enhance customer dining experiences. Toast includes inventory and operations management integration options through platforms like Craftable and WISK. These tools enable restaurants to automatically monitor inventory, calculate recipe costs, and manage beverages, providing real-time insights into stock levels and costs to help restaurants make informed business decisions.

Toast works with 7shifts and Homebase for employee management and scheduling. These integrations streamline the processes of scheduling staff, tracking work hours, managing payroll, and improving team communication, allowing restaurant staff to focus more on excellent customer service. Toast collaborates with platforms such as Thanx and Spendgo in customer engagement and loyalty. These integrations are essential for developing customer loyalty programs, personalizing the dining experience, and encouraging repeat visits, thus strengthening the relationship between restaurants and their customers.

To expand its online presence, Toast integrates with DoorDash, Olo, and Uber Eats, enabling restaurants to increase their reach in digital ordering and delivery services to a broader customer base. Finally, Toast connects with accounting and financial systems like Compeat, Restaurant365, and Quickbooks. These integrations allow for efficient data transfers between the POS and back-office financial systems, simplifying tasks like accounting, payroll, and financial reporting.

Toast POS Security Features

Toast strongly emphasizes security to protect customer data and devices. The company’s systems incorporate multiple layers of protection to defend against potential security threats.

Toast ensures that its devices are always updated with the latest firmware, which includes important security patches. This step is crucial in preventing the exploitation of vulnerabilities. Additionally, Toast has set up a separate network specifically for its hardware to avoid unauthorized access. This network is accessible only to approved devices, which enhances security by limiting connection possibilities. The company also conducts continuous real-time monitoring of its network to detect and respond to any unusual activity promptly.

For off-premises use, such as at food trucks or farmers markets, Toast enforces stringent security measures to handle payments safely. The system allows users to delete any unauthorized apps that might present security risks easily.

Customer Service Points

The customer service department is open twenty-four hours a day. The team can provide on-site or remote installation support and configure your platform based on your needs. You’ll also find a knowledge base online to help you see what’s open.

Alternatives to Toast POS

Here are some of the top alternatives of Toast POS in 2024:

Toast vs. TouchBistro

TouchBistro is a popular choice for restaurants seeking an iPad-based POS system as an alternative to Toast. With TouchBistro, restaurants can enjoy lower monthly fees and the flexibility to choose their hardware, unlike Toast, which comes with mandatory hardware expenses. Although TouchBistro offers round-the-clock customer support like Toast, it falls short in terms of the extensive feature set and software integration capabilities that Toast provides. Additionally, unlike Toast, TouchBistro does not offer a free plan.

Toast vs. Clover

When considering Toast and Clover POS systems, consider your needs. Clover is good for larger enterprises with many features, while Toast is better for small businesses with detailed inventories. Clover offers clear cost information and supports multiple payment methods. Toast provides continuous customer support, restaurant industry solutions, and detailed POS reports and analytics.

Toast vs. Square

Square’s restaurant POS solution includes numerous helpful features, including table and menu management capabilities and the ability to manage multiple locations. Square also clearly displays its software, hardware, and payment processing charges on its website, allowing for an initial comparison before obtaining a detailed quote.

Conclusion

Toast POS is a robust solution tailored for food service businesses. It offers features that enhance efficiency and customer experience. Its user-friendly interface, advanced order management, and extensive reporting tools support smooth operations in restaurants, cafes, and other dining establishments.

Despite certain drawbacks, such as mandatory contracts and additional costs for certain features and hardware, the overall value of Toast’s comprehensive functionality and customer support makes it a worthwhile investment for many businesses. Toast streamlines order processing, inventory management, and customer interactions, making it easier to run a restaurant efficiently. When considering Toast, consider the contract terms and choose the right package that suits your needs.

Overall, Toast POS earns a rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What are the unique features of Toast POS for kitchen operations?

    Toast POS includes the Toast Flex for Kitchen display system, which integrates with handheld devices like Toast Go 2 to provide real-time order updates. This system is designed to handle tough kitchen conditions, such as high heat and spills, making it durable and efficient.

  2. How does Toast POS handle online and mobile ordering?

    Toast POS manages online and mobile orders through the Toast TakeOut app, allowing customers to place orders from their phones. It also features Order & Pay for in-dining orders via customers’ devices and integrates with online platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats for seamless order processing.

  3. What are the primary challenges associated with Toast POS payment processing?

    Toast POS requires using its payment processing service, which can lead to higher transaction fees than other providers. Standard fees are 2.49% + $0.15 per transaction, increasing to 2.99% plus $0.15 if hardware is not paid upfront. Fees may also increase with a 30-day notice.

  4. What are the main drawbacks of the Toast POS system?

    Toast POS has some drawbacks, including occasional hardware malfunctions and software bugs that can disrupt operations. Customer support experiences vary, and the long-term contracts for payment processing may involve unexpected fee increases and restrictions.

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