Guide · choosing a system
Choosing a restaurant EPOS system: the questions that matter before you sign
Every EPOS demo shows the same screen: a grid of dishes, a tidy bill, a report with a chart. The differences that cost you money sit in the questions the demo skips — what you have to buy, what each card payment costs, what happens when the internet drops, and how you leave. Ask those first.
Published · For restaurants in the UK and Ireland. No vendor is ranked or priced here.
Start from your Friday night, not from the brochure
Before the first demo, write down one busy service as it really happens. Where does the order start — at the table, at the bar, from a phone in the guest's hand? How many people take orders at once? Does the kitchen cook by course, or does everything go at once? Who asks for separate bills, and how often? What does the accountant want from you at the end of the month?
That page is your specification. A system that is brilliant at a counter queue and clumsy with a table of eight ordering in three courses is the wrong system for a dining room, however good the demo looked. Ask every vendor to run your Friday, not theirs: the table that moves halfway through, the starter sent back, the main held because one guest is late, the bill split four ways with one person paying cash.
Hardware: what you have against what they sell
Many restaurant systems are sold as a bundle — screens, stands, printers, card terminals — on a contract that pays for them over months or years. Ask for the hardware price on its own, and ask what happens to it if you leave early: whether you own it, return it or keep paying for it.
Then ask the question that changes the sum: can it run on what you already have? A tablet at the door, the phones your staff carry, an old tablet on the pass. Tap to Pay on a phone means a waiter can take a card at the table without a terminal in their hand, and a guest can pay from a code on the table with their own phone.
Slotina runs in a web browser on a tablet or a phone, or in Slotina's app on an iPad, an Android tablet or a phone. Several devices see the same tables, orders and bills at once, and each member of staff signs in with their own login.
Card payments: the fee, and where the money lands
A card processor charges for each payment, and the usual shape is a percentage of the amount plus a fixed charge per payment. Ask for that rate in writing for your mix of cards, ask whether there is also a monthly fee or a minimum, and ask how long the rate is fixed for.
Ask whose account the money arrives in, and when. Money that lands in a provider's account and is paid out to you later is a cash-flow question; money that lands in your own processor account is a simpler one. Ask, too, whether the system adds its own commission on top of the processor's fee.
In Slotina, card payments — Tap to Pay on a phone at the table, or the guest paying a check from the table's QR code — go straight to your own Stripe account once it is connected. Slotina adds no commission; Stripe's own fee is a percentage plus a fixed charge per payment, set by Stripe.
When the internet drops
Every restaurant loses its connection eventually, usually on a full night. "Works offline" is the answer a demo gives; the questions to ask are narrower. Which part keeps going — order taking, the kitchen screen, card payments, the bill? Where are the orders kept while the line is down, and in what order do they go when it comes back? Can the same round reach the kitchen twice after a retry?
Here is how Slotina answers. In Slotina's app, a waiter's rounds wait on the phone and go by themselves when the connection is back — in the order they were taken, and once each. A browser keeps retrying only while the page stays open. The kitchen screen and card payments need the connection, so a restaurant with a weak line should plan for that, whatever system it buys.
The kitchen and the bill
Ask how the kitchen hears an order
On a screen or on paper, by station or all in one place, and whether mains wait until someone fires them. In Slotina each dish reaches its station's screen within 5 seconds of the waiter's tap, and courses after the first wait until the waiter fires them.
Ask to see a split bill, live
By dish, by seat, evenly, with a shared starter and one guest in cash. In Slotina the bill splits all three ways, with a service charge set by party size, a tips ledger, and VAT by class for UK and Irish restaurants.
Your numbers, your accountant, and Making Tax Digital
Ask what reports come with the system and what you can export: daily takings, VAT by rate or class, dishes sold, payment methods. Ask in what format, and whether the export costs extra.
In the UK, if you are VAT-registered, HMRC's Making Tax Digital rules apply to you: Notice 700/22 requires VAT-registered businesses to keep certain records digitally and file returns through compatible software, and once the data is in software, moving it to another program has to happen through a digital link — copying and pasting by hand is not one. Ask the vendor how the sales figures reach your bookkeeping, then ask your accountant whether that route counts as a digital link. Do that before you sign. Making Tax Digital is a UK rule; an Irish restaurant asks its accountant what Revenue expects instead.
Slotina's sales reports show takings, bills, covers, the dish mix, busy hours, kitchen times, voids and payment methods for up to 92 days, and export daily takings, VAT by class and dishes sold as CSV files. The screen says plainly that it is not a tax return.
The contract, and how you leave
Ask for the minimum term, the notice period, and the cost of leaving in the first year. Ask whether the price is per device, per user or per location, and what it becomes when you add a second tablet or a third waiter. Ask what you take with you when you go: the menu, the sales history, the guest list, in a file you can open.
Slotina is one price per location: £99 a month for the first 100 UK restaurants that pay, then £149, plus VAT where applicable (in Ireland, €179 a month, plus VAT where applicable), with the bookings, the floor plan, the kitchen display and the bill included. The price stays the same however many devices and waiters you add.
Ten questions to take into the demo
- Can you run our Friday night: a table of eight, three courses, a late guest, separate bills?
- Does it run on the tablets and phones we already own, and what must we buy?
- If we leave early, what happens to the hardware and the contract?
- What is the card fee per payment, is there a monthly fee on top, and how long is the rate fixed?
- Whose account does the card money land in, and when is it paid out?
- When the internet drops, what keeps working, where are the orders kept, and can a round reach the kitchen twice?
- How does the kitchen hear an order, and can the mains wait until someone fires them?
- Which reports and exports are included, and how do the sales figures reach our bookkeeping?
- Does it print receipts, and what do the receipts show?
- What do we take with us when we leave, and in what format?
Choosing an EPOS: short answers
Do I need special hardware for a restaurant EPOS?
Not always. Some systems are sold with their own screens and terminals; others, Slotina among them, run on ordinary tablets and phones, with cards taken by Tap to Pay on a phone or paid by the guest from a QR code.
How are card fees charged on an EPOS?
Usually per payment, as a percentage of the amount plus a fixed charge, sometimes with a monthly fee as well. Ask for the rate in writing and whether the system adds a commission of its own.
What should an EPOS do when the Wi-Fi goes down?
Keep the orders safe and send them in order, once each, when the connection is back. Ask each vendor which parts keep working and which need the connection, because the answer differs between order taking, the kitchen screen and card payments.
Does my EPOS have to work with Making Tax Digital?
In the UK, if you are VAT-registered, your VAT records and returns fall under Making Tax Digital, and data moving between programs must travel by digital links. Ask the vendor how sales figures reach your bookkeeping and check the route with your accountant.
Sources (checked 4 November 2026)
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