What is included with the Square Annual Business Plan?

[katacamado]

We are a restaurant with 2 POS terminals, one at our kitchen counter and the other at our cantina next door. We are not currently using Square POS. We have been using Cake POS for many years. Should we switch to Square POS? Are we being redundant?   

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

David @katacamado1 

First, for your security and privacy, I would recommend editing your previous post and removing contact information.  This is because this board is read-only to everyone, including the general public who might be researching Square before they make a decision to sign up.  “General public” includes bots and other bad actors, as you are probably aware.  Now…

Your reply was very helpful.  I see nothing there that you will have an issue setting up with Square.  To your happy hour question, the answer is yes.  You can set up automatic happy hour discounts for your alcohol category, and those discounts can be timed in the discount schedule.

Also re: happy hour, to keep your kitchen servers from ringing up alcohol you can use Square for Restaurants to set up different menus for that POS as opposed to the cantina POS.  So there’s that if you are interested.

I’ll leave it there for now since I think we’ve covered your initial questions.  But should you have any others are you set things up, feel free to come back here and post them in new threads.  You are welcome to tag me (just type “@TheRealChipA”) and I’ll be notified that you mentioned me in the Community.

Good luck!

[VanKalkerFarms]

It all depends on what you are looking for in a POS.  Square has a full POS with KDS Kitchen Display System.  

I'm not in the restaurant business so I can't really comment on that part but I love Square and we use it in our garden center.  Been on it for 13 years since Cinco de mayo 2011.  there are a lot of users in restaurants that can advise you. @lenjobakes @Donnie-M @TheRealChipA 

[TheRealChipA]

Hi @katacamado.  So, like @VanKalkerFarms mentioned it would be easier to answer your question if we knew your needs.  Basically, Square for Restaurants has a free tier for unlimited devices where you would only pay your card transaction fees.  So if you only need basic features this might work for you and might save you money.  Here’s a link to the Square for Restaurants pricing plans.

If you want to use Square for team management, scheduling, loyalty, marketing, etc, then you’d either need to add services ala carte.  However in the paid Restaurant Plans (like Plus) while you would pay $60/month per device you’d get some other features bundled in like Shifts Plus, unlimited KDS.  You’d also get advanced features like seat management, course management, floor plans, live sales, section reports, etc.  

So, what features are you using now with your current POS?  I know nothing about Cake so I can compare/contrast them.  But I can give you a good idea of how Square for Restaurants can work for you once I have an idea of how you work now.

[katacamado1]

Thank you for your prompt reply!

We have 2 sections to our indoor facility:

1) A kitchen with no inside seating and a soft drink dispenser, along with some non-alcoholic beverages. You can order food for here or to go. If you are eating here, you are given a number, and when your food is ready, we have servers that will bring it to you at your seating location.

2) A large area (we call the Cantina) that can seat about 150 people. You can order food on this side as well. In addition, you can also order adult beverages on this side. We have a walk-in cooler and 25 tap handles, plus we carry wine and other adult beverages. We have a Happy Hour that is from 2pm to 5pm, Tuesday through Friday. We offer Happy Hour food items along with a $1.50 discount on all our draft choices. You can only order these items in the cantina.  

We also have 2 outdoor (but covered) patios that can hold an additional 100 people.

Now that Square has acquired Weebly, we didn't want to interrupt our POS with Cake, so we made the decision to stay with Weebly for another year, even though we were obliged to move up to the Business Plan.

That being said, we are looking for a solution to one particular issue. Is there a way to modify prices specifically for our Happy Hour? Does Square have that feature? Cake does not.   

Thanking you in advance for your reply.

Sincerely,

David Snyder

Marketing and Advertising

Rancho Nipomo BBQ

108 Cuyama Lane

Nipomo CA 93444

(805) 925-3500

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

David @katacamado1 

First, for your security and privacy, I would recommend editing your previous post and removing contact information.  This is because this board is read-only to everyone, including the general public who might be researching Square before they make a decision to sign up.  “General public” includes bots and other bad actors, as you are probably aware.  Now…

Your reply was very helpful.  I see nothing there that you will have an issue setting up with Square.  To your happy hour question, the answer is yes.  You can set up automatic happy hour discounts for your alcohol category, and those discounts can be timed in the discount schedule.

Also re: happy hour, to keep your kitchen servers from ringing up alcohol you can use Square for Restaurants to set up different menus for that POS as opposed to the cantina POS.  So there’s that if you are interested.

I’ll leave it there for now since I think we’ve covered your initial questions.  But should you have any others are you set things up, feel free to come back here and post them in new threads.  You are welcome to tag me (just type “@TheRealChipA”) and I’ll be notified that you mentioned me in the Community.

Good luck!

[Donnie-M · Accepted solution]

@katacamado I can say from my experience, cake is much less complete than square or toast.  The equipment and monthly fees are basically given for free by square.  I have researched all of them.  Once you do the add ons for cake, square really shines on total cost.  Same versus Toast.  Toast has some really really good software, but square is cheaper for 90% as good.  Download the app for free and give a look see.