Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Java Gem Coffee Drive Thru on November 4, 2009 at 9:18am

http://www.businessoftware.com/restpro.asp

I used this at my last cafe and LOVED it and currently installed to use at my new place as well.

has everything and is VERY Cheap

Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on November 4, 2009 at 10:59am

We have been in business for a year now using Coffee Shop Manager. Couldn't be happier. Had to drop the 400/yr. or so support package. "Tough times" Turn key sys. About 5K. Not cheap but very comprehensive.
Joseph

-- Ambassador for Specialty Coffee and palate reform.

Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on November 4, 2009 at 11:03am

This, "Coffee Shop Manager" is a hardware and software solution. Be sure and ask all the right questions before you commit. I am a hardware tech but I don't have time to run a business and build a state of the art computer touch screen system and do everything else as well.
Joe

Joseph Robertson said:

We have been in business for a year now using Coffee Shop Manager. Couldn't be happier. Had to drop the 400/yr. or so support package. "Tough times" Turn key sys. About 5K. Not cheap but very comprehensive.
Joseph

-- Ambassador for Specialty Coffee and palate reform.

Permalink Reply by Jordan Jed on November 28, 2009 at 5:03pm

I purchased a system from Pixel Point. Unfortunately for me, the system is geared more towards a full fledged restaurant. Not a quick serve drive thru cafe. There are differences between the systems that you need to focus on. They are all registers, but how do they handle the flow of customers, etc.

Permalink Reply by Michael Canton on December 7, 2009 at 12:56pm

As an owner who had a basic $90 register and now opening up a new cafe, I have two suggestions for you. Go to a coffee trade show and compare them all, but if you are looking for a direct suggestion, I'm going with Selby Soft. I have found it simple and geared more for the cafe side of business.

Permalink Reply by Jordan Jed on December 8, 2009 at 5:04am

Michael:

Do they have support in your area. I was looking at Selby Soft when I was originally in the market for a POS. Them being on the west cost and not having techs here ion NJ posed a problem for me. I was purchasing my first POS. If they do have tech support in your area, how is it? If they don't, then what do you do when you have a problem?


Michael Canton said:

As an owner who had a basic $90 register and now opening up a new cafe, I have two suggestions for you. Go to a coffee trade show and compare them all, but if you are looking for a direct suggestion, I'm going with Selby Soft. I have found it simple and geared more for the cafe side of business.

Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on December 8, 2009 at 10:44am

As an owner of a POS system most if not all of the support is online.

Jordan Jed said:

Michael:

Do they have support in your area. I was looking at Selby Soft when I was originally in the market for a POS. Them being on the west cost and not having techs here ion NJ posed a problem for me. I was purchasing my first POS. If they do have tech support in your area, how is it? If they don't, then what do you do when you have a problem?


Michael Canton said:

As an owner who had a basic $90 register and now opening up a new cafe, I have two suggestions for you. Go to a coffee trade show and compare them all, but if you are looking for a direct suggestion, I'm going with Selby Soft. I have found it simple and geared more for the cafe side of business.

Permalink Reply by Marek on December 28, 2009 at 7:05pm

Coffee Shop Manager 'hands down'. I speak from a unique position... My background is technology related ventures (something I am still involved in) but I also own four coffee shops. Extensive menu items, busy shops of around 500 +/- orders per day. Have been using CSM since 2002 and love it, out of the box solution, easy to learn easy for staff to use and learn. You can do inventory, cups... sales by hour/person/item. End of day/week month reports... busy hour... busy day... etc... You DO NOT need a technical background to learn this system. As other posters have commented it is an all-in-one-solution... however we choose to get ELO all-in-one systems (you can get them for around $1k on eBAY) and then CSM license... so you can do it for around $3,000. Consider that we are a seven day a week operation... so our first system has been up for about 2,500 days ... 18 hours a day... seven days a week... The staff are super friendly and very hands on... I've looked at other systems that require so much programming and custom options and learning curve and even then they are both more costly and less effective. About six months ago I saw a complete CSM system sell on eBAY for about $3K ... considered buying it as a spare... but there were a lot of bidders and I missed teh end of the auction. Can't say enough about them. Check 'friends of cafe del sol' on Facebook... under photo's are three shots of our menu board... all those items, plus custom drinks, shots, flavors and customer options are available... almost no keyboard interaction at all... everything is touch screen... If you go this route and you want customer loyalty card... be sure to get the ELO with the card scanner... it works with CSM software. Hope that helped... Marek

Permalink Reply by Patrick A. Payne on January 29, 2010 at 6:16am

I'm about to open a mobile shop. Am I being naive in thinking that QuickBooks POS, bundled with their Quickbooks software would be a good solution? I'm going to use an old laptop tethered to my Iphone to process credit cards; POS comes with a cash drawer, card reader, bar scanner and exports all sales data directly to Quickbooks, all for around $1200. Anyone else using or considered using it? If so, do you regret your decision for some reason?

Permalink Reply by Tim Larson on March 2, 2011 at 9:47am

I am a huge fan of Selbysoft POS Systems. I am extremely satisfied with their software and support.

 

I own 4 cafes and have been using them since 2004. I don't even think about them because we never really have any issues. You send them your initial menu and they'll do all the programming for you. After that, changing and adding menu items and prices is pretty straight forward. We only use the touch screen for ordering. The keyboards are in the cabinets and we only use them for programming.

Several cool things about Selbysoft:

- Each store's information is downloaded into my laptop every night. I can compare and do totals right there without having to enter each store every day.

- Timeclocks! Even the timeclock information is downloaded every night which makes writing paychecks really easy. We even have one store out of state and I know all of their info next day.

- At one of our locations we needed to install a payroll deduct system for customers. Selbysoft actually worked with the third party business in order to synchronize our POS software with the third party business's payroll. We just receive a check every 2 weeks from the third party business.

- My favorite feature, I receive an hourly report on my smart phone that gives me a totals update of all 4 stores. Now that's cool.

 

But I agree with Marek it's what I did. Go to a tradeshow and talk to both parties in person. Marek felt more comfortable with CSM, I felt more comfortable with Selbysoft. Anyhow, hope this has helped.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Michael B. on October 16, 2011 at 9:17am

Has anyone started using an ipad together with Shopkeep (shopkeep.com) or any similar programs? This looks to be a very low cost alternative if it actually works. Our shop does between 500 and 1500 transactions per day so I am a bit wary of launching what looks to be a very simple solution. Thanks!