thread Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

katieand — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:27:32 GMT

Hi Sellers,

On Friday, June 8th at 11am PST, we hosted a Live Q&A on using the recently launched Square for Restaurants solution. We had Restaurants Product Manager, Kevin Yien, here to help answer your questions about this brand new Square product.

@kevinyien is a Product Manager at Square solely focused on helping restaurants grow their businesses and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Every week he speaks with restaurateurs from around the country to learn about what’s making them successful, what’s causing the most pain, and how hospitality is evolving.

A couple example questions:

Why did Square build a new point of sale for restaurants?
I own both a QSR and FSR. Can I use the Restaurants POS at both restaurants?
How are delivery/pickup services changing the way restaurants operate? What is Square doing about it?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

roque — Tue, 22 May 2018 21:37:20 GMT

how do i save tickets if its a call in order?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

Chad — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:38:42 GMT

Hello @roque! I recommend creating a new section called "Take out" or "Phone orders". You don't have to add the tables to your floor plan, but this will allow you to track your call in orders and keep all of the checks in one place.

Alternatively, you could tap New Sale to quickly create a new custom check.

If you have any other questions please let me know!

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

King_William_ii — Wed, 30 May 2018 16:09:06 GMT

Hello! So happy to see the new square for restaurants! Question, if migrating from Aloha is there a migration tools to bring over the data or does everything have to be recreated on the new platform?

Thanks!

-William

Multiple device support in Square for Restaurants.

GPCTed — Wed, 30 May 2018 22:59:30 GMT

I would like to use either multiple iPads, or phones to submit orders to the POS and to the kitchen printer. Do you have an option and configuration for this?

Thanks,

Ted

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

amcsu15 — Thu, 31 May 2018 15:11:38 GMT

Hi, I am wondering how to add additional taxes to employees pay checks. I have a resturant and we need to tax servers for credit card tips/sales.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

LaCanastaEatery — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 22:29:21 GMT

I saw that Caviar (Squares delivery service) is going to be integrated into Square for Resturants this summer. Are there plans to add other delivery services like Post Mates, Uber Eats, and Door Dash in the future?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

Wurstkutchie — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 22:34:44 GMT

We use the Square Online Store for online orders are there plans to integrate this into Square Resturants?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

CornersTavern — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 23:01:48 GMT

I own a quick service resturant that offers self seating. I love using Square Point of Sale and want to stick with you guys, but I don't know if the additional $60 dollars per register will fit my needs.

Right now our checkout flow is customer places order an order at the counter> cashier hands the customer their receipt and an order placard> customer seats themselves> runners delivery the food. Since we allow customers to seat themselves the floor plan isn't terribly useful.

I'm interested if you plan on offer something similar to LRS's Table Tracker? This would be huge for us.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

cbenson — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 22:33:20 GMT

There is currently no way to import a menu to another location. I understand I can use my item library and share that between locations, but I completely have to redo my Menu system for each of my 6 locations. This seems like a no brainer as something to add for the future. I understand Square for Restaurants is a relatively new product. Is there a place where I can see a roadmap of planned features? Some sort of timeline of where SFR is headed before I commit a multi-location operation like mine to the platform?

Thanks.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

azcomps — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 01:45:27 GMT

Please explain how payments will work at full service table restaurants. For example, are you expecting servers to bring an iPad to the table to run customers' credit cards? If so, do you offer a solution that will allow a server to carry an iPad with Square Contactless and Chip Reader attached as one portable unit? If we prefer to process payments in a more traditional way with a paper credit card receipt (with tip line) for customer to sign, is that still supported?

Square for Restaurants: Real Time Sales (including credit card payments)

arcadiafarms — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:03:21 GMT

SERVER REAL-TIME SALES: In the POS app, we're able to see real-time sales stats BUT in the Restaurant App, we cannot see accurate sales stats until all tickets have been closed and tips have been adjusted/settled. Is there a way to see current sales with all closed tickets (minus pending card tips). Ideas?? Thanks!

Square Restaurants: Modifier Group Priiority

arcadiafarms — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:17:37 GMT

We can adjust the modifier's ranking within a group, but can't seem to adjust the group order when applied to a specific item (they list in alpha order)? We've found a workaround by numbering modifier groups, but is there another way to apply modifiers group in a specific order? Thanks! 🙂

Square Restaurants: Multiple Employee roles for individual

arcadiafarms — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:21:28 GMT

EMPLOYEE ROLES: Is there a way to assign multiple roles to an individual and be able to select at clock-in. We have employees that rotate roles occasionally (server, food runner, host, etc.).

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

Redlight2015 — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 16:51:51 GMT

@azcomps I know for a fact that you can do “traditional” card processing with tip line and signature on paper right now (without Square for Restaurants)! Just turn it on in settings. It’s called “Sign and Tip on paper” or something similar.

Your Apple Pay customers will have the option of walking up with the server to pay at your server stations. The rest using regular credit cards will do it the traditional way.

Though that being said, I as a customer do do prefer you bring the iPad to the table as I don’t like my card leaving my sight at US restaurants. Wish US restaurants would get on board the “European” way of bringing the card reader to the table.

Proper Restaurants Documentation/Workflow Guide

geauxbrewing — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 17:33:24 GMT

After using Restaurants for about 3 weeks (we signed up the day it was available), my servers are about to revolt and force me back to POS. (Which, actually, was working for us just fine.)

Is there a a workflow guide or something that can help my servers understand proper process? Understanding how Restaurants expects them to work vs. what they think is the right way is what I believe is getting in the way right now. The current user guide is more like a quick reference than a user guide.

For instance, I have one server who simply cannot understand how to run a table with a large group and then split the checks at the end. It takes her 10-15 minutes to split checks now vs. when she used POS.

Another server is completely confused by looking at a Transaction report vs. Adjust Tips regarding who the ticket is owned by because if she is the Owner and another server closes out the table, that other server is listed in the Adjust Tips list. You have to dig down into the transaction list to see who actually owns it (and will receive the tips). This is freaking out some people who think their tips are off.

From a UI/UX standpoint, it feels like there's more hunting and pecking around to get to a simple feature (naming a check?). In some cases there's no more taps than POS, but when you tap in Restaurants and you're taken to another screen, it "feels" like more steps.

I realize that Restaurants is a new app and, like POS, will receive updates as time goes on, but it's hard to want to pay for this product when it doesn't feel like a good fit for us—especially since we managed with POS for so many years.

Any guidance on how I can talk my servers off the ledge with proper training materials/user guide would be great.

Thanks.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

lovemychaos — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 17:49:12 GMT

Discounts

1. Can you walk through applying discounts to tickets during checkout? We had it figured out in the POS app, but when we go to the actions menu in the restaurant POS app to try and apply a discount to tickets, the discount option is grayed out.

Examples: We have a $4.95 coupon. We want to apply at checkout. OR We have a military percentage discount and want to apply at checkout.

And is it possible to do two discounts at checkout? One for a dollar amount and another that is a percentage?

2. In your "front of house" features you advertise a way to have happy hour or friends & family discounts. How would I apply a happy hour discount during that time frame?

Repeat Orders

How does this feature work? In your features list, it says repeat a single drink, menu item, etc. for faster order entry.

Employee Management

Is there a fee per employee like there is in the regular Square POS app? Or is this included in the cost of Square for Restaurants?

Example: We're not using Square payroll, but would like to use the time clock feature.

Thank you!

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

kevinyien — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 18:07:18 GMT

Hi @King_William_ii,

A question many restaurants coming from Aloha have asked! The good news is that many have made the switch already. While there is no automated migration tool, there are a few tools and services we offer to help with the transition. Aloha can typically export to a CSV and Square offers a CSV upload that you can leverage to get all your menu items into Square. Note that you would need to reformat it and make additional changes for the actual layout on the POS, but that should help with the first-time creation. Additionally, we offer Square Implementation Services starting at $600 for restaurants who would prefer to have someone else do this.

Re: Multiple device support in Square for Restaurants.

kevinyien — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 18:10:02 GMT

Hi @GPCTed,

Definitely! Square for Restaurants was built with every set up in mind, and many restaurants have found the flexibility it offers incredibly valuable. Every iPad running the Square Restaurants app will stay in sync and be able to print to all your kitchen printers as long as they’re on the same WiFi network.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

kevinyien — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 18:13:37 GMT

We’re working to offer that, @LaCanastaEatery! We can’t speak to any timelines or who we’re speaking with, but we want to make sure that you get to choose how your diners find and order with you. We’re here to help you run your restaurant faster.