Can I connect Square Terminal to Square Stand running Square for Restaurants?

[307HOOKERS]

I have a Food Trailer and it is difficult for shorter people to reach the Square Stand inside the window to sign or more importantly leave a tip.  I would like to use a Square Terminal mounted outside the window as a second screen to take payment.  

[ryanwanner]

Hello @307HOOKERS ! This is definitely something Square can do. 

check out this help page for connecting your terminal to your stand. I use this setup regularly in my store and it’s seamless. 

Hope this helps!

[307HOOKERS]

Thanks Ryan.

I saw that page but also some conflicting info on whether or not I need a PLUS subscription.  I don't need the ability to take orders on the Terminal (for now) and I really don't want customers to be able to modify an order.  Just looking for a second screen they can Tip and Sign on.  Also, I don't know if it matters or not but I notice there is a second gen stand now, we have the original.

Thanks again for the help.

[ryanwanner]

@307HOOKERSas far as I know there is no additional fees or upgrades you need in order to run the Terminal connected to your stand.

How this will work is that you enter the order just as you normally do. On checkout, once your terminal is linked, you'll see a Send to Terminal button on your checkout screen. When you tap that button, the terminal will display an itemized list of the order then accept a credit card payment, tip screen, receipt screen, and loyalty signup/status screen. There is no way for the customer to modify the order nor is there a way for the customer to order themselves. Basically, think of the terminal as a glorified version of the old credit card machines, just that the info is sent to it via your stand.

In your situation, the 2nd gen stand will still cause you difficulties. It's still a swivel-to-pay setup just with the contactless reader built in.

I'd say give it a shot to see if it works for you. I know of quite a few food trucks that use this setup with great success.

[ryanwanner]

Oh, wait: I just reread the title of your post: Square for Restaurants isn't supported for connected terminal yet. The regular point of sale is. My apologies--didn't mean to get your hopes up!

At this point, I think the decision lies in customer convenience for the connected terminal and you switch over to the regular point of sale or if you want to stay with restaurants for the additional features.

[307HOOKERS]

Ryan,

This is all very confusing.  When we signed up for square it created a Square Point of Sale account.  I then downloaded Square for Restaurants and it works under our original sign up so I think we have the ability to do either (not sure though).

When you say additional features, are you familiar with the differences?  Can you please explain?  I am going to call square in the morning but any information you might have is greatly appreciated.

[ryanwanner]

@307HOOKERSI personally don't use Restaurants, let me tag a few Super Sellers that I know do: @Donnie-M , @BeChewzy , @LLCafe , @Sam_400º , and others: can you speak to the differences between the basic Restaurants versus SPOS?

I do know that your login will work on both the regular POS and Restaurants, and until you move up tiers on either app (adding employee management, customer database, marketing, etc) there isn't any additional charge for it. All transactions on either app will show in your dashboard and be processed the same way. It essentially boils down to how the orders get entered.

The food trucks I know that use the regular point of sale with the connected terminal get along just fine. I'm not here to dissuade you from using Restaurants, but I'm not fully sure you need it.

[Sam_400º]

@307HOOKERS 

Just had a quick read though...... As @ryanwanner says you can't use the connected terminal with the Restaurant pos just the standard app. It connects via the network/wifi so can be used no matter how you're supporting your iPad, when you go to complete the sale you tap on "complete on Terminal" & it pings the payment over to it. You don't have a 'live' screen as you add stuff to the order. 

I'm a pizza truck & while I have the all-bells-and-whistles restaurant subscription for the KDS etc. I still use the standard app so I can utilise the connected terminal. 

You are able to mix the app use too without effecting your reports or business, in effect you can have the restaurant app & standard one on the same iPad & mix between the two. 

Regarding the differences, it would be easier if you could list the features you want/need & then we can say for certain if there's something the standard app can't do (quite a lot regarding the free tier of the restaurant app is around supporting workflows for you staff, so if you want the separated screen this would probably suit your workflow better). 

[307HOOKERS]

@Sam_400º

Thanks for the reply.

We are not open yet (2-3 weeks out) but have been playing with the SFR app and I guess the only feature that I know of so far that we may need is the modifiers.  We have a very limited menu and we don't have any employees.  I am thinking that we can probably use the SPOS app.

You did bring up an interesting point and that is WiFi.  We purchased an ipad with cellular and it has it's own SIM card and unlimited internet.  So to connect the Terminal do we just create a Hot Spot on the ipad.

Thanks for taking time out of your day to help out a stranger!  One last question is the pic in the signature just a simple drag and drop?  Will square resize?  Or???

[Sam_400º]

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@307HOOKERS wrote:

..... I guess the only feature that I know of so far that we may need is the modifiers.  We have a very limited menu and we don't have any employees.  I am thinking that we can probably use the SPOS app.

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The SPOS has all the same modifiers just in a standard format rather than table service 'conversational' - so you're all good here! 

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@307HOOKERS wrote:

.... You did bring up an interesting point and that is WiFi.  We purchased an ipad with cellular and it has it's own SIM card and unlimited internet.  So to connect the Terminal do we just create a Hot Spot on the iPad...

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That's exactly what I do, use one iPad as a hotspot for everything else in the business. I did go down the 4g WiFi Routers & everything path, but have ended up back at the simple solution & it's working better for me. 

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@307HOOKERS wrote:

Thanks for taking time out of your day to help out a stranger!  One last question is the pic in the signature just a simple drag and drop?  Will square resize?  Or???

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It wasn't a drag & drop - I know I uploaded it to the album on the community & went from there but can't quite remember! I'll see if I can dig out some instructions I put together on one of the other boards 👍🏻