Restaurant POS Software Integrations

The POS has been around for close to 150 years but looked and operated very differently back then to what we commonly see in restaurants, hospitality businesses, or retail spaces today.

From its origins as a cash register in the late 1900s – capable of simply recording sale amounts and summing up total sales for a day; the point-of-sale (POS) system has evolved into a sophisticated restaurant management system – that does much more than simply recording transactions!

POS technology is one of the most significant investment decisions that restaurant owners make today.

A good chef is only as good as his knives, and the same logic applies to POS systems – which are only as impactful as the software integrations that power them.

What is Point-of-sale software integration?

Restaurant point-of-sale software integrations are connections between your POS software and third-party restaurant software applications through APIs.

The best way to think about the relationship between your POS system and POS software integrations is that of a partnership, where both parties work in tandem to drive business outcomes.

How do POS software integrations help your business?

We can understand the use case for restaurant management system integrations as two-fold –

1. Grow POS Functionality and Service Offering

POS software integrations help extend the functionality of your point-of-sale system and help you provide for dining and operations trends in the market.

Examples of extended functionality include adding online order processing from third-party delivery platforms, delivery, and loyalty and gift cards to your POS. We look at this more deeply in the next section.

Here is an example of one of our customers, Fronterra, who reaped the benefits of the software integrations mentioned above to cope with the changes in the dining landscape and customer preferences over the past year.

2. Provides Robust Restaurant Operation Insights

Some of the most valuable restaurant operation insights that POS software integrations have the power to offer include – understanding inventory or restaurant stock needs and usage (inventory management integrations) and breaking down restaurant operation costs, categorically, over custom time-periods (accounting integrations).

It’s hard to imagine how a restaurant business can plan to operate efficiently, on a day-to-day basis, without thoroughly understanding what their inventory requirements are, and how they may change seasonally with changes in demand or supply. Inventory management software makes it easy to do so right from your restaurant POS.

Easy access to financial data and business costs for restaurant owners is the key to a successful business operation that – takes advantage of trends in sales, shed costs where possible, either in the front-of-house or cost of sales and ultimately help increase profitability. Accounting software integration is the bridge between your POS system and your financial data.

The 4 Vital POS software integrations For Your Restaurant.

1. Inventory Management

Maintaining stock and planning out restaurant inventory to meet operational needs can often be one of the most daunting aspects of running a profitable restaurant or food and beverage business.

Restaurant operators today benefit from restaurant technology like inventory management integrations for POS systems that take away the guesswork involved in managing inventory.

Inventory management POS integrations can help you effectively plan and manage your inventory by giving you access to data forecasting, order planning reports, integrated accounting, and automated inventory tracking based on customer orders.

2. Online Ordering, Delivery, and Takeout

In 2020, 53% of all adults said that purchasing food through takeout and delivery is essential to the way they live.

Off-premise dining options like online ordering and contactless takeout have proved themselves year-over-year as a lucrative revenue stream for a restaurant business.

50% of diners state that the availability of online ordering would influence their choice of one restaurant over another.

The preference for online ordering and other contactless dining options are shared by diners across all age demographics, from Baby Boomers to Gen Z.

POS integrations for online ordering through third-party delivery platforms like, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grub Hub, helps you conveniently pull orders directly into your POS system.

A POS integration for third-party delivery orders removes the need for manual entering of online orders into your POS, ensuring an error-free workflow for your online orders.

It also takes away the need for multiple tablets to manage incoming orders from various third-party delivery platforms.

These integrations can also add value to your POS by acting as the central command to manage your online ordering menus and pricing – as opposed to managing individual menus and price changes for each platform.

3. Accounting

Accounting software integration for POS systems makes real-time recording, processing, and interpretation of your restaurant financials seamless.

It helps you access financial and operational data for sales and labor forecasting, and build budgets based on historical transactional and cost information.

Accounting software POS integration consolidates and centralizes data collection on your restaurant’s daily sales and operational costs (like labor, inventory, and a host of other direct and indirect costs), leaving manual bookkeeping practices in the past along with the old clunky cash registers.

Accounting software integration for POS systems makes it easy for restaurant operators to make smarter financial decisions and uncover trends to make business more efficient (reduce the cost of sale) and profitable.

Through reports such as consolidated financial, Profit and Loss (P&L), daily sales, and other features such as vendor management and automated A/P payments – accounting software integrations can transform your restaurant POS system from a humble cash register to a data-driven powerhouse, integral to the execution of your business strategy inside the restaurant.

4. Loyalty

Loyalty is often something that restaurants start to think about as they grow and mature. Some don’t consider it at all, it doesn’t fit with their brand, or they don’t feel that developing expertise in this area is as important as other endeavors.

In 2021, however, not offering a loyalty program to customers is not an option anymore. 1 in 3 customers says restaurant loyalty programs influence their choice of where to eat out.

Building a loyalty program from scratch requires a deep understanding of who your customers are, what value they seek when dining at your restaurant, and how would a loyalty program fit into your business plan and budget.

Loyalty and gift card integrations for your POS system make it easy to design, operate and track loyalty offerings for your customers.

Loyalty and customer engagement POS integrations allow you to build a custom loyalty program (which can boast a simple sign-up for your customers and a member portal), as well as design branded gift cards and loyalty points cards right through your POS.

To learn more about how Squirrel can help you integrate these key capabilities, contact us for a chat!