[Ann] Best SambaPOS Features

5 posts were split to a new topic: Solutions for a marketplace and reseller confidence

Ok sorry back to topic at hand. I love the look and feel of it. It’s very modern and clean. It’s fast and runs on multitude of hardware.

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Now that I have had time to sleep and think about it.

  1. Inventory tracking with the ability to track suppliers and payments attached to purchases is huge. No other POS solution allows this kind of detailed cost analysis. Combine that with the custom reporting and SambaPOS can provide an extremely powerful tool for restaurant owners that will give them insights into how their business is running which no other POS can do currently. I have tested the big players in POS industry and there are a couple that offer inventory tracking but nobody offers the ability to attach Supplier payments and track them with purchases. There are a few that will make you pay more than $100 per month for a third party inventory solution.

  2. Kitchen screen capability. Many POS companies expecially top players offer a Kitchen screen solution but it is always extra monthly payment and it is always limited to how they tell you it will work. Being able to design and customize a kitchen screen to operate how your kitchen needs it to operate is a very powerful resource.

  3. Loyalty Programs, in the US specifically loyalty systems are pricey. Most POS solutions offer loyalty but it can cost upwards of $400 per month with most being $30 per month. They add on more costs if you want to accept gift cards, etc. Being able to build custom loyalty programs and have them interface with Mag cards, printed barcodes, email campaigns, text messages, tweets (Yes SambaPOS can do Twitter) is huge. OK did I say SambaPOS can do Twitter! Little known powerful tool included…

  4. Powerful delivery tracking that can be installed with press of a single button. I actually do not see any other pos company offering delivery tracking short of custom programmed solution.

More coming…Need to think.

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  1. Twitter marketing: I have used it and I may be the only one using it but Twitter is built into SambaPOS and there are multiple ways we can use it. We can allow it to generate orders, we can use it to send and receive tweets automatically. I am about to go live with a system I have been working on for my food truck that will send tweets to customers if they have filled out and gave permission for a loyalty program I am starting. Everytime they buy something from me it tracks it and when they reach 10 purchases it will tweet out a special discount for them. This will be advertising for me and give them a cool benefit.

  2. Built in support for customer accounts. Most POS companies do not even offer this the ones that do charge you a lot for it and some even use third party for it. Not only can we use customer accounts in SambaPOS but we can enhance it to do truly awesome things. Loyalty can be intertwined with customer accounts, twitter, emails, text messages all can be integrated with customer accounts. Who else is offering this?

  3. Time Clock capability. Ok so most POS companies are offering time keeping. SambaPOS has support for really good time keeping and there are good tutorials out there for 3 different versions. Not only can we do time keeping but we can integrate virtually any other time keeping software if they provide an API for us to use.

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I have SambaPOS installed at my restaurant location and at a friends restaurant.

THE GOOD

  • VALUE - This software is on par if not better then almost any POS software out there with out the nickle and diming other companies do. I’ve owned systems that charge in the thousands for each terminal license.

  • CUSTOMIZATION - It is amazing that you can accomplish pretty much anything with SambaPOS. There is a bit of a learning curve but with some forum searches you can become a pro in no time

  • THE FORUM - The community is very helpful and the posted tutorials are great.

  • CUSTOM REPORTS - For business analysis and management it is AMAZING!! The ability to track and report pretty much anything is an awesome selling point.

  • USER INTERFACE - the software looks good and with proper setup is super intuitive.

  • ORDER TAGS - the order tags are great for customizing orders and are intuitive

  • CUSTOMER LOYALTY/TRACKING - This is a premium feature! I have it set up based off of Q’s voiceover example. It is a huge selling point for people interested in marketing.

  • CUSTOM ENTITIES - The ability to compile data on anything is useful(Tables, customers, gift cards, employees…etc)

  • ENTITY SCREENS - This is another amazing feature. Being able to create custom screens that are made tailored to your need is amazing.

  • CUSTOM PRINT TEMPLATES - Its nice to be able to make your receipts look unique as well as customize what info goes where

THE FRUSTRATING
I know you asked for the best features but Ill throw this in there too, under frustrating since its not bad but could be improved in my opinion. You know its a good system when my list of complaints is 1 item long :slightly_smiling_face:

  • USER FUNCTIONS - I really wish there was a more streamlined time clock function. I know there are many tutorials on the topic and I have implemented a system and it works ok, but its generally complex for the clients. Also I wish the Pins could be 2 digits long would make logging in so much faster, and if you log in under Admin you should be able to view the employee pins.
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I love this topic… Please write more, more, more…

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Isn’t it @JTRTech’s?

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yea it is lol SORRY its been a while

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As recently suggested by @Hasa and many other people we’ve planned improvements for @Jesse’s timeclock implementation. We’ll have regarding updates on next month.

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I’m still looking for feedbacks :slight_smile:

Another alternative to using time trex is Deputy which is quite a popular one. Also not sure if anyone has heard of www.doshii.io They are like zappier. Creating an integration for their marketplace means we enable a lot more integrations in a few clicks. Might even be worth looking at zappier in that case. Just a thought. Doshii received quite a media coverage here in Australia and has recently won a good investment partner.

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Muti table/ custom entity screens is a big awesome feature. The fact you can setup custom buttons, tables, table layouts, reports and almost any function on that screen is amazing. Its like creating a seperate manage screen customized specifically for managing almost anything within the POS without having to ever leave the entity screen.

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Suggestions for improvement

Multi Currency Support right from Settle screen is another great feature SambaPOS has. Even the ability to swap currency type on the fly on the settle screen is amazing! The been able to integrate a life currency exchange update to ensure the currency value is always accurate is another great thing!

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Hello everyone! Hope you are having a great day.

Here is my 2 cents on the topic:

  1. I think biggest selling point at the moment is Metrik however, saying that its not fully functional but you have to pay yearly is not.

  2. Its very fresh looking and friendly interface is a massive bonus when showcasing to an end user. Most of the POS out there on the market look like they are from 90s or early 2000 which is a lot of grey boring buttons that open up more pages with more grey buttons that lead nowhere.

Tackling menus, sub menus, products, order tags and buttons is effortless.

  1. I-N-V-E-N-T-O-R-Y! All business owners want to know and keep track of their daily/weekly/monthly stock takes. It is really simple to setup and can be combined with Order tags to keep things dynamic especially for restaurants that have a lot of modifiers in their menus. However, some sort of red warning sign that you are low on some stock or a summary what needs to be ordered when manager logs in would be an excellent addition. (I havent really invested time in finding it on the forum)

  2. Custom reporting. Most of the end users dont really know or have zero experience scripting, programming or even making changes to POS systems. The fact you can create almost any kind of report that will suit their needs is amazing. Knowing your sales and your inventory makes your annual or bi annual menu changes a lot easier. And it doesnt stop there, knowing your numbers makes investment and upgrade decisions a lot easier.

An idea of having a visual report editor which all it requires is dragging down boxes of information would be interesting to see.

  1. Table orders via Smartphones is probably one of the best things out there. You can connect almost any Smartphone to SambaPOS. Instead of having to buy clunky outdated hardware for $$$$ that only integrates or works on your POS setup + having to pay monthly maintenance for it.

  2. Print templates and orders. Having full access and ability to send templates and orders all around your business is an outstanding way to organise your staff and departments.

  3. Entity screens. Being able to edit your order numbers, table layouts, ticket screens, reservations, customers and other screens makes thing very versatile.

  4. Having a question and someone having an answer or a solution on the forums. Community is outstanding.

  5. Low cost - its always makes end users pay attention. Owning the license for SambaPOS V5 instead of paying it monthly + being able to have one license on as many terminals as you want.

  6. Customer displays with advertising and kitchen displays.

— I know its not part of the original topic but I would really like to see:

  • More tutorials/solutions on CC integrations.

  • Since more and more countries are making an effort in creating centralized tax servers it would be nice to see some sort of API or an extension which would make syncing transactions with those servers easier. I recently started working on one solution and will gladly share some insight and scripts once its finished or make progress.

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Another major asset is that development team is directly active on the community there by listening to feedback and requests made by the community. For eg lately people have been making requests and finding bugs and they have been fixed or addressed with latest updates,

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  • Customization:
    • Automation
    • Entity Screens
  • GraphQL
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I use RFID fobs for my loyalty scheme but the other day I tested using the fob to log in and it worked fine. Pretty sure I didn’t have to press the arrow/enter button either, it just logged straight in.

Most rfid and msr readers follow code entry with carriage return/enter.

All these devices are is an automated keyboard, you will most likely see them show in device manager as a HID similar to a keyboard would.

I can confirm that after scanning the fob the log in is automatic :+1: