Likelihood to Recommend In my experience, there has not been a resolution on outstanding tickets opened two years ago during the initial implementation. Simple things like time reporting, creating buttons, and marking items as "unavailable" have issues. The system has a lag when servers log out of checks that prevents them from opening the checks on another terminal without a wait that feels like an eternity in the restaurant industry and with direct impact to the guest. Good luck calling support. Most of my experience involves the person I spoke with having no idea how to fix my issue and having to "escalate the ticket." This escalation process will last weeks, months, and in our case, years with no resolution.
Read full review For restaurants it's great, and that's the only scenario I'm really use to seeing it. However I do have to say that during Christmas time, our city has a craft bizarre where local artists are featured and sell their wares, and this Bizarre was using Toast POS. Therefore, I think it can really span across all avenues. It's great because of how it categorizes menus, and how you can run reports like a p-mix to see your top sellers, and bottom sellers, etc. The more I think of it, now, really any business that sells something and needs to track those sales, could use this POS. A tire store? Sure. A hat shop? Absolutely. The great thing about Toast is that it is just SO customizable! You can even make the buttons different colors, that's how customizable it is. Lastly, the ability to sell online has been a game-changer. I wish there was a little bit better formatting for online ordering, but really, you can add pictures, descriptions, modifiers, use discount codes, and accept gift cards all online. We didn't have to build out an online store, we just had to build out our menu buttons and we were all set.
Read full review Pros Real time sales Real time labor costs Integration with account software Read full review The ability for guest to select a receipt type. Allowing to enter in different types of orders (current in-store orders, future orders, house account orders, and more). The convenience of touch screen use and strong calibration. Ability to swivel tablet from employee to guest. Read full review Cons Support is awful. Oracle does not directly support end-users and depends on resellers to offer support. So if there is a bug or breaking change, we have to jump through hoops to get something fixed. Does not play well with other software or interfaces. There are interfaces but they lack a serious amount of features that are crucial to our business. The guest facing hardware does not hold up to constant use very well. The backend hardware is lacking in PCI compliance and is not meant for enterprise use. The software itself looks as if it is stuck in the early 2000s and there has been no sign of an update in many years. Reporting is difficult to set up and use and you have to rely on third-party reporting to get decent usable reports. Matthew James Junior Systems Administrator | POS Programming Specialist
Read full review Though sales details are available in real time, the analytics take 2-3 days to post. So if you are looking for specific modifications you'll have to wait. Though you can edit the menus directly from the devices and move them around like you do on a smartphone, it doesn't give you a sorting option. If you're OCD like me, you have to alphabetize my hand. Read full review Likelihood to Renew There are many features I wish Toast had that it currently does not, but we are likely to renew this year because given Toast's recent increase in funding and expanding of their staff, we are hopeful some of these issues will finally be resolved in 2019. Plus, though I've never done it, I'd imagine that switching to another POS system would take a ton of time, money, and resources---things most businesses don't have a lot of. So we'll sit tight with Toast for now and see what they come up with this year in terms of fixing our biggest pain-points.
Read full review Usability Toast POS is a great basic POS tool, having some features I didn't think would be possible at this price point, such as:
processing CC payments in "offline mode" in case there is an internet outage kitchen display screens collecting payment from customers using a handheld right at their table pre-approving card payments to assure the customer has enough money to pay for their order, etc That being said, I still feel that Toast misses the mark on some things that I truly would consider 'common-sense' features, such as:
providing hardware that connects the Register Screen (Elo) to the Cash drawer so it doesn't fall off the table when flipped over for customer signature accepting physical and e-gift cards as payment on their own online ordering platform (ToastOO) a Rewards Program that allows for online enrollment, rather than holding up quick-serve lines to sign up a Promo code feature that allows you to add basic restrictions such as Limit 1 per customer, or date/time limitations increasing in-store operations efficiency by creating more straight-forward ways to manage restaurant/ToastOO hours, and Delivery/Takeout quote estimates Facing these issues after 3+ years has been a frustration. We hope Toast has some solutions in mind that they will be implementing in 2019.
Read full review Alternatives Considered We've stayed with MICROS mainly due to that's how we've always operated and to switch operating POS systems would be a HUGE learning curve for everyone involved.
Read full review Toast is so much easier to use than Breadcrumb. The display is so much easier to navigate. The card readers are more quality with Toast. Chownow was hard because it had its own printer, different than our kitchen printer, for to go orders, but now with Toast's all in one ordering we get the to go orders sent to the kitchen with the same ease as if they were getting fired from the main floor.
Read full review Return on Investment Micros has allowed us to leverage our margin by using our own credit processor and loyalty program. We've seen success from both of these platforms (not Micros) and have been able to save money on the extra costs of using Micros. Read full review I wish there are a way to permanently delete items from the database instead of just archiving I wish there was a way to remove old locations that are no longer in use for my company completely from view. The system overall is easy to navigate and make changes to. Read full review ScreenShots