A good POS demo should make your real operation easier to imagine—not distract you with a long list of features. The best evaluation starts with the moments your team handles every shift.
Ask vendors to show the workflow, state the limitation, and explain who owns recovery. A clear “not yet” is more useful than a vague “yes.”
1. Start with service, not software
Map your service models before comparing products. Full service, counter service, tabs, takeout, retail, tasting experiences, and multiple locations create different order, payment, kitchen, and guest needs. Ask every vendor to show your most common order and your most difficult one.
2. Follow one order all the way through
Watch an order move from entry to modification, kitchen routing, course control, payment, tip, receipt, refund, reporting, and closeout. If those steps depend on different records, ask who owns recovery when they disagree.
3. Test the exceptions
Request a split check with more than one tender. Reopen a paid check. Transfer a table. 86 a modifier. Refund only the tip or one line item. Exceptions reveal the operating model.
4. Ask what happens when connectivity changes
Separate cached product behavior, queued operational writes, and card-present payment availability. Ask exactly which actions continue, what becomes read-only, how retries work, and how the system reconciles.
5. Understand the payment record
Clarify the relationship between the check, tender, authorization, capture, tip, refund, settlement, receipt, and payout. Ask who processes payments and what hardware is validated.
6. Evaluate the back office through decisions
Do not only ask whether reports exist. Ask how a manager traces a number back to orders, payments, employees, menu items, kitchen activity, inventory movement, or guest visits.
7. Make implementation part of the product
A proposal should describe data migration, menu setup, roles, devices, network expectations, training, rehearsal, launch scope, escalation paths, and exit criteria.
Request a Trellis demo and bring the scenarios that matter most to your restaurant.