Saving Money With Square for Your Restaurant

Written by Justine Nightingale
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 05:00am CDT

Every day across the United States, people are using Square to run and grow their businesses.

The same holds true for restaurants as many are using Square as their POS (point of sale) system and payment processor.

Why are so many people using Square? It’s simply because Square saves them time and money.

Because we care about you saving money with Square for your restaurant, we’re going to break it down for you and highlight what makes it a potential point of sale system for your restaurant.

What is Square for Restaurants?

Square appreciates that restaurants have special needs, so they created a separate solution specifically for restaurants.

Their POS system allows you to manage credit card payments, take online orders and pickup orders, track your tables, customize your floor plans, and more.

In addition, you can also manage delivery and pickup orders which ensures you’re meeting the needs of your customers.

Additional features of Square include:

• Management of your front of house with order entry, seating, mapping of tables, and more.
• Additional management for the back of the house including menu management.
• Customer relationship management – with this feature you can save payment methods, customer information, and order histories. This allows you to later market to your customers.
• Offline and online payments, check splitting, refunds, coupons, and more.
• Management of your employees including their time sheets, logins, order assignments, and permissions.
• Daily sales reports, labor costs, employee sales reports, sales by product/category, and much more.

You’ll also find Square Payments inside the POS. This makes it incredibly easy to take payments with very reasonable pricing.

Square for Restaurants is entirely based in the cloud so you can rest assured your information is safe in their secure servers.

What’s more, you can use Square whether you’re connected to the internet or offline.

In addition, starting at $599, you can have someone help you with the implementation of Square for your restaurant.

Now let’s look at the pros and cons of the various versions of Square for Restaurants.

The Pros and Cons of Using the Free Square Version

As with anything, there are definite pros and a few cons when using the free version of software. By weighing them, you can decide if Square is really capable of saving you money.

The Pros:

• There is a free plan. It includes unlimited devices and users. All you pay for is the payment processing.
• It’s easy to use.
• You can use it at multiple locations.
• You have access to table and menu management.
• There’s also an order manager and an auto gratuity feature.
• You get access to customer service during specified hours.

The Cons:

• The free plan doesn’t offer 24/7 support, but the paid plans do offer it.
• You don’t have access to as many analytics with the free version.
• You need your own iPad or iPhone to get started. You can also buy a Square terminal.

When it comes to using Square as a credit card processor, you will pay 2.6% plus $0.10 per credit card transaction. Online payments are at 2.9% and 30 cents per transaction.

The Pros and Cons of Using the Paid Square Versions

Square offers a Plus version for just $60 per month which is really reasonable and most likely saves you money.

In addition, you pay $40 per month for every POS device you add.

The Pros:

• You get everything in the free plan.
• You get a 30-day free trial.
• The credit card processing fees are the same as the free plan.
• You can expect 24/7 customer support.
• Management options include seat management, the ability to reopen closed checks, course management, real-time order updates, kitchen performance reports, and a floor customization plan.
• You get full analytics reports which helps you manage your restaurant better.
• Accept payments at the table.

The Cons

• Restricted to Square’s payment processing.
• Limited options when it comes to hardware.

Square also offers a Premium plan that offers customized pricing.

Square Add-Ons

With all Square for Restaurants plans, you can find many available add-ons. With these add-ons, you have so much more than a POS and payment processor. Let’s look at them:

Square Team Management

You can also schedule, manage, and pay your staff right from Square. The essentials are free, and if you want to upgrade it’s $35 per month/location.

Features include:

• Setting employee schedules.
• Customize team access.
• Create and customize shift schedules.
• View individual performance and sales analytics.
• Pay your staff if you integrate with Square Payroll.
• Allow your team to clock in and out at the register.
• Your team members can also view and adjust their schedules in Square. They can see their hours worked, their timecards, and even their estimated pay in the mobile app.

Square Online

With this feature, you can also take food orders online.

You can allow your customers to schedule take-out, delivery, or curbside pickup.

This is a great feature because it integrates with your in-house Square POS.

Square Payroll

With this add-on, not only do you get access to full-service payroll, but the system will handle your automated tax filings of federal, state, and local payroll taxes, too.

You can also add employee benefits in Square Payroll.

The fee for this add-on is $29 per month and $5 per employee.

Square Loyalty

For just $45 per month, you can add a customer loyalty program right in your Square POS.

According to one source, retaining just 5% more customers can increase your profits by 25% to 95%. Don’t forget it costs five times less to keep a current customer than to get a brand new one.

So, you can see the monthly price is really worth it and saves you money in the long run.

Square Marketing

This add-on is just $15 per month, and it helps you grow your business.

Square Marketing is email marketing software. With it you can design custom emails, set up automated drip campaigns, and view analytics right from your Square Dashboard. (tweet this)

This feature saves you money because you don’t have to add an email marketing service provider outside Square. These generally cost much more than $15 per month.

A bonus is you can not only target new customers, but you can reach out to regular customers and even customers who’ve lapsed.

To Conclude

With Square for Restaurants and even with the extra add-on prices, you’ll find you’re saving money with Square for your restaurant. (tweet this)

This is because everything you need is in one place. The pricing is set up for your success, and you don’t need to buy extra software for things like payroll and marketing.

Square is perfect for restaurants of all sizes including those with many locations.

With the free trial, Square is definitely worth a try for your restaurant.

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website where eye can integrate Square. Ready to take the plunge and create a new website? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: Nathan Dumlao and Clay Banks on Unsplash