Questions Before You Buy?

The following FAQs have been compiled from customer requests for more information on our EPoS support solutions. We've done our best to categorise the questions, but if you have any that aren't answered, please contact us and we'll be happy to answer them.

What's Typical?

One of the most common questions we get asked is "What do other venues like me have" - in order to help answer the question, the following table should help:

Weekly Turnover	Wet/ Dry	Max. Staff	Approx Prods	Terminals	Kitchen Printer	SamStock	Typical Model
<£2,500	60/40	3	60	1			520ex/SPS3000
<£2,500	90/10	4	60	2			520ex/J2 920
<£2,500	10/90	2	60	1			520ex/SPS3000
<£4,000	60/40	5	60	2			520ex/J2 920
<£4,000	90/10	6	60	3			520ex/J2 920
<£4,000	10/90	4	60	2			520ex/J2 920
<£8,000	60/40	6	60	3			520ex/J2 920
<£8,000	90/10	8	60	4			520ex/J2 920
<£8,000	20/80	6	80	3 Drink 1 Food			Vibrant J2 950 J2 560 fanless
<£20,000	60/40	10	80	4			Vibrant J2 950 J2 560 fanless
<£20,000	20/80	6	80	4/5 Drink 1 Food	(3) Main/Grill /Dessert		Vibrant J2 950 J2 560 fanless

Money Money Money - Paying for your EPoS Solution

When do I pay?
For all EPoS installation jobs, we require a deposit to be paid to secure the installation date. The payment of the remaining balance is to be made at time of installation. A VAT invoice will be supplied within fourteen days of installation.

For all delivery orders, we require full payment to be cleared in advance of shipping. We can supply a pro-forma with BACS details for you upon request.

How much do you charge in addition to the cost of our EPoS tills for installation?
For customers purchasing two or more tills, we don't charge a penny for installation, set up or training. This takes in to account one day on site, and half a day in advance to set up your data. Some customers ask us to stay around for a second day to observe the system in use and make any ad-hoc changes to your original brief, in which case we charge this at our daily or hourly support rate.

Customers purchasing a single EPoS terminal will be subject to a charge of £250 for installation.

Every quote we've been given has some hidden extras, what are yours?

We operate a NO HIDDEN EXTRAS policy

We don't have any hidden extras - in fact we've just taken a lot of time on revising our pricing to ensure that there aren't any, and the whole thing is totally transparent. Yes, there are options, but they're not compulsory. Too many of our competitors advertise cheaper incomplete systems in order to entice customers, only to find out that there's hidden extras which are compulsory. We find that on balance, our prices are among the fairest and the most complete that you will find.

We charge £180 for each kitchen printer that's required
We charge £10 per month per system if our full support package is required
We charge £25 per month per site for complete system management - i.e. we carry out your changes
We allow for one CAT-5 run of upto 10m for each till that we install, additional runs (for printers and back office) will be charged at £75 per point; runs which are over 10m will also be charged at this rate.

How do you charge for travel
We don't charge travel for customers within most of the country - exceptions at present being Northern Ireland, the North East, and Scotland. In the case of these areas, we will usually charge for the cheapest method of travel to get to that area - often being a combination of courier and flight rather than travelling by road.

What do you mean by Subsistence?
Our site team often travel great distances at unsocial hours to attend installs, and as such when our engineer and their assistant attend site, we would ask they are provided with coffee/tea/water facilities, and a meal break with the option of your basic menu. If this is not possible on site (and we fully understand this if you are in a state of refurbishment), they will usually attend a local pub/fast food restaurant for a break and use the nearest venue to keep topped up with coffee. This will be invoiced to you at cost price.

Network Linking

What do we need in order to link our tills?
Depending on the EPoS system you decide to buy, we usually recommend a professionally installed CAT5 solution, however, on PC based systems we are able to use a secure wireless lan to link your tills. The key to either of these solutions is the professionally installed element (a standard wireless router designed for home/office use won't usually be able to cope with the 24/7 epos environment).

Do we need to network our tills?
Networked terminals make life easier, it means that you only have to program one terminal with new changes. It also means that your terminals are all uniform and staff find it easier to navigate. If you are using any back office software or wish to monitor the tills remotely, you will need to network the systems together.

PC Based EPoS Terminals

When we say PC terminals, we're referring to the integrated touch screens that we provide that run Windows XP as an operating system and store everything on to a hard disk as opposed to memory chips. The terminals are fully integrated in to one unit which includes the touch screen, processor and all connections, so you don't need to have any extra boxes behind your bar.

Can I Mix and Match - do all my terminals have to be identical?
The glory of PC based tills in your restaurant is that they all work the same way, and it's the software that makes them. We can use many different brands/models/styles of EPoS terminal, even on the same site if that's what you need.

Do I need PC based EPoS terminals?
It isn't always essential to have PC based EPoS terminals, but they do have several advantages.. the keys are the size of the hard drive - keeping many years journal and not needing to overwrite their history, along with the fact that the systems are much easier to support remotley. PC based systems are also easier to upgrade and always have the latest features.

Do I have to use your software on my terminal?
You don't have to use Sentinel, although your terminal will come with it as standard. When Hospitality Tills was set up, we evaluated several EPoS programs (about 35), and found that nearly all were unprofessionally written or unprofessionally supported. One thing we didn't want is our customers being forced to pay annual upgrade fees, phenomenal monthly support fees or being forced to deal with overseas call centres. Sentinel was the best all rounder which can be used in many environments. We have since added CES TS to our portfolio, which offers all the features of Sentinel, along with a whole host more.

Integration of your EPoS to other systems

Do I have to buy the back office software for stock control?
As much as we'd love to integrate SamStock in to every environment, the reality is that you don't always need it. Sentinel has some in-built stock management and is more than capable of tracking basic figures. If you'd like to use the system to process your ordering, suggest order quantities, and produce more comprehensive management reports, or if you need a HQ solution that will let you link to multiple sites, then SamStock is the system for you.

Does your system integrate with Sage as standard?
Nearly all our PC based solutions, and also the SPS-2000 can integrate with Sage Line 50, either through Sentinel, CES, or through SamStock, the back office solution.

What methods of import are included as standard?
You can import and export to Excel spreadsheets as standard on Sentinel or CES, and CSV on most other terminal types. Call us to check if your terminal can use this.

Can your system integrate to our hotel software?
An option is available to link in to the GuestMaster, Mainstay or Guestline hotel systems. Other linkages can be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Leasing an EPoS system

If we decide on a lease, will we be accepted?
As with any finance agreement, our leasing partners will run credit checks in order to satisfy them that you can afford the repayments and have a good history of paying credit agreements on time. If you meet the criteria, the chances are you will be accepted.

Who can get a lease?
At present, we are only legally allowed to lease to Limited companies (both private and public). New companies are welcome, although directors guarantees will usually be required.

What is the rate of interest on a lease?
We normally deal with lease-rental agreements, where you rent the equipment for three years, and purchase it for one final months payment; as this is a rental agreement, it doesn't have an APR, but depending on the customer's status, it can equate to anything ranging from 6% to 18%.