Food truck checkout system: from chaos to efficiency revolution

Proper Cash Management Gastronomy – The Basis

The catering industry is not only about culinary diversity and creativity. It also brings with it legal requirements for you as an operator in terms of bookkeeping and taxes. And without proper cash management in gastronomy, this can quickly become expensive in the event of an audit by the tax office. You must be able to provide information for every business transaction, regardless of whether you operate a manual cash register or use an electronic food truck cash register system.

Legal requirements for your food truck’s POS system

Cash register tampering is a pervasive threat that should be carefully considered as it can pose significant and serious hurdles for small business owners and entrepreneurs. But what is cash register manipulation anyway? Cash manipulation involves unlawful practices whereby companies or individuals deliberately breach the integrity of their cash registers or accounting systems in order to disguise revenue, evade tax or enrich themselves financially.

Therefore, it is even more important that your food truck cash register system complies with the legal requirements and that proper cash management is a top priority.

You must observe the following requirements:

1. Individual recording: All your sales must be recorded individually and daily. Every entry in the cash book should be complete, correct, timely, orderly and unchangeable.
2. Receipt output: You have certainly heard the phrase: “No entry without receipt”. For cash register management in the catering trade, a receipt must be created for every entry without exception in an electronic cash register system. Unfortunately, this means a lot of paper, but it is required by law. As with the cash register of a market stall, in a few cases you can also apply for an exemption from the obligation to issue receipts for your food truck. However, without an approved exemption, you must comply.
3. Archiving: You must record and archive tax-relevant individual data in an unchangeable form. In addition, they should be machine-readable at any time. If you use an electronic cash register system, the use of a technical security device (TSE) is mandatory. This prevents the deletion of transactions. If your POS system does not have such a TSE integrated, you could face heavy fines. Therefore, you should definitely keep an integrated TSE in mind when choosing your food truck POS system. By the way, it is mandatory that you keep the cash register data with all important documents, such as cash books, invoices and receipts, for at least ten years.
4. Procedural documentation: The so-called procedural documentation means that all processes in connection with cash management should be described in detail and documented in writing. Here, too, you can face heavy fines if there are gaps.
5. Distinguishing between cash and card payments: It is obligatory to distinguish between cash and card payments when entering cash. In this way, you can always ensure that the cash register can be broken. If a customer pays by card although you have selected cash, cash would be missing from the till. This can quickly be interpreted as fraud during an audit and should therefore be avoided.

But don’t worry: an audit by the tax office only occurs every five years for corporations, and for small businesses only every 20 to 30 years. Nevertheless, it is important to keep your accounts properly and conscientiously. To minimise potential errors, we have put together a few tips that can help you:

6 tips for cash management in the catering industry

1. Train your staff on the legal requirements for proper accounting in the catering industry.
2. Invest in a reliable POS system that meets the requirements
3. Get a detailed explanation of how your POS system works so you don’t make any mistakes
4. Keep private and business finances strictly separate and do not use your POS system for private expenses.
5. Regularly inform yourself about the applicable laws and requirements and check whether your POS system continues to meet these requirements.
6. Seek professional assistance, such as tax advice.

Which cash register system for food trucks is right for me?

A food truck POS system must meet the special requirements of your mobile business. At larger events such as weddings, your food truck is often hectic, so quick and easy order entry and payment flexibility – whether by card or cash – are essential. And, as we have already discussed, the legal requirements must of course always be met. To meet all requirements, the choice of the right POS system is crucial. Certain functions are crucial for the success of your food truck business.

These are the most important functions:

Sales processing: Your food truck POS system must allow you to easily record orders and the billing process, so that you are supported by a clear click structure in hectic situations. Overall, payment by card or mobile device is becoming more and more popular. Therefore, your POS system should at best accept various cashless payment methods. However, cash acceptance is still indispensable alongside the acceptance of credit and debit cards. Therefore, make sure that your POS system supports chip cards and contactless payments.

Menu and price management: With flexible menu management, you can easily change, delete or add new products or dishes within the POS system. At the same time, you have the possibility to adjust your prices, give discounts or offer temporary specials. This is especially advantageous if you plan to use your food truck at different events. At festivals, you can set your prices a little higher due to the competitive situation, while at direct street sales at lunchtime, you can attract more customers with a special offer price.

Reporting and analysis: Detailed reports on your sales, customer numbers and most popular dishes help you plan your business. 50% of your customers order your veggie burger? Then try to increase the price minimally and continue to monitor your sales figures. This way you can continuously improve your mobile business and maximise your sales.

Customer display: An external customer display can be useful to give your customers an overview of their order. At the same time, you avoid confusion for your customers. Instead, they can see transparently how the total price of their order is calculated.

Legal requirements: Of course, your POS system must comply with the legal requirements that enable you to keep a proper cash register. For this purpose, your POS system needs a print option for customer receipts. In addition, your POS system should record and archive all your sales and ensure the confidentiality of your customers’ transactions through a security system. TSE is also an important factor that should be present in your POS system.

Please note that your food truck’s POS system does not have to fulfil all these functions. Your exact requirements will depend on your food truck concept and your specific needs. However, they can give you a good guideline to find a suitable POS system for you. If you have problems with the cash register during a running operation, quick help is needed. Therefore, when choosing a provider, you should also make sure that they offer customer service.

Traditional cash registers or POS cash register systems?

When choosing your food truck cash register, the question naturally arises whether you would rather use a traditional PC cash register or a digital POS (point of sale) cash register system.

A traditional cash register – you may also know it by the term cash register – is used in many retail shops in combination with a cash drawer. The traditional cash register is based on manual cashing up by entering an amount into the PC. On the other hand, a POS is a computerised system that is increasingly automated and therefore offers more advanced functions. They are most comparable to card readers. Thus, they usually also meet modern financial requirements, which is an important basis for proper cash management in the catering industry.

With new technological developments, the conversion from PC cash registers to digital cash register systems has become increasingly popular, especially in recent years. There are important differences between traditional cash registers and modern POS cash register systems. We have summarised the advantages and disadvantages of both systems to make it easier for you to decide on the POS system for your food truck.

Advantages and disadvantages of traditional cash registers

With traditional cash registers you benefit from the ease of use. You enter the amount manually and sort the cash into the cash drawer or take the appropriate change from it. The simplicity of the system also means that no extensive training is required for new employees or temporary staff. In addition, traditional cash registers cost less to purchase than POS systems and are less prone to technical failure.

With simplicity, however, you don’t benefit from extensive features or automated processes. Typically, traditional cash registers offer only basic features, such as recording sales and printing receipts. This can also make your bookkeeping much more time-consuming as you have to do it manually.

Advantages and disadvantages of POS systems

Unlike traditional cash registers, POS systems allow you to benefit from numerous automated functions. These include reporting, flexible menu management or the adjustment of prices and special offers. In addition, many business processes are automated, which saves you a lot of time and makes your bookkeeping less error-prone.

Conversely, you have to expect higher costs with POS systems. This concerns the acquisition costs, costs for necessary training or time-consuming familiarisation as well as for the maintenance or updates of the system.

As you can easily see, the right choice between conventional cash registers and POS systems is not exactly easy. Like many things, it depends on the specific requirements of your food truck.

Food truck cash register system: a comparison

Now that you have an overview of the most important functions of a cash register system for your food truck and know the differences between the various cash register systems, we have put three systems under the microscope for you with regard to important criteria. According to the providers, these are all particularly suitable for food trucks. Each of the three systems offers unique features and functions that can make them a potential option for your food truck POS system.

We present the following three systems, all of which can be operated intuitively and are equipped with a user-friendly interface:

• SumUp Kassensystem Lite
• readyGo POS system from ready2order
• Orderbird Mini POS system
  

Supported payment methods

Each of the three systems offers a wide range of payment methods. These include cash, credit and debit cards and mobile payment services.

Mobility and flexibility

With SumUp, you get a ready-to-use POS system with a tablet and mobile device.
The readyGo POS system is a mobile device that is as convenient as a stationary POS system. You get a cash register, card reader and printer in one and can easily operate the device via touchscreen.
With orderbird MINI you also have a flexible cash register in just one mobile device: cash register system with certified TSE, receipt printer as well as card reader and barcode scanner.

Security and legal requirements

SumUp gives you full control over your revenue with handy reporting features. In addition, the Lite POS system has a cloud-based technical security device (TSE) that you can activate for free in just a few steps. This way you can access your sales data at any time in case of an audit by the tax office.
With ready2order, all data and the software are stored on German servers. This ensures data protection and security and you can access the data at any time if you need it for the tax office. Through an integrable TSE, for which, however, additional fees apply, you are also equipped in compliance with the tax office.
With Orderbird, the certified TSE is already integrated into the device and included in the device licence. This also guarantees compliance with the tax authorities. In addition, you can have all reports drawn up for auditors at the touch of a button.

Costs and fees

A crucial question when comparing POS systems is simply: How much does a POS system for the catering industry cost? Here we have listed the costs of the three systems for you so that you can get a feeling for them:

The one-off costs for SumUp are €429 for the hardware. This includes the Lite Tablet POS system and the card terminal. There are no monthly costs, but you have to pay a 1.39% transaction fee for payments via the card terminal.

The ready2Go system costs a one-time fee of 348 €. In addition, there is the POS system subscription for € 29.90 per month and the TSE package for another € 12.50 per month.

Orderbird has a one-time equipment cost of €399. With a subscription model of one month’s duration, there are also monthly costs of €39. In addition, there is a 1.75 % fee for each card transaction.

It can be seen that the cost structure as well as the amount are quite similar for all systems. With other providers, too, the costs usually consist of the hardware to be purchased and a software licence.

Conclusion

In order to be on the safe side legally, it is imperative that you read up on the legal requirements of proper bookkeeping. Otherwise, you can quickly incur unwanted and high costs. Therefore, we advise you to seek professional advice and support at least at the beginning of your business. The choice of a suitable food truck cash register system also plays an important role in the cash management of your gastronomy: an efficient system makes your work in mobile gastronomy easier and supports you in proper cash management. This guarantees the smooth running of your mobile business and you can be sure that your accounting complies with the legal requirements. The time savings that come with an automated POS system go hand in hand with increased turnover and the ability to sell more food and maximise profits. Complicated POS systems, on the other hand, lead to unwanted queues that can deter potential customers. Therefore, it is of great importance to choose a POS system that combines both speed and efficiency with ease of use. It requires careful research and comparison of different suppliers to ensure that the system you choose is tailored to your individual needs and will help you run your business optimally.