Hospitality EPOS & Payments
Hospitality EPOS needs to do considerably more than record a sale.
Restaurants, pubs, cafés, hotels and hospitality groups may need EPOS to work with card terminals, booking platforms, kitchen systems, online ordering, deposits, tipping, stock and wider payment infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
Hospitality EPOS: what matters
- Choose EPOS around the complete customer and payment journey, not the till alone.
- Restaurants may need table plans, kitchen integration, split bills, tipping and pay-at-table.
- Pubs and bars may prioritise transaction speed, multiple tills, tabs, stock and weekend reliability.
- Booking platforms can create additional requirements around deposits, stored credentials and no-show charges.
- Hospitality groups should consider Merchant IDs, settlement, reporting and multi-site payment architecture.
- MAS specialises in more complex payment requirements where EPOS, booking software, gateways and existing integrations need to work together.
Comparing hospitality EPOS and payment providers?
Tell us about your venues, existing software, payment volumes and integration requirements.
What should a hospitality EPOS system do?
The requirements depend on the venue, but modern hospitality EPOS can sit at the centre of ordering, payments and reporting.
Depending on the business, the system may need to support:
- orders and payments;
- table management;
- kitchen display systems or printers;
- menu and modifier management;
- stock and inventory;
- staff permissions;
- tipping and service charges;
- split bills;
- discounts and promotions;
- refunds;
- customer loyalty;
- gift cards;
- online ordering;
- click and collect;
- delivery platforms;
- booking systems and deposits;
- accounting integration;
- reporting; and
- multiple locations.
Not every hospitality business needs every feature. A single-site café should not automatically adopt the same technology stack as a restaurant group operating across dozens of venues.
The aim is to choose a setup that works for the business today without unnecessarily restricting payments, integrations or expansion later.
Restaurant EPOS systems
Restaurant EPOS can connect several parts of the customer journey:
Booking → Table → Order → Kitchen → Bill → Payment → Tip → Reconciliation
A restaurant may need functionality including:
- table plans;
- handheld ordering;
- kitchen display systems;
- menu modifiers;
- split bills;
- tipping;
- pay-at-table;
- booking deposits;
- prepayments;
- refunds;
- online ordering; and
- reservation-system integration.
If the bill amount needs to pass automatically from EPOS to a handheld payment terminal, the systems and payment provider need to support that integration.
Read our guide to integrated card machines and EPOS compatibility before committing to a payment-provider or EPOS arrangement.
Booking systems, deposits and SevenRooms
Restaurant bookings can create a separate payment journey before the guest even arrives at the venue.
Businesses may need to:
- capture a card when a reservation is made;
- take a booking deposit;
- collect payment for a prepaid menu;
- take payment for private dining or events;
- retain payment credentials securely;
- apply cancellation or no-show rules; and
- reconcile advance payments against the final bill.
This means the booking platform, payment gateway, merchant account and EPOS may need to be considered as one payment environment.
Venues using SevenRooms can read our SevenRooms Payment Integration guide , which looks at merchant accounts, secure card capture, tokenisation, deposits, reporting and API integration.
We also have a dedicated guide to restaurant deposits and no-show payments .
EPOS for pubs, bars and late-night venues
Pubs and bars can have different priorities from traditional restaurants. Payment speed and reliability can become especially important during evenings, weekends and events.
A pub or bar EPOS setup may need to support:
- multiple tills and serving points;
- high transaction volumes over short periods;
- bar tabs;
- tipping;
- table service;
- handheld ordering;
- food and drink stock;
- promotions;
- outdoor areas;
- event spaces; and
- late-night support.
Connectivity should also be considered carefully where a venue depends heavily on card payments during its busiest trading periods.
For wider merchant-account, EPOS, tipping and settlement considerations, see our Nightclub & Bar Payment Solutions guide .
EPOS for cafés and coffee shops
Cafés usually need fast checkout and straightforward ordering, but the technology requirement can become more complex as the business grows.
Requirements may include:
- counter ordering;
- table ordering;
- takeaway;
- loyalty;
- gift cards;
- click and collect;
- delivery;
- kitchen printing;
- stock management; and
- multiple locations.
A single independent café might begin with a relatively simple EPOS and card-reader arrangement.
A growing coffee-shop group may eventually need central menu management, group reporting, standardised terminals, store-level settlement visibility and a repeatable process for opening new locations.
Takeaway, delivery and online ordering
Takeaway businesses increasingly receive orders through several channels.
These might include:
- the venue's own website;
- an app;
- telephone orders;
- counter service;
- click and collect;
- Uber Eats;
- Deliveroo; and
- other delivery marketplaces.
Those channels do not necessarily use the same payment provider or settlement arrangement.
Businesses should understand:
- which platform owns each transaction;
- which provider processes the payment;
- where the order appears;
- how it reaches the kitchen;
- how refunds are processed;
- how platform commission is recorded; and
- how each payment channel is reconciled.
The objective does not necessarily have to be putting every transaction through one provider. The priority is creating a payment and order workflow that can be reconciled and operated efficiently.
Hotels and wider hospitality
Hotels can have some of the most complex hospitality payment environments.
A property may combine:
- online room bookings;
- deposits;
- pre-authorisations;
- front-desk payments;
- restaurant EPOS;
- bar payments;
- spa or leisure payments;
- events;
- MOTO transactions;
- stored payment credentials; and
- international guests.
Payments may also need to integrate with a property-management system, booking engine or channel manager.
Our Hotel Payment Solutions guide covers PMS integrations, booking payments, merchant accounts and multi-property payment requirements.
Hospitality groups and multiple locations
Once a hospitality business operates several venues, EPOS and payments become an estate-level decision rather than simply a till decision.
Groups may need to consider:
- whether every venue should use the same EPOS;
- different brands or concepts;
- different legal entities;
- Merchant IDs by location;
- central or site-level settlement;
- group and venue-level reporting;
- permissions for local managers;
- terminal deployment;
- menu management;
- support arrangements;
- new-site onboarding;
- acquisitions; and
- group payment pricing.
Our Restaurant & Hospitality Group Payments guide looks specifically at EPOS, payment-provider restrictions, transaction costs, Merchant IDs, settlement and multi-site payment strategy.
MAS Specialism
Complex hospitality payment integrations
We regularly work with businesses where choosing a payment provider cannot be separated from the software and systems already in place.
This can include EPOS, booking systems, gateways, APIs, CRM, accounting tools, property-management systems and existing payment infrastructure. Read our Integrated Payments Solutions guide for more detail.
Should EPOS and card payments be integrated?
Often, yes — where the integration provides a genuine operational benefit.
A simple integrated payment journey might look like:
EPOS → Payment amount → Card terminal → Payment result → EPOS
This can help with:
- reducing manual transaction entry;
- reducing keying errors;
- pay-at-table;
- refunds;
- reconciliation;
- reporting; and
- staff efficiency.
Integration can also create dependencies, so businesses should establish:
- which payment providers the EPOS supports;
- whether one processor or acquirer is mandatory;
- whether third-party acquiring is supported;
- whether additional integration charges apply;
- whether card terminals can be changed independently;
- what happens if the payment provider changes; and
- who provides support when the systems stop communicating.
Apps, Loyalty & Customer Engagement
Hospitality EPOS can also connect with customer-facing apps and loyalty platforms.Depending on the business, this can include:
- branded ordering apps;
- loyalty points;
- rewards and vouchers;
- digital gift cards;
- click and collect;
- table ordering;
- customer accounts;
- CRM;
- personalised offers;
- push notifications;
- stored payment methods; and
- order history.
The important question is whether the EPOS, payment provider and customer app can share the information required without creating separate systems that are difficult to reconcile.For hospitality groups in particular, loyalty and app integrations may need to work across several venues, brands and payment environments.
More complex hospitality setup?
Tell us which systems you already use and what your payment setup needs to support.
Hospitality EPOS, tips and service charges
Tips and service charges should also be considered as part of the EPOS and payment workflow.
Depending on the business, the system may need to support:
- optional card tips;
- discretionary service charges;
- different service-charge rules;
- staff or tronc reporting;
- refunds;
- venue-level reporting; and
- separation between sales and gratuities.
This becomes particularly important where payments are taken at table or across several venues.
Merchant cash advance and hospitality EPOS
Payments can also become relevant when a restaurant, pub or hospitality business is considering finance.
Businesses with regular card turnover may potentially consider merchant cash advance funding for purposes such as:
- refurbishment;
- kitchen equipment;
- furniture and fittings;
- EPOS and payment technology;
- outdoor areas;
- stock;
- working capital; or
- opening another location.
Some merchant cash advance arrangements interact with the payment-processing setup.
A hospitality business using tightly integrated EPOS and card terminals should therefore establish whether accepting funding would require a processor change and what operational impact that could have.
Read our Merchant Cash Advance for Restaurants, Pubs & Hospitality Businesses guide .
What should you compare when choosing hospitality EPOS?
Venue type
Restaurant, pub, café, takeaway, hotel or a mixed hospitality environment?
Payment channels
Counter, pay-at-table, online, booking deposits, telephone payments or a combination?
Card terminals
Fixed, portable, mobile or several terminal types across different areas?
Booking and ordering
Does EPOS need to connect with reservations, deposits, online ordering, delivery platforms or property-management software?
Integrations
Which booking, kitchen, accounting, loyalty, CRM, gateway or payment systems need to communicate?
Reporting
Does the business need venue-level, brand-level and group-level reporting?
Settlement
Should payment proceeds settle centrally, by venue or by legal entity?
Scale
Can another venue be added without rebuilding the EPOS and payment setup?
Provider flexibility
Can the business change payment provider without replacing its operational software?
How Merchant Advice Service helps hospitality businesses
Merchant Advice Service helps businesses understand their payment requirements before comparing providers.
For hospitality businesses, that can include:
- EPOS requirements;
- card terminals;
- merchant accounts;
- payment gateways;
- booking systems;
- deposits;
- pay-at-table;
- tipping;
- settlement;
- multi-site structures;
- existing integrations;
- provider compatibility;
- payment costs; and
- switching requirements.
We particularly specialise in situations where several systems need to work together or where changing one part of the payment environment could affect another.
MAS does not build or develop the software integration itself. Our role is to help the business understand the payment requirement and identify providers or payment architectures that may fit its technical and commercial environment.
Related hospitality payment guides
Hospitality Payments
Need help with your EPOS and payment setup?
Tell us about your venues, payment volumes, current systems and integration requirements. We can help you explore providers that may fit both the technical and commercial setup.
✓ Independent UK payment advice ✓ Single-site & multi-site hospitality ✓ Complex integrations & existing infrastructure
Editorial & Commercial Disclosure
Merchant Advice Service provides independent payment information and provider-matching services.
MAS may receive commission or a referral fee from some payment providers where a business proceeds following an introduction. This does not determine the factual information or provider-selection principles included in this guide.
There is no universal EPOS, payment-provider or integration setup suitable for every hospitality business. Requirements depend on factors including venue type, locations, card turnover, payment channels, booking systems, software integrations, settlement requirements and existing infrastructure.
EPOS functionality, payment-provider integrations and commercial terms can change. Businesses should confirm current technical and commercial requirements directly with the relevant suppliers before entering into an agreement.
Merchant Advice Service does not develop software integrations and does not guarantee provider acceptance, savings, technical compatibility or implementation timescales.
