Using Square for your Quick Service Restaurant (QSR)

I love to eat. I also love coffee. I currently live in one of the best food/coffee cities in the world, NYC. I’m lucky. 

Before I dive into a light exposition of Square, let me acknowledge a dilemma all QSRs face. As a restaurant/deli/coffee shop owner, you receive a lot of cash. Aside from having to track it and the fact that cash can be stolen easier (and with less recourse) than credit card payments, there is also the temptation for a business owner: Do you report all cash sales or not? 

I know, I know, we’re not supposed to talk about that in public, right? Business owners: “Oh, you have to report cash sales?”

Okay, rather than getting all up in your face on that issue, I am happy to report there is a way to collect cash sales, account for them simply and completely, and then have a quick and easy record of what you owe for sales tax. All on the up and up. Efficiency, completeness, profits…and integrity.

The service I’ll be highlighting today is called Square. The Tunstall Organization, Inc. (TTO) is a Square authorized partner.  TTO helps QSRs file sales tax, manage payroll, income tax filings…and bookkeeping.

Square. You’ve seen the little dongle, jack-looking thingy, right?

Or maybe this looking thing?

If you’re running a QSR, most likely, you already have some kind of computerized, automated system. The advantages come into play in the simplicity of accepting payments and helping the operations run smoothly. But additionally, they help on the reporting and compliance side. Tracking how your sales are doing in real time and helping to file sales tax.

Besides Square, there are others: breadcrumb, vend, lightspeed, even paypal, etc., etc. There are actually many iterations on the POS out there, but there are a few things I like about Square for QSRs:

• Integration into Xero (the accounting system we use to service QSRs)
• Integration with Deputy and Zenpayroll for employee hours tracking and weekly payroll
• Real time reporting – hourly, weekly, monthly…very cool metrics
• Forward thinking design/features (applePay coming soon)
• Use easily on most devices

There are some things that might limit Square for your QSR, though:

• Inventory management is relatively light.
• Not sure how great multi-store operates

Killer feature: real-time sales tracking with visual reporting:

Overall, I think Square fits perfectly into the QSR spot. They handle a single shop very well, they integrate well with backend accounting system, the reporting and insight is frighteningly amazing and they play nice with other apps that help manage employees/payroll.

Reach out if you’d like to speak with us about how Square could potentially help you manage your QSR here.