As a new business owner, you may be on the hunt for a Point of Sale (POS) system that is functional and fits your needs but won’t break the bank. With every free price tag and promise, you’re probably waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Harbortouch, strives to be 100% transparent about what free POS software means for our clients and what POS features you can expect when you sign on to use our solution.
For decades, we have continued to break down barriers for small businesses because we understand what they need to operate, be successful, and what it takes to improve the bottom line.
Here’s the inside scoop on our free point of sale software.
From Cellars to Sellers
Like other tech company origin stories, Harbortouch started from humble beginnings with the goal of solving everyday problems in new and innovative ways.
It was 1999. Our then 16-year-old founder set up shop in the basement of his childhood home and went to work on delivering a better way for small businesses to accept credit cards. At the time, banks were eager to give consumers a credit card but not as keen to provide small businesses a way to accept this type of payment method.
The result was frustrated business owners relying on third-party providers to underwrite a merchant processing account. At the time, this was about 30 pages of paperwork and the same amount of days to get an answer. The lucky merchants that received an approval were then expected to shell out hundreds to thousands of dollars for a simple credit card terminal, an electronic cash register, or a fancy point of sale system. The whole process left business owners feeling defeated.
Enter innovation. From his enclave in New Jersey, Jared and his startup team were able to significantly reduce the amount of paperwork and time to underwrite a merchant account so business owners could start accepting credit cards faster and easier. He also introduced a groundbreaking free device program that flipped the industry upside down.
Now, small business owners were able to accept credit cards, compete with big box stores, and keep more of their hard-earned cash in their pockets.
Today, we’ve taken that same approach and applied it to state-of-the-art point of sale software and hardware. We offer a complete POS system with no upfront costs – hands down the best value on the market.
Free POS Features You Can Expect From Habortouch
Just because we provide free POS systems doesn’t mean that we offer anything less than flawless software or limit available features like some other providers. Our advanced software packages help small businesses thrive and make day-to-day operations a breeze.
Restaurant-Specific Features
Restaurants have unique feature requirements to keep tables turning efficiently, and Harbortouch delivers.
Tableside and Mobile Ordering
To help improve the overall front of house efficiency, a tableside ordering device like SkyTab will certainly fit the bill. Servers can stop wasting time walking back and forth between the table and a stationary POS system to input an order.
Tableside and Mobile Payments
Along the same lines of mobile ordering, you’ll also want to consider tableside and mobile payments a must-have feature. Whether you need to accept payments tableside, curbside or out on delivery, SkyTab is an all-in-one extension of your point of sale system.
Table Management
Make sure you’re maximizing revenue for every seat in the house. Your point of sale software should include table management features so you know exactly what tables are sat, which ones are waiting for their check, and the ones ready to be bussed and reset.
Reservation Management
Additionally, you’ll want a way to manage reservations. Whether customers make reservations online or you’re managing a walk-in waitlist, you can do it all in one place with Harbortouch’s free point of sale software.
Inventory Management
Effortless inventory management is key to operating your business without any hiccups. Owning a POS system that provides robust inventory management capabilities is especially vital for retail businesses, but is also useful for restaurants.
Harbortouch’s free POS software includes inventory management functionality that provides:
Basic product tracking
Unlimited SKU tracking
Complete inventory matrix with multiple attributes and modifiers
Reorder triggers so you never run out of your best-selling items
For restaurants, ingredient-level tracking and food cost tracking helps ystay on top of everything in the kitchen
Customer Relationship Management
Every small business owner can attest to customers being the backbone of their businesses. Therefore, getting your hands on technology that gives you detailed reports of your patrons’ buying habits is a must-have feature. Customer reports allow you to pinpoint specific behavior trends that’ll ultimately act as a tool to help you win repeat business.
A POS system with advanced customer relationship management (CRM) features allows you to keep customers happy, and encourage repeat business. You can create well-rounded loyalty programs and special promotions with targeted messaging based on their spending patterns.
Employee Management
Managing a group of employees of any size is no easy feat; fortunately, Harbortouch POS systems can help make this process easier and less time intensive. There’s no need to stress over manually tracking each employee’s hours, sales, and transactions when you have a POS system to do all the heavy lifting for you.
Our employee management features can help with:
Scheduling employees and shift management
Easily tracking hours, timesheets, and individual employee performance all in one place
Managing job-based permissions
Reporting Features
Without the proper POS reports, you miss out on gaining valuable insight into your business’s day-to-day operations and potentially risk making poor business decisions. Point of sale reports provide details about all the different moving parts of your business. With this information, you can make smarter, data-driven decisions about all aspects of your operations.
Some of the essential POS reports include:
Sales reports to help you manage sales by gathering critical data on sales activity including your peak days/times, best and worst selling items, and profit margins by product.
Labor reports to track and manage labor costs as well as monitor employee performance and activity.
Product reports to give you real-time tracking of all activities happening with your inventory, including when it’s time to reorder products.
Lighthouse Business Management System
With Harbortouch’s free POS software package, you gain access to our Lighthouse platform. Lighthouse Business Management System is a user-friendly back office that gives business owners 24/7 remote access to their POS system and reporting.
With Lighthouse, you get:
Remote access to the POS system
Visibility to view reports and analytics online
The ability to make menu modifications remotely
Employee management and scheduling
Additional Free POS Software Features
Besides getting the most popular features with your free Harbortouch POS system, you will also have access to additional benefits that’ll suit every business type, from restaurants to retail.
Harbortouch’s hybrid cloud-based POS systems give you complete flexibility and real-time data syncing – with the peace of mind that you can still operate even if the internet goes down.
Accept multiple payment types with fully integrated payments, including all major credit and debit cards, NFC contactless payments, QR code payments, and EMV chip cards to satisfy every customer’s needs.
24/7/365 customer support, completely in-house and never outsourced, that is available to help you through any issues you may encounter during and after your business hours.
A POS Marketplace that enables you to integrate third-party software solutions to expand the POS’s core functionality to include things like online ordering, employee scheduling, inventory management, online reservations, accounting, payroll, loyalty, and much more!
How do we Make Free POS Systems Possible?
By now, you’re probably wondering how we can provide not only free software but also POS hardware. It’s quite simple, really; we can provide our customers with state of the art POS system bundles with affordable monthly service fees.
The following is what you can expect when signing up for our free POS systems:
Free point of sale software and hardware with no upfront costs. This includes programming, installation, and training.
Straightforward, one-year contracts with no early termination fees as long as you return the equipment.
24/7 customer support, software updates, and a lifetime hardware warranty.
PCI-validated P2PE processing solution enables your business to securely accept all major credit and debit cards, EMV chip cards, and even NFC mobile payments and QR code payments, all at competitive rates.
Final Thoughts
Free POS software may seem too good to be true, but Harbortouch offers just that to business owners across the country. With powerful features, robust reporting, and exceptional support, we strive to help businesses of all sizes succeed.