Church Coffee Shop

Pinelake has a coffee shop. We currently use ShopKeep. It is an ipad solution. We have experienced so many problems I would like to change our software.

At this point we do not use the inventory part of ShopKeep. With our current problems I have reached the point where I would rather install an old school register & credit card reader, but this will never fly.

  1. do you have a coffee shop or gift shop
  2. what software do you utilize
  3. what is good & what is wrong with it
  4. what type of platform (register, ipad, phone, computer…)
  5. is it wireless or hard wired?

Thank you much. You guys are a wealth of information.

  1. Yes. we call it Pillars Cafe
  2. Vend
  3. Problematic w/ Paypal as merchant service – specifically, the Paypal swipe/chip readers. Support is no bueno; too bad, has some nice features overall.
  4. iPad-based
  5. Yes. Devices require power and network, peripherals use Bluetooth, but iPads can work wirelessly.

I’d recommend checking out Square.

We use them for pop-up style shops to sell merch with a variety of devices.

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We also have Square and it works quite well. The front end interface is easy to use and intuitive. The back end is robust and easy to modify. We enjoy the reporting functions that are included and if used properly, the system can do inventory control for you as well as give you an on-line portal to sell your goods.

With every silver lining, there is always a cloud. Here are the ones that hang over Square. They take a cut of all of your profits. It’s a bit more expensive than other payment gateways that we have used, but I guess some of that money goes it to keeping the software and features as good as they are. We also have invested quite a bit of money buying the square stands and the chip reader devices. These are also great, but expensive. As our iPads age, we are faced with the problem of having to buy new iPads in the future and also new square stands since the footprint of the iPads seem to change with every release. The iPads of tomorrow will not fit the stands that we have today.

You do not need the Square stands and can get away with buying a cheap iPad stand on the webs for around $20 so the hardware investment can be paired down substantially.

We also use our square account outside of the cafe. We load the App on a mobile iPad and have used it for day of camp payments, concession register at the harvest party, and sometimes will sell merch on it for guest worship artists that don’t have their own POS solution.

Hope this information helps with your decision.

We’re also using Square register. We have in our cafe’s, bookstore and thrift store. The only issue I’ve run into is them occasionally disconnecting from the printers, and a reboot of the iPad seems to resolve it. Otherwise they seem to like them and haven’t complained, at least not to me.

We also use Square as well in our cafe and bookstore. I haven’t received 1 support call since we moved to Square.

  1. Yes, we have a “coffee” shop its really more of a cafe we have a main spot and two kiosk called cafe 19
  2. Toasttab - https://pos.toasttab.com
  3. Good -Its all Cloud managed. works offline. the Bad printers are not wireless
    4.Register - Android Tablet.
  4. Register piece can be wireless but printers are wired.

I tried to post this in a new topic but the board keeps complaining I don’t have a category selected but you can enter a message without picking a category… oh well:

Coffee Cafe POS - square and security concerns

We are upping our game on Coffee - we will be offering other drinks and snacks and also want to take credit and debit cards too. I’ve done lots of searching and Square seems to be the overwhelming choice by large and small churches alike, with other vendors mentioned here and there. Plus I see Square all over the place in the broader marketplace as well.

So I’m done right? Just start with them and since the startup cost is minimal and no commitment it seems like a no brainer.

Only problem - our finance person hates Square or any similar service like Clover. All I get is strong pushback on “security” concerns. And concerns about unreasonable chargebacks which could be legitimate after dealing with PayPal for years.

Has anyone had to go down this path? I suspect the bank we use is sabotaging since they have their own solution. I’m going to be ramping up over the weekend to see what I can find but I’m hoping maybe someone else did something similar and would be willing to share :sunglasses:

Other than the posts here (thanks!) if anyone knows of any good reviews or comparative reviews of these services from more of a traditional media site that would be great.

It seems there are turnkey all inclusive services based on tablets/phones like Square and Clover, apps on tablets/phones you can get then marry with your card processor of choice (like Toast mentioned earlier in this thread) and finally traditional POS systems with computers, touchscreens and their ilk which are complete overkill for our tiny operation - we are 400 people in service a week tops for size - maybe 150 pass through the cafe. Even if it doubles with all the new goodies it doesn’t strike me as overly onerous requirements here.

For those on Square have you had any issues with unreasonable chargebacks, funds taking too long to get posted, funds unexpectedly taken from your account or anything else like that?

Thanks in advance!