Toast Payroll: Review, Features, and Prices
Toast POS: An All-in-One Point of Sale System
Pros
Cons
Quick Stats
Toast POS is made specifically for restaurants and food providers. The company was founded in 2012 and later on, it was given the award of the best startup at the 2016 NEVY awards.
Toast POS is known for its competitive prices and unmatched service and features. However, as everyone knows their restaurant and its needs best, we have prepared this full review for you to read all the facts and decide whether or not Toast is the one for you.
Toast is a user-friendly POS with multiple features covering every aspect and need of your restaurant. Toast POS offers solutions to help you manage your restaurant better, attract more customers, and keep your employees at maximum productivity.
Toast POS Features
Hardware devices
Toast's hardware devices are many; you buy the ones you need depending on your restaurant's size and type. The devices offered by Toast make it easier for your employees at the kitchen and guests to keep up with your menu and what is on it.
The devices are:
- POS terminals (a terminal with a stand, cash drawer, reader, receipt printer, cables, and switches)
- Handheld Android tablet
- POS kiosks
- Guest-facing monitors
- A Kitchen display screen
You can buy any hardware separately, or you can buy a bundle. Of course, buying a bundle will be more cost-effective. Buying a bundle includes everything you need to get started.
Multi-location management
Toast POS icing on the cake is its compatibility with franchise-level restaurants; its multi-location management allows you to manage everyday operations in more than one venue at the same time. Because it's cloud-based, you can access each venue's reports, send notifications to management and oversee employee activity.
Order management
This is one of the best features offered by Toast POS. This feature allows customers to send orders to the kitchen directly. It also allows workers at the kitchen to send orders to the server directly; once a meal is ready, the server can be notified immediately, which results in saving time and providing much better customer service.
With this, customers can do tableside payments using EMV or credit card readers directly. This saves the time that could be spent on payment by streamlining the payment process and making things easier for customers and employees.
Menu management
Toast POS is a cloud-based POS. This means that things can always be updated whenever needed. This way, if a certain ingredient for a certain dish is 86'd, workers, can update the menu directly so that customers don't ask for it and find out that it is not available.
Online ordering
Customers can save time and effort by ordering online from a menu that gets updated all the time. Once a customer places an order, employees can review it and start preparing it right on.
Customers can have their own profiles and purchase history if they want to buy the same things again. The system supports gift cards and loyalty programs. Customers that repeatedly buy from your restaurant can be rewarded.
Inventory management
This is different than menu management in that it targets employees, not customers. If your employees are out of a certain ingredient, they can update the list so that the responsible person can provide it. What is even better is that you can have a list of the ingredients with their value. This way, your employees can make sure never to run out of a certain ingredient by constantly checking the list.
This inventory management can result in constant restocking of ingredients and avoiding wasting resources.
Real-time reports and analytics
Toast POS offers real-time efficient reports and data analytics. It offers you help in monitoring all the important stats of your business. You can view and control net sales, the growth of sales, labor cost, and labor cost percentage in all of your stores. You can further utilize this to generate summaries of your sales for different times and periods.
With real-time reports, you can see your areas of improvement so you can work on them to provide the best services.
Time monitoring
Time monitoring allows you to keep track of staff working hours and shifts using the time tracking feature.
This system works by allowing employees to enter their PIN for punching-in and punching-out. At the end of each shift, a report is generated to analyze the whole shift; it shows an overview and an analysis in detail of each employee's shift.
There is also a feature called "Close Out Day" which allows the manager to view a list of all the things that need to be done before closing the shift on that day to remind the employees.
Employee management
With Toast POS, you can set restrictions for an employee's access to the system, which allows you to give different levels of access to each employee. For example, the chef can be in charge of updating ingredients' availability; certain employees can be responsible for discounts, and so on. All reports can be viewed by the manager.
Payroll and Team Management
Toast makes managing your team and calculating their payroll easy with no chance of error. Your employee's data is automatically synced with your restaurant's point-of-sale system and Toast Payroll.
Their payroll will be automatically calculated according to the rates you set, in addition to any applicable taxes. You will also be gifted with employee performance reports so you can identify any slacking and improve your employee's efficiency.
Customer management
When a customer pays, you have the option to print out the receipt, including the tip the customer gives. When customers pay, they can choose the percentage of the tip on the terminal. All tips get added to the system, and at the end of the day, the system distributes the tips among all the servers.
With Toast POS, not only will you be able to print out paper receipts, but you can also send digital receipts to the customer's email or smartphone. Using paperless receipts is eco-friendly, and it also helps the customer have their receipt saved in case they need it in the future.
Toast POS system also has a feature to save customers' order history and contact info to make their future orders easier and quicker.
Marketing tools
Toast POS offers marketing tools that will help you extend your customer reach and get them coming back for seconds. With Toast's marketing tools, you can automate marketing campaigns and send personalized emails to your target customers.
Toast's integrated email marketing tools will allow you to create custom email lists for separate customer groups and offer rewards and discounts for regulars and big spenders. Moreover, you will also get insights over how many of your emails were opened, clicked, unsubscribed, and how many were sent to the spam folder.
Third-party integrations
Third-party integrations are one of Toast POS's strongest fortes. They work with industry-leading partners to deliver specialized solutions for franchise-level restaurants. Toast's top three integrations are:
- Staples Connect
- Provides exclusive discounts on in-house printing and marketing services
- Attracts and engages customers with reliable printed material
- Keeps your restaurant safe and healthy with a variety of cleaning products
- Keeps your restaurant's essentials ready and available
- Davo Sales Tax
- Manages sales tax
- Seamless integration, only input needed is the sales amount
- Uses online dashboard to access previous taxes
- Rooam
- Chargeback protection
- Marketing platform
- Enhanced guest experience
- Increased sales
Other third-party integrations that work flawlessly with Toast POS include not limited to:
- Savi
- Doordash
- eCard Systems
- Popmenu
- Sling
- Resy
- Restaurant Accounting Services, Inc (RASI)
- Vestwell
- Cirrus
- Raydiant
- Servpro
- xtraChef
- AP Intego
- 7 Shifts
Toast POS Plans and Pricing
Pay-as-You-Go (from $0/mo)
- Order & table management
- Real-time reports and analytics
- Menu management
- Guest feedback
- Payment processing
- Custom-built rates with no hidden fees
- Real-time fraud monitoring
- Insights to better understand your guests
- 24/7/365 availability via phone, email, & chat support
Essentials (from $165/mo)
- Everything in the first plan.
- Online ordering & delivery
- Curbside pickup
- Contactless delivery & payment
- Toast TakeOut app
- Saved payment & account Information
- Available across Android & iOS devices
- Automated push notifications
Custom Quote-based
- Physical and electronic (email & SMS) gift cards
- Online balance look-up
- Liability reporting
- Loyalty programs
- Customizable, points-based rewards
- Easy opt-in at checkout
- Linked to guest credit card
- Drag & Drop email builder
- Automated drip campaigns
- List segmentation
New Restaurant Basics - $110 /month + $4 per employee/month
This plan is a new special offer from Toast to new restaurants, it packs the following features:
- Order & Table Management
- Reporting & Analytics
- Menu Management
- Payment Processing - flat rate with real-time fraud monitoring
- 24/7/365 Customer Care
- Installation & Network Configuration
- Automatic Software & Feature Updates
- Scheduling - LITE
- Payroll and Team Management - LITE
- Toast Paycard
- Vestwell 401k
- Business Insurance, powered by NEXT
Toast Now
Toast Now is a 3-month free offer for your restaurant. There are two versions of it that you can use:
- Toast Now: Digital Ordering
- Toast Now: Digital Ordering + E-Gift Cards
This includes online ordering, the Toast TakeOut app, and basic delivery.
After three months, if you choose not to cancel, you can keep using these services as follows:
- E-Gift Cards - $25/month after the first three months
- Digital Ordering - $75/month after the first three months
Final Verdict
If your business is in the food and beverages field, Toast is the right point of sale system for you. It will help you grow your business and take it to the next level in the best way. It will also save you lots of time and effort while also making sure you don't waste your money.
FAQs
Toast point of sale costs $165 per month for its Essentials plan and $355 per month for its Growth plan; only with these two point of sale plans you can purchase payroll and team management as extra add-ons.
You can contact Toast's customer support by live chat or phone at (617) 682-0225 for customer care, and (857) 301-6002 for sales.
You can get a demo version of Toast by simply clicking the "Get a Demo" button located on top of their website. Fill in the short form with a few pieces of information about your restaurant and Toast's team will get in touch with you.
Yes, Toast will automatically file and pay for your taxes while maintaining compliance in all 50 states.
Yes, you can build your own benefits plans that suit your staff best, and manage their enrollment online.
Toast POS platform is designed to work in the US only; it cannot be used in other countries.
Toast POS is best for restaurants, bars, cafes and bakery, and multi-location restaurant groups.
Customers in generally are so satisfied with Toast POS. However, two things have been reported about it and they are the hidden fees and occasional downtime.
Customers like almost everything about Toast POS, especially its ease of installation, user-friendly easy-to-use interface, and responsive customer service.
Certain hardware are compatible with Toast. However, it is advisable that you use their hardware devices so they can keep track of your work and ensure your success.
Customer support at Toast is included in every plan for no additional fees.
The Essentials plan starts at $165/mo.
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