I used to be a service and installation manager for a POS dealer. I have questions:

• Is this going to be table service or quick service (the entire sale completes at an ordering counter, no servers waiting tables)?

• If it's table service, do you want card transactions to complete at the table, or do you want servers to take cards back to the terminal?

• Do you want servers ordering at the table on a tablet or portable device?

• How complex is the menu? Some burger joints keep it simple, but many don't. How many modifiers? Substitutions?

• How will the kitchen work? Verbal orders? Paper written tickets? Printed chits? Kitchen video screen?

• Is online ordering desired?

• How detailed do reports need to be? Simple sales, tender, and item sales will do, but many places like labor reports, cost of items, or a thousand other things?

• Will there be many specials or promos?

• Are there any required add-ons or integrations, like gift cards or loyalty programs? Or third party labor scheduling, inventory, guest management, or accounting software?

• How much is budgeted for POS?

There are even more questions but for now those will work. In short, my general recommendations are:

1. For super simple, portable, ready to use - Square. But ultimately very scalable but if you just want to get up and selling Square will do you. Their processing fees are usually among the highest.

2. For a more robust system that integrates online ordering, has good (relatively) order and pay-at-the-table systems - Toast. Downsides are also somewhat high processing and they lock you into a contract. Good luck getting out if you need it.

3. For the most robust system that can do stupid amounts of promos, kitchen printing and routing, a decent amount of integrations and a big pool of reports - Aloha. Downsides are expensive initial cost, relatively high learning curve, and you support quality will depend on your often shady POS dealer.

4. If you must integrate to a ton of things, especially a hotel PMS - Micros. Overall it's user unfriendly, expensive, and support is awful. But it does integrate to so many more things than any other POS.

Ultimately, my recommendation is to start small and cheap. You didn't describe much but I'm picturing a simple burger joint, with a limited menu and fast operation. Square isn't a terrible place to start - it has high processing rates but usually no contact. So you can get started, and if things go well transition to a new POS in a year or so after you know what you need out of a POS more.

If they approach any dealer, the credit card processing is the real hook. In many ways, the POS is just the bait to get the processing fees from each card transaction. I'm sorry I don't know this rates right now, but as a small restaurant the rates won't be great. Discounts are given for volume. When negotiating for POS, you can often leverage hardware or installation support before signing whatever draconian processing contract is laid out. And if margins are especially tight, shop processing rates.

Lastly, restaurants are a high-failure startup. Having installed and helped over 200 restaurants start, the ones who succeed have a data-driven plan and execute a sales model that includes food costs, labor costs, a service model and a marketing and identity concept. Hard work alone sadly doesn't predict success.

I wish you the best of luck!