Switching your POS without losing a shift
The system is rarely what fails during a switch. What fails is a menu somebody typed in wrong and nobody in the building on the night it goes live.
The order that works
Read the contract before you shop
Notice period, termination fee, and whether the hardware is a separate lease with its own end date. This decides whether you are switching now or in eight months.
Get your data out first
Menu, sales history, customer records, gift card balances. Confirm export formats before you give notice.
Menu build is the long pole
Every item, modifier, combo and tax group, then tested. It should be done by your vendor and reviewed by you on a screen share. If a vendor hands you a spreadsheet, that is the whole warning.
Pick the night deliberately
A slow night, with your vendor physically present, and the old system still on the counter until the new one has taken a full service.
Gift cards are the thing people forget
Outstanding gift card balances are a real liability and they do not always migrate. Ask specifically how balances transfer, whether old cards keep working, and who eats the difference if they do not.
The same goes for loyalty balances and any house account arrangements. Sort these before the switch, not during.
Questions owners ask
How long does the whole thing take?
Typically a few weeks, and the driver is menu complexity rather than hardware. A large menu with deep modifiers takes longer to build and test properly.
Can I run both systems at once?
For a night, yes, and we usually recommend keeping the old terminal on the counter until the new one has run a full service.
Have your own numbers checked
Send last month's statement. We read it with you, free, and tell you straight whether we are the ones to fix it.
Send your numbers
About a minute. It goes straight to the Equip team.
It reaches Judd Alsup and the Equip team. If we have a crew near you, that is who calls. If we do not, Judd handles it himself. We never ask for card or bank details on this site.