Most complaints about a POS are complaints about training. The system did not lose the modifier — nobody showed the new server where it was, so they typed a note instead, and the kitchen guessed. Training is the cheapest fix available to you and the first thing that gets cut when someone calls in sick.
✅ The eight tasks, and the standard
Everyone who touches the terminal must be able to do these without hesitating and without asking. Not "has seen it done" — can do it, alone, while somebody waits:
- Log in and out. Their own login, every time, including for one quick item.
- Ring an order with modifiers. Including one awkward request, not the easy case.
- Add to an existing check without opening a second one.
- Split a check. By seat and by amount. This is the task that goes wrong most and the one to test.
- Take every payment type you accept. Card, cash with change, gift card, split payment across two cards.
- Handle the mistake. Void, correct, or call a manager — and know which of the three this situation is.
- Transfer a table or a tab to another server at shift change.
- Close out their shift and produce their own report.
Print that list. It is your checklist for every new hire, and probably a gap analysis for people who have worked with you for years.
🎓 How to actually train it
Ninety minutes before the first shift, in this shape:
| Stage | How long | What happens |
| Show | 20 min | You ring a full table, out loud, explaining each step |
| Do | 40 min | They ring in training mode. Real menu, no real money |
| Break it | 15 min | Wrong item, allergy, a customer who changes their mind, a split by seat |
| Prove | 15 min | The eight tasks, in order, unassisted |
| Shadow | First shift | Someone stands behind them on the real floor |
Use training mode if the system has one — nearly all do. If it does not, train before opening on a terminal you can clear afterwards. Do not let anyone learn on live checks with customers waiting; that is where the workarounds are born.
🧾 The rules that need saying out loud
Some of this feels obvious to you and has never been said to them:
- Ring everything, immediately. Nothing goes to the kitchen without being rung — not the staff meal, not the owner's friend, not the remake. Untracked food is invisible cost, and it is the habit that hides real losses.
- Your login is yours. Not lent, not borrowed, not written down. Say why: it protects them.
- Never use "Misc" or a note for something that has a button. If it has no button, tell the manager — that is a menu gap, and it gets fixed.
- Card numbers are never written down anywhere, for any reason.
- Mistakes get reported, not hidden. A void with a manager takes thirty seconds. A hidden mistake takes an hour to find at close, and the tone you set here decides which one you get.
🔁 Keeping it from decaying
Training is not an event. Three habits keep it alive:
- Ten minutes at pre-shift, once a week. One function. Splitting checks this week, discounts next. It costs almost nothing and it compounds.
- Retrain when the menu changes. New items, new modifiers, new prices — before the first service, not during it.
- Watch the reports for a training signal. The numbers tell you who is struggling before they tell you anything else. A server with unusual voids may be stealing; far more often they are ringing wrong and fixing it. Look before you assume, and the difference is easy to see.
One more, worth its own line: keep a note of what people ask for and cannot find. That list is not a staff problem. It is your topic 3 punch list, arriving for free, from the people using the system every night.