Aldelo or Soft touch POS.. down to 2

[notbostrom]

I've narrowed down to Aldelo and Soft Touch POS for my bar. Aldelo has a great reseller in the area and what looks to be top notch service and install. Problem is they have no accounts with bars so I'm wondering if Aldelo isn't great in the bar environment. Soft Touch looks awesome for a bar but the sales rep is a 19yr old punk and rumor is their support is nothing great from the reseller or Soft touch. Anyone use either in a true bar environment?

[SomewhereInAug]

I have never used either. We use Future POS in our places and it has been great. However, whatever the system, the install and support is the most important thing you will need so go what is best in that area for your area.

www.RestaurantOwner.com has a survey taken by a couple of thousand which covers most all POS systems.

Good Luck

[ministry]

micros invented the whole thing. they have a great support system. don't buy anything that you are not 100% happy with. a rash decision will come back to bite you.

[4 Times]

I have used most all of them in many different situations. By far, Aloha has the best support system, along with many other compatable programs. It's the most difficult system for employees to scam off as well. Been in the situation where I have used a non-name brand POS system (squirrel) and it bit me in the ass. I would highly reccommend paying the extra money for the better system. It will save you money in the long run.

[jmatich]

What didn't you like about the squirrel system? I've been looking at them and they seem to have one of the highest customer satisfaction in the industry.

[David]

Most of my clients use Aloha or Micros and swear by them. I also like AZ Bar for inventory and theft control.

[Glockman]

I'm using Aldelo 3.5 Pro Restaurant POS system, I find a bug in the software, server can reorder items and send to the Bar/kitchen as many times they wanted and will not show in the guest check, so FREE drink after the first round, I contacted Aldelo on this issuer to get a fix, all I got is BS, they said this is a user problem, I would like to hear from restaurant owner and user, is this user or software problem or if this is old news? the step is easy, how many of Adelo restaurant POS system user out there know about this? and have a solution for this. (Anyone want to know how to do this?)

[gknoob]

I also use aldelo. Never knew about that problem. I think I will be looking at that this weekend myself.

With Aldelo usually I have had a lot of luck getting bugs worked out, my major concern is the steps required for modification. We have a full restaurant, but 80% of business is Alcohol related and we have been working hard on setting up a faster menu, but it is taking forever. Right now just too many steps to order a Bud Light.

We have over 4,000 items in our system, and it cannot be condensed because the bartenders get the print-out to make the drinks. So finding a working solution to this has been very difficult to say the least.

[Glockman]

The step is very very easy. I'll give it sometime before I post it. if you have a Bar this is a big problem.

[6Shooters]

we use ALOHA in a VAST number of clubs world wide.....I personally have been using ALOHA here for the past 10 years....i LOVE it...great tech support..very interchangeable...harder for employees to steal...custom reports...everything I could ever need....havent need anything and not been able to do it on ALOHA yet....better to spend the money....

[Glockman]

Sorry 6Shooters, I misread, I through you use Aldelo. maybe I check that out to see if I can use there software with the hardware that I already have. Thanks for the info.

gknoob, let me save you some time, try this:

Until now I still have no solution from Aldelo:
Aldelo Software User, this problem is on my system, try it on your system.and if you have a sloution to this.

You be the judge. Is this user problem or software problem.

How to reorder item and will not show on guest check on Aldelo 3.5 Pro

1) logon Din-in / bar
2) select a table example table-1
3) select item, example: Budweiser , done
4) reopen table-1, select: Miller Lite, done
5) reopen table-1, select HOLD, select the sended item Budweiser and Miller Lite, set hold time, select accept, then select done
6) Reopen table-1 select HOLD, and select the two HOLD items, clear the hold time, select accept, select done. The bar printer will print Budweiser and Miller Lite and the guest check only show two beers but total of four was ordered.

You can repeat step 5 and 6 as many time as you like, free beer for all after the first round.
You can do this on any items on the ticket.

If the delay feature in the Aldelo software house setting is not checked, you can reorder items much easier and will not show in the guest check.

[Michael Black]

Be aware in Aloha that a cash table could be easily swapped. That is one server knowing the sign on code of another could swap out a higher cash table for someone else's lower one, pocketing the difference. Very few people, managers or servers would catch this in a busy night. My work has included trying to find all the ways someone could be committing theft. One rest/bar chain I was doing work for uses Aloha. It is pretty good, but I was able to catch this and a server. I figured a way to beat it, then proceeded to track everyone to see if anyone else was doing it- one was! But, that was one in over 1000 employees using it.It would be much harder if they had a hard card to swipe on which I suggested.Also, this was not a theft from the biz but a theft from one server from another.

I also like HSI (bought out by Micros and probably the most expensive) for very detailed info and controls but one has to question what is really needed vs ease of use, support, and especially price.Stay away from squirrel, infogenisis,positouch and especially silverware and digital dining. Next Pos, now Aldelo, is fairly good for a very good price I think. Keep in mind that this is an investment not just an expense. I cannot imagine a very busy pace or one with alot of food items and food sales to be w/o a pos system. But, those not declaring everything to Uncle Sam may want to stick to the old fashioned registers as there is no electronic trail :)

I am not familiar with Soft Touch. Is it comparable in features and price to Aldelo?

[rbr272]

For 3 touch screens, 4 drawers, and kitchen printer, Future was $5,000 cheaper. They came in this much under Postec, Hospitality and several others. Are there any drawbacks that any one has experienced? Is lease the way to go (9.25 int.) for immediate write off? Also you buy your gift cards from them and no monthly fee as Aloha charges a monthly fee to just use them.

[Michael Black]

Future was $5000 cheaper than who - HSI?

It is possible to get the screens, drawers, and printers cheaply off Ebay if you have the will and are technically inclined. Then, you would need to buy a software like Next/Aldelo and set it up. A bit of work, but it could save you 1,000's. You could also get a system from auction of a closed rest/bar/club, but would probably need a good computer programmer to rework it for your biz. Someone said that most pos co's make it impossible to get a former name of a biz off or changed from the registered software and most are not transferable to another biz and no support from them would be given either.Anyone have any experience with this?

[rbr272]

I checked on a used Postec system and the software was licensed and the price was expensive to convert it. So I got estimates from Postec, Aloha, and several more and Future was $5,000 cheaper. We are not technically savy and feel we would be better off with a new system and customer support. I realize Aloha and Postec are the top of the line but am leaning towards the Future. I wondered if the person who has Future would share their experience and anyone else with drawbacks. Thanks

[rbr272]

Good thing I took my time in researching this, Future POS salesman left the company, the new salesman was unable to give us the name of one business in our area that had their system (we were going to check on service etc.) Now I am leaning towards Aloha and maybe streamlining system to save some money.

[scott1988]

Don't do that. Still look at Future POS. It has a ton of features for a great price and it has been very dependable in terms of stability.

[scott1988]

rbr272,
Did you ever get this figured out? I'm curious. I have some info for you possibly if you haven't decided yet but if it's too late, at least let us know what you decided and why.

Take care.