A POS contract is one of the harder-to-reverse decisions an independent restaurant makes — the hardware, the processing relationship, and often the ordering software all get bundled into one multi-year agreement. Here's what's worth asking about before signing, not after.
Multi-year POS contracts commonly carry early-termination fees, sometimes structured as the remaining balance of the contract term. Ask for the exact cancellation terms in writing, not a verbal summary from a sales rep — and ask what triggers a renewal versus what requires active cancellation notice.
Many POS providers lock the ordering software to their own branded terminals. If the relationship ends, that hardware often becomes unusable with a different provider — meaning a switch later means buying new terminals, not just changing software. Ask directly whether the terminals work with any other POS software, or only the one you're signing up for.
Some POS contracts bundle in mandatory payment processing at the provider's rate, rather than letting you shop for your own processor or negotiate rates. That can mean a higher effective processing cost than going with Stripe, Square, or another processor directly — worth comparing before signing, not after a year of statements.
Online ordering is sometimes an add-on module with its own separate monthly fee or transaction percentage, not included in the base POS subscription. Ask specifically what a direct-ordering feature costs beyond the in-store POS functionality — the answer isn't always in the headline pricing.
A POS going down mid-dinner-rush is a real operational risk. Ask what support looks like outside business hours, and whether phone support is included or an upsell — "24/7 support" sometimes means a chatbot, not a person who can walk you through an outage.
Some systems make it straightforward to export your menu structure, customer list, and order history; others don't. Ask this before signing, since it's a hard question to get a straight answer to once you're already a customer trying to leave.
One reason OrderRail runs independently of whatever POS a restaurant already has — printing to its own dedicated kitchen printer rather than requiring POS integration — is exactly this lock-in problem. A direct-ordering channel that depends on a specific POS relationship inherits that POS's contract risk. One that doesn't, doesn't.