EPOS system for a new business: what to buy first (2026 guide)
A new café, takeaway or restaurant has a fit-out bill, a deposit and no trading history. The till is one of the few purchases you can get right first time. This guide sets out the minimum that works on day one, what earns its place later, and the configuration that has to be done before you open.
- The three things every new site needs on opening day
- Buy outright or finance, with the numbers
- Complete starter systems from £499 + VAT
Written by the Posso team in Leicester · Reviewed by Paul Robinson, Managing Director · Last reviewed
Short answer
A new hospitality business needs three things on day one: a till with a receipt printer and cash drawer, a kitchen printer and an integrated card terminal. That is the complete order path, from the counter to the pass to payment, and a bundle covering it typically costs £300–£1,500 one-off plus £25–£70 a month in software. Everything else, a kitchen screen, a kiosk, online ordering and delivery integration, is cheaper to add in month three when you know your queue, your average ticket and your busiest ninety minutes. Set VAT rates, allergens and your float before opening, not after. Posso starter systems are £499 + VAT outright or financed from £24.92 a week, subject to status.
Key takeaways
- Open with a till, a kitchen printer and an integrated card terminal; add the rest once trading.
- Finance spreads the hardware cost over the first months, when cash is tightest, subject to status.
- Set VAT treatments, service charge, allergens and your float before the first customer, not after.
- The most expensive mistake is a menu built in a hurry the night before opening.
Takeaway: Buy the complete order path on day one and let your first month of sales tell you what to add next.
Why the till matters more for a new business than an established one
An established restaurant choosing a new till already knows its numbers. It knows it does 90 covers on a Saturday at £28 a head, that the kitchen falls behind at 7:40pm and that a third of orders arrive through a delivery app. A new business knows none of this, and so it tends to buy for the business it imagines rather than the one it will have.
That cuts both ways. Some new operators buy a kiosk, two kitchen screens and a table-ordering app before they have served a meal. Others open with a card reader and a notepad, lose track of what sold, under-charge VAT on eat-in orders and discover in week six that they have no idea whether the business is making money.
The right answer sits between the two. Buy the minimum that gives you a complete, reported order path on day one, and keep the budget for the second wave until trading tells you where the pressure is. If you are opening a takeaway specifically, the opening a takeaway EPOS checklist runs the same logic week by week. The small business POS system guide covers what single-site operators actually need, and the switching EPOS hub collects the rest.
What to buy on day one, and what to leave until you are trading
Six principles for a first system, written for an operator who has a fit-out bill and no sales history yet.
Buy the complete order path, not a card reader
The minimum viable system is the path an order takes: ring it on a till, print it to the kitchen, take payment on a terminal that gets the amount from the till, and record all three in one report. A card reader and a paper pad covers the payment step only. From the first week you want to know that you sold 42 fish and chips and 11 pie and chips on Friday, what the cash in the drawer should be and what VAT you owe. The three-piece bundle is the smallest purchase that answers all of that.
Add the kitchen screen when tickets start getting lost
A kitchen printer is enough for one cook and a short menu. The moment you have two stations, a grill and a fryer say, and the paper tickets start getting spiked out of order, a kitchen display earns its place by showing every open order with item-level completion and routing each line to its station. Elsewhere screens typically cost £300–£800 each; Posso's 21-inch screen is £399 + VAT. You will know the week you need it, because it is the week the wrong orders start going out.
Let the queue tell you whether you need a kiosk
Kiosks typically cost £700–£3,000+ per unit elsewhere, and they only pay back where customers walk away from a queue. A new site cannot know its queue until it has one. Run four weeks, stand at the door between 12 and 1:30 and count how many people look in, see six waiting and leave. If the answer is several a day, a kiosk from £699 + VAT is justified; if the counter clears in five minutes, it is not.
Turn online and delivery on when the counter is steady
Online ordering, a delivery driver app and Just Eat or Uber Eats integration all add order volume, which is the last thing you want in week two while staff are still learning the till. Open counter-only, get the kitchen rhythm right, then switch on your own online ordering, which Posso hosts free with a 60p service fee per order paid by the customer, and delivery integration at £45 a month for unlimited orders when you can absorb the extra tickets. Both land on the same till; see online ordering and delivery integrations.
Spread the hardware cost across your first months, if cash is tight
Hardware bought outright is yours and has no ongoing cost beyond software. For a new business, the cash matters more in month one than in month twelve, which is why finance exists. Posso systems can be financed from £24.92 a week, subject to status, which turns a £499 purchase into a line smaller than most sites spend on napkins. The buy versus lease guide sets out the trade-off. Whichever you choose, avoid a long rental agreement on hardware that is cheaper to own.
Build the menu two weeks out, not the night before
The single most expensive mistake a new operator makes is building the menu on the till at midnight before opening. Prices get typed wrong, modifiers get skipped, VAT treatment is left at default and allergens are never entered. Send the provider your menu, with eat-in and takeaway prices, meal deals and their components, and allergens per dish, a fortnight before delivery.
What a first system costs in the UK
Day-one items first, second-wave items below. Typical UK ranges with Posso's published prices in the last column.
| Item | Typical UK range | Posso |
|---|---|---|
| Till with receipt printer and cash drawer | £300–£1,500 one-off | £499 + VAT, including kitchen printer, menu build and training |
| Software | £25–£70 a month, up to £100+ for enterprise tiers | From £25 + VAT a month |
| Card processing | 1.5–1.75% flat on readers; ~1–1.5% plus pence on merchant accounts | Posso Pay from 1% + 10p, quoted on card turnover |
| Finance (if not buying outright) | Varies by lender and term | From £24.92 a week, subject to status |
| Kitchen display (second wave) | £300–£800 per screen plus £0–£30 a month elsewhere | £399 + VAT |
| Self-order kiosk (second wave) | £700–£3,000+ per unit | From £699 + VAT |
| Online ordering (second wave) | 0–15% commission or £20–£60 a month elsewhere | Hosting free; 60p per order paid by the customer |
| Delivery integration (second wave) | £0–£60 a month per platform elsewhere | £45 a month, unlimited orders |
Ranges are typical UK figures at October 2026; Posso prices are published on EPOS pricing.
What to set up before you open
Configuration that has to be right on the first order, because fixing it afterwards means fixing your records too.
VAT treatment per item, with eat-in and takeaway handled in one tap
Hot food is standard-rated whether eaten in or taken away; cold takeaway food such as a sandwich or a cake can be zero-rated, but the same item eaten in is standard-rated. Your till needs to know which items change treatment when the order type changes, and the order type needs to be one tap, not a separate menu. Get this wrong and your first VAT return is a reconstruction exercise.
Service charge rule decided and written down
Decide whether you add a discretionary service charge, at what rate, on which order types and on tables of what size, and have the till apply it automatically on those orders only. Staff adding it by hand forget on busy nights and double-apply on quiet ones.
Allergens entered against every dish
Mark the 14 EU allergens against each item before opening, so staff can answer a question about the satay sauce from the till rather than from memory. Doing it from the till means the new Saturday starter gives the same answer as the owner.
What to ask a provider before you sign
What does the day-one price actually include?
Ask for the hardware, software, menu build, training and card terminal as separate lines. A headline till price that excludes the kitchen printer, the drawer or the menu build is not a day-one price; it is a deposit on one. The hidden costs guide lists the extras that most often appear after the quote.
Can I add a kitchen screen, kiosk or online ordering later without changing systems?
The second wave should plug into the till you already own, on the same menu, with orders landing in the same kitchen queue. If adding a kiosk means a new platform or re-entering the menu, the day-one saving is false.
What happens to the agreement if the business does not work out?
Ask about the software term, the notice period and what you owe if you close. Hardware you own can be sold; hardware on a long rental cannot. A new business should know the exit cost of every contract it signs.
The Posso approach to a first EPOS
Posso's starter system is the complete day-one order path for £499 + VAT: a touchscreen terminal running Windows 11 Pro, a kitchen printer, a receipt printer, a cash drawer, the menu build and staff training. Software is from £25 + VAT a month. If cash is tight in the opening months, finance is available from £24.92 a week, subject to status. You own the hardware outright; software is from £25 + VAT a month.
Card payments run through Posso Pay from 1% + 10p, quoted on card turnover and the same rate in store and online, with the terminal paired to the till so amounts are pushed rather than typed. If you already hold a Teya or Dojo terminal, the till works with that instead.
The second wave plugs into the same till and the same menu: a kitchen display at £399 + VAT with station routing and item-level completion, kiosks from £699 + VAT, online ordering hosted free with a 60p service fee per web or app order paid by the customer, delivery integration for Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo at £45 a month for unlimited orders, and AI phone ordering that answers 24/7 at £1 per order taken.
Support runs Monday to Friday, 9am–9:30pm from Leicester, with an urgent out-of-hours line for till-down issues, and hardware carries a two-year warranty. Setup (menu build + configuration) is free; on-site installation for larger sites is priced on application. Systems are preconfigured and shipped plug-and-play.
Where to look elsewhere
If your new business is a shop with barcoded stock, a gift store, a convenience store or a deli that is mostly retail, you need purchasing, supplier management and stock control, and a retail-first platform will serve you better than a hospitality EPOS. The retail POS guide explains the difference.
If you are a sole trader at a market or a pop-up taking a few dozen payments a day with a short menu, a card reader with a simple app is the right amount of system for now.
Related guides
Related guides
Opening a takeaway: EPOS checklist
The week-by-week list from lease to launch, including what to send the provider and when.
Read the guideSmall business POS system
What a single-site operator actually needs from a till, and what is sold as essential but is not.
Read the guideEPOS system installation in the UK
What installation involves, what plug-and-play removes and what you still do yourself.
Read the guideHow much does an EPOS system cost in the UK?
Hardware, software, card fees and add-ons priced in one place, with typical UK ranges.
Read the guideBuying versus leasing an EPOS system
When owning the hardware wins, when finance makes sense, and the rental traps to avoid.
Read the guideThis is one part of the Posso EPOS system — the same till, kitchen display, ordering and card payments, set up for your type of venue. Every one-off and monthly cost is on the EPOS pricing page.
EPOS for a new business — frequently asked questions
How much does an EPOS system cost for a new business in the UK?
A day-one bundle of till, receipt printer, cash drawer and kitchen printer typically costs £300–£1,500 one-off elsewhere, with software at £25–£70 a month. Posso's complete starter system is £499 + VAT including the menu build and training, with software from £25 + VAT a month, or finance from £24.92 a week subject to status. Card processing is the other ongoing cost; Posso Pay is from 1% + 10p, quoted on card turnover.
What EPOS equipment does a new restaurant or takeaway need to open?
A touchscreen till with a receipt printer and cash drawer, one kitchen printer and a card terminal integrated with the till. That is the complete order path from counter to kitchen to payment. A kitchen display, kiosk, online ordering and delivery integration are second-wave additions; buy them once your first month of trading shows where the pressure is.
Should a startup buy an EPOS system outright or finance it?
Buying outright is cheapest over the life of the hardware and leaves you owning it. Finance makes sense when the opening-month cash matters more than the twelve-month total, which for most new sites it does. Posso systems are available from £24.92 a week subject to status, and you still own the hardware.
What should I set up on my EPOS before opening day?
VAT treatment per item with eat-in and takeaway handled by one order-type toggle, the service charge rule, allergens against every dish, the opening float, the cashing-up routine and a separate login for each member of staff. Send the full menu with prices and allergens to the provider a fortnight before delivery so the till arrives with it loaded.
Do I need a kitchen display screen when I first open?
Usually not. One cook and a short menu run well on a kitchen printer. A kitchen display earns its place when you have two or more stations and paper tickets start being worked out of order. Elsewhere screens typically cost £300–£800 each; Posso's is £399 + VAT and plugs into the same till and menu, so adding it in month three is straightforward.
Can I add online ordering and delivery apps later?
Yes, and you should. Posso hosts your online ordering website free with a 60p service fee per web or app order paid by the customer, and integrates Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo for £45 a month with unlimited orders. Both land on the same till and kitchen queue as counter orders. Switch them on once the counter rhythm is steady, not in the opening week.
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