A POS buyer's guide for the business behind the register.

1. Start with five real transactions

List the common sale, the complicated sale, a return or partial refund, an online or phone order, and the busiest rush scenario. Include discounts, tips, tax, split tender, variants, modifiers, age checks, and customer assignment where they apply. Make every vendor run those transactions in working software.

2. Follow what changes after payment

Inspect inventory, customer history, loyalty, employee attribution, transaction records, and reports. If the vendor calls the system integrated, the result should be visible without exports or overnight reconciliation. For restaurants, follow the ticket to the kitchen. For service businesses, connect the appointment to checkout.

3. Understand the payment boundary

Ask where cardholder data goes, which system decides approval, how timeouts are handled, and how the original transaction is used for voids and refunds. With LiftedConnect, the PAX device and BroadPOS handle the card while LiftedPOS receives safe result data and optional processor tokens when supported and enabled.

4. Price the complete deployment

Calculate software by station and location, hardware purchase or lease, accessories, payment processing, implementation, data import, training, support, and any required third-party modules. A lower headline can be more expensive if essential workflows sit outside it.

5. Demand a cutover and rollback plan

Define who cleans and validates data, who configures tax and permissions, how payments are tested, when staff train, what must pass before opening, and how the team falls back if a critical dependency fails. Ownership should be explicit before the old POS is removed.

Write down the acceptance criteria

A migration is complete when the business can open, sell, fulfill, refund, close, reconcile, and recover—not when an account exists. Put those verbs into a checklist with expected results and evidence. That turns a vague go-live feeling into a decision.