POS, Integrations & Vendor Selection Checklist

Purpose

This checklist helps teams choose a POS and design integrations so that data is reliable, reconciliation work is minimized, and reporting reflects reality. Use this when evaluating vendors, planning integrations, and preparing for go‑live.

How to use

Walk through each section with your IT lead, operations manager, finance/PM, and vendor technical lead. Capture evidence (screenshots, API docs, mapping files). Mark items as Done, Requires follow-up, or Not applicable. Wherever possible, attach or link to a sample mapping file, API spec, or test evidence.

1) Integrations & Architecture (what systems must be connected)

• Inventory / Recipe / COGS — Can the POS sync sales and modifiers to inventory and recipe systems? Evidence: example payload or mapping.
• Payroll / Time & Attendance — Export format and fields for hours, tips, labor allocations, and overtime. Can it send scheduled exports or push to payroll provider?
• Online ordering / Delivery platforms — Real‑time order delivery, status ACK/NACK, fees and commission reporting, tip handling.
• Accounting / General Ledger — Sales batches, tax breakdowns, payment types, refunds, fees, tips. Export frequency and format.
• Kitchen Display / Order Routing — Order detail fidelity (modifiers, special instructions, seat numbers).
• Reservations / Guest Management / CRM / Loyalty — Guest profile sync, order history, loyalty points posting.
• Supplier / Purchasing / PO systems — Purchase order creation or inventory consumption sync.
• Analytics / BI — Access to raw sales feeds or export options for downstream reporting.

Acceptance: you can produce a clear diagram of data flows showing which system is authoritative for each domain (sales, inventory, labor, customers, payments).

2) Integration Patterns & Technical Requirements

• Supported integration methods: Real‑time API, Webhooks, Batch CSV/FTP, Middleware/ETL, Vendor managed connector. Note which are available and recommended.
• Authentication & security models: OAuth2, API key, SFTP credentials, mutual TLS. Confirm how secrets are rotated and stored.
• Rate limits, throttling behavior, and bulk export options.
• Data ownership and export on termination: confirm contractual requirements for returning historical data in usable format.
• Time zones, daylight savings, and timestamp formats — ensure consistent event time handling across systems.

Acceptance: a short technical decision record that explains chosen pattern and justification for the business (e.g., real‑time for online orders; nightly batch for accounting).

3) Data Field Mapping & Canonical Model

Create a canonical mapping table that lists each business entity and the required fields. At a minimum include:

• Order/Transaction ID
• Timestamp (ISO 8601, timezone)
• Line items (SKU/PLU, description)
• Modifiers and bundles with parent/child linkage
• Quantity, unit price, discounts, taxes
• Payment types, amounts, tips, refunds
• Employee ID for sale, server, and clock events
• Location ID (for multi‑site businesses)

Include a sample mapping snippet (CSV or table) and confirm where the master mapping file will be stored.

Sample mapping table (example)

Acceptance: mapping file covers 95%+ of the fields used in your reports and accounting exports. Edge cases documented (refunds, comps, voids).

4) Reconciliation & Data Quality Processes

• Define reconciliation cadence: daily sales vs. POS, weekly inventory adjustments, monthly GL posting checks.
• Reconciliation owner and roles: who investigates discrepancies, who signs off.
• Automated checks to run post‑sync: totals by payment type, count of transactions, item sales vs. inventory depletion.
• Exception handling: how are failed transfers retried, how are duplicate events handled, who gets alerted?
• Record of known gaps (e.g., modifier mapping exceptions) and an action plan to close them.

Acceptance: a runbook describing exactly how to reconcile daily sales to bank deposits and when to escalate.

5) Uptime, Support & SLA Expectations

• Target uptime: state desired SLA (e.g., 99.9% monthly availability) and define measurement method.
• Support SLAs: initial response time (e.g., 1 hour for Sev 1), time to resolution or workaround commitment.
• Maintenance windows and advance notice requirements.
• Service credits or remedies for missed SLAs described in contract.
• Escalation path including phone and account manager details.

Acceptance: vendor contract or SOW includes measurable SLA terms and a named escalation contact.

6) Data Export Formats & Reporting

• Supported export formats: CSV, JSON, XML, direct DB access, or BI connector. Confirm schema and sample export.
• Field-level documentation for each export type.
• Ability to request ad‑hoc exports for audits and historical analysis.

Acceptance: you can export a sample day of transactions in the agreed format and load it into your BI tool without manual reshaping.

7) Security, Compliance & Data Governance

• Payment / PCI: vendor PCI status and what they attest to versus what you must manage.
• Data encryption in transit and at rest; key management approach.
• Access controls and audit logs for data exports and admin actions.
• Privacy and compliance needs (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA where applicable).
• Data retention policy and procedures for returning data on termination.

Acceptance: vendor provides current compliance attestations and you have a documented access control policy aligned to the integration.

8) Vendor Evaluation & Contract Checklist

• References from businesses of similar size and profile (ask for at least 2).
• Roadmap alignment: does vendor roadmap include needed features (e.g., advanced API endpoints)?
• Pricing model clarity: per‑terminal, per‑transaction, per‑location, or per‑user. Consider hidden fees for connectors or APIs.
• Termination clauses: data export, migration assistance, and escrow if critical.
• Liability limits and indemnity language relevant to data incidents and outages.
• Contract duration and renewal terms and costs for additional modules or integrations.

Acceptance: contract draft has explicit commitments for data access, reasonable termination remedies, and cost transparency.

9) Testing & Go‑Live Test Plan

Define test cases, acceptance criteria, and a go‑live checklist. Important test cases include:

• End‑to‑end order flow: POS sale → inventory decrement → accounting export → BI ingestion.
• Modifiers, combos, and price overrides handling.
• Refunds/cancellations and negative transactions.
• Tips, pooled tips, and payroll export correctness.
• Offline mode behavior and subsequent sync behavior.
• High volume / rush period simulation to validate throughput and rate limits.
• Disaster scenarios: partial outages, failed webhooks, duplicate events.

Go‑Live acceptance criteria: all prioritized test cases pass in a staging environment; reconciliation passes for a synced test day; rollback plan validated.

Suggested Go‑Live steps

1. Smoke test in staging with representative sample data.
2. Run parallel reporting for one live shift (POS live but finance still uses old exports) and compare results.
3. Run reconciliation and fix any mapping or rounding issues.
4. Confirm monitoring and alerts are live and notifications reach on‑call staff.
5. Execute cutover during a low‑impact window with a defined rollback trigger and owner.

10) Monitoring, Alerts & Operational Ownership

• Define monitoring: failed deliveries, queue backlogs, reconciliation exceptions, and latencies.
• Alerting thresholds and channels (SMS, email, pager, incident management tool).
• On‑call rotation and runbooks for common failures.
• Scheduled reviews: weekly reconciliation review, monthly integration health meeting.

Acceptance: alerts are tested, and runbooks specify steps to remediate common issues and who to call at each escalation level.

Deliverables & Evidence to Collect

• Integration architecture diagram.
• Canonical field mapping CSV / table.
• Sample exports from POS in chosen formats.
• Staging test results showing parity with production reports for a test period.
• Signed SLA excerpt in contract and named escalation contact.

Common pitfalls to avoid

• Assuming the POS exported fields match downstream schemas — always map and transform centrally.
• Underestimating modifier and bundle complexity — these commonly break inventory and reporting.
• Skipping realistic load testing — production rushes can reveal rate limit and queueing issues.
• Not documenting exception flows (voids/refunds) — these create persistent reconciliation gaps.

Next steps & capability opportunities

This checklist is a high‑value candidate for an interactive form: convert to an interactive checklist that saves evidence (mappings, sample exports), tracks status by location, and captures vendor responses. Consider producing a reusable integration toolkit that includes a canonical mapping CSV template, a Postman collection for API tests, and a monitoring dashboard template.

Quick copyable checklist (one‑page)

1. List required integrations and authoritative systems.
2. Choose integration pattern and confirm security model.
3. Create canonical field mapping and store in central repo.
4. Define reconciliation cadence, owner, and runbook.
5. Agree SLAs, support and escalation with vendor.
6. Validate export formats and pull sample exports.
7. Run staging tests for core flows and reconciliation.
8. Test monitoring, alerts and rollback plan.
9. Sign off with finance, operations and IT before cutover.