Toast Introduces an All-in-One POS App to Let Restaurants Manage Their Business

To help restaurants manage catering and wholesale orders with their in-person, takeout, and delivery business while using one POS system, Toast Inc. has launched Toast Invoicing. The new application, developed in response to what Toast sees as restaurants’ growing catering business, will eliminate the need for a separate POS system, the company says.

To illustrate how much of a mainstay catering has become for restaurants Toast cites a recent survey of 956 restaurant decision-makers that revealed 72% offer catering in addition to in-restaurant dining. The survey also revealed that catering is one of the top three areas of focus for restaurants in 2023.

With Toast Invoicing, which is free to existing Toast customers, restaurants can capture orders online, send estimates, print full-page prep sheets, and track orders through a calendar integrated with Toast’s point-of-sale kitchen-display system. 

In addition, Toast Invoicing integrates directly with a restaurant’s menu in Toast’s POS system, enabling catering managers to itemize invoices from their existing menu, accept tips with an invoice, and digitally distribute those gratuities to staff using through Toast’s payroll and team-management app.

Toast Invoicing also allows restaurants to send invoices from any device, as opposed to only through their point-of-sale system, and allows restaurants to set payment due dates and reminders on invoices. Restaurants can collect and redeem deposits and accept online payments from customers through the app. Online payments accepted through Toast Invoicing are processed as card-not-present transactions, the company says.

“Our customers are managing in-person dining, online orders, catering and wholesale orders all under one roof,” says Aman Narang, president and co-founder of Toast, in a prepared statement. “Toast Invoicing is another key building block for restaurants to expand their service models and grow their entire business all on one platform.”

Restaurant POS has become a fiercely competitive business the past year as players such as Shift4 Inc. have introduced new apps that combine back-end functionality and point-of-sale capabilities in a single app, while new players, such as PNC Financial Group Inc., have also jumped into the fray.