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Revel POS Review

POS Systems

Revel Systems was founded in San Francisco by two young entrepreneurs in 2010 and offers an iPad-based POS system designed for three types of businesses: quick service restaurants, sit-down restaurants and bars, and retailers.

The company calls itself "credit card processor-neutral," so you can choose whichever credit card processor best meets your needs. However, Revel offers its own payment processing solution - Revel Advantage - and suggests that customers utilize that option.

With Revel, you can take credit and debit cards, gift cards, and even PayPal or bitcoin payments.

Since its launch, Revel has attracted a great deal of media attention and remains a popular system. Read on to learn whether it's the right choice for your business.

What You’ll Need to Use Revel Systems

To use Revel's POS solution, you'll need an iPad. Revel also recommends a barcode scanner, a cash register, a credit card reader, and a receipt printer. You'll also need an Internet connection.

If you plan to take credit cards, you'll need a merchant account with a processing company. Revel's POS solution works with many credit card processing companies.

Hardware and Accessories

The Revel POS system isn't a set bundle of equipment, which can be beneficial for businesses that want a more tailored POS package. It means you won't be paying for equipment you don't need or want, but you can add the components that you do need. At its most basic, your Revel system could consist of simply an iPad with the Revel POS application. Revel works with certain models of iPad Pro, iPad Mini, and iPad 2018. The company does not currently support Android or Windows devices, and has not announced plans to do so.

If you need a POS solution that can run on an Android or Windows platform, be sure to check our our POS system directory to find the right choice for your needs.

As for accessories, Revel offers compatible accessories to make using its POS system easier. It sells barcode scanners, cash drawers, coin dispensers, digital menu boards, iPad stands, keyboards, credit card readers, printers, and scales.

Revel supports several major brands, including Honeywell, Star, Dymo, Epson, Zebra, APG, Ingenico, IDTech, and Brecknell. This type of "mix and match" offering lets you create the right Revel system for your specific business needs.

Revel Features

What draws customers to Revel is that it's full of incredibly useful features. While Revel systems offer many restaurant and bar-specific functions such as tabs and delivery management, it includes features for retailers or service-based businesses as well.

Revel offers QuickBooks integration, the ability to process sales from anywhere in the facility, employee management, inventory functions that include combination capabilities, CRM functionality, delivery and order status tracking, appointment scheduling, and more. Additionally, Revel has thorough guides on many of its popular features.

Order Status Tracking

Nothing ruins the customer experience faster than waiting too long for an order. The order tracking status in Revel automatically launches a timer as soon as the order is submitted, so you can see how long each order takes to prepare.

Delivery Management

Keep track of your deliveries through Revel in one of two ways: utilize Revel's DeliveryXT solution or integrate with options such as DoorDash.

DeliveryXT is an integrated delivery platform that includes an app for assigning drivers as well as an app for the driver themselves to accept deliveries or get directions. The management app has reporting capabilities to see how your deliveries are going and even track where drivers currently are.

With delivery optimization, the system suggests deliveries that maximize route efficiency, helping decrease total time spent delivering orders. You can also provide arrival estimates to your customers by text.

The DoorDash option, DriverXT powered by DoorDash, allows you to use Revel to accept delivery orders without needing to maintain your own in-house delivery staff. DriverXT supports a 5-mile delivery radius, provides delivery time estimates, and includes order pickup confirmations.

Note: DriverXT is only available for Revel customers that utilizes Online OrderingXT, Reven's online ordering platform.

Delivery Roles

Within the Delivery Management module, you can set the role of "driver" or "manager" for each employee with access to the delivery system. "Drivers" have access to fewer functions and can only view orders that have been assigned to them or unassigned orders. An employee that is designated as a driver can create and receive orders, add items to an order, and access cash drawers or virtual tills. The virtual till option allows drivers to keep records of the cash they receive as they complete deliveries. When the driver has access to the physical cash drawer, they can denote a "cash drop" to indicate that they've transferred the money from their possession to the cash drawer.

An employee designated as a driver manager has more authority. The driver manager can assign orders to particular drivers, check-in a driver or end the driver's shift, adjust checks for tips, adjust driver mileage, and more. The driver manager also has the ability to approve delivery to addresses that fall outside of the pre-set delivery boundaries.

Inventory and Combos

Are you running out of the ingredients you need to make your most popular dish? Revel's inventory function tracks your inventory in real time, alerts you when something's running low, and automatically generates a purchase order.

Tracking inventory down to the ingredient level also helps with "combo" meals. Everyone knows upselling is a great way to boost the bottom line. Revel's POS solution provides the option for creating menu combos or modifying orders, making it easy to increase profits, while the ingredient inventory function ensures that you have the needed items on hand for your combos.

Mobile and Online Ordering

Many customers want to order with their mobile devices, and Revel makes that possible. Customers place their orders through an app and choose whether they pick up the order or receive a delivery. The app adds flexibility with the option to pay by PayPal.

Not everyone wants to order with their mobile device, though. That's why Revel offers an online ordering option for restaurant pickup.

Called Online OrderingXT, the online option allows customers to browse your menu / online storefront or skip right to ordering their favorite items. The platform provides branding and customization and can connect directly to any kitchen display systems (KDS) that you use in your restaurant.

Drive-Thru

But what about drive-thru orders? Revel can handle that as well. The DriveThruXT platform is flexible, allowing you to choose whether you'd like a turnkey solution complete with menu boards and order timers or a lightweight option with mobile order takers.

You can mix and match options such as digital menu boards (for indoor or outdoor use), drive-thru order confirmation screens to ensure order accuracy, timer systems to help expedite drive-thru orders, and an order management queue on a kitchen display system to help keep staff on the same page.

Self-Serve Kiosks

Increasingly popular at counter-serve restaurants, self-serve kiosks allow customers to input their own order. Revel's KioskXT, a customizable kiosk option, lets customers place and pay for their order without requiring a separate cashier. As with the full POS, the kiosk option allows you to suggest upsells, modify dishes, and accept gift cards. There's also functionality to switch to a manager dashboard, enabling authorized employees to perform refunds, cancel items, and access inventory management screens.

Lastly, you can capture needed information to streamline the ordering process, enabling names, buzzer numbers, or table numbers to identify a customer's order.

Revel offers a KioskXT demo video on its website.

In-Restaurant Ordering and Tabs

If you've got more than one iPad, your servers can take orders right at the table thanks to Revel. You can connect as many iPads as you like for maximum efficiency, cutting down on the time servers would otherwise spend writing down orders by hand and then keying them in to the system elsewhere. With tableside ordering, they can enter the order once.

Is there a group in your restaurant or bar that wants to start a tab? Servers can quickly open and track tabs according to customer name or credit card. You can even pre-authorize the card to start the tab so that you won't need to swipe the card again when closing it out.

Note that you'll need to enable tabs in the Management Console before servers and bartenders can use that function.

Fuel Pump Management

Do you run a gas station? Revel has you covered. Its fuel pump management feature allows you to monitor fuel inventory, authorize or stop pumps remotely, and test the pump. Customers can combine their retail and gas purchases, too.

E-commerce Capabilities

If you’ve got products you want to sell online, Revel’s e-commerce capabilities enable you to set up an online store. You choose how you want to display your products, and you can push changes to the online store easily.

If you want something more advanced than Revel's online option, you can create a solution through partners such as Magento and BigCommerce.

Appointment Scheduling

Revel appeals to service providers, too, in part due to functions like appointment scheduling. With appointment scheduling, you can set up the services you offer, and then easily book clients by employee or location.

Once you've set up your services, you can simply click the calendar icon in your Revel screen, which will bring up a calendar page for you to book slots.

Revel appointments

When you click on "new appointment" on the calendar, the system will prompt you to choose the service and shows a time estimate for the length of the appointment based on the chosen services. However, you can also add or remove time from the estimate.

Revel appointment time

Alternately, customers can book their own appointments online. They'll have a choice of available providers and the times available for the service they intend to book.

Revel customer booking

When you complete bookings, you'll be able to see details of the upcoming service in your calendar by clicking on a client that has an appointment. You can also edit customer details.

Revel individual appointment

QuickBooks Integration

QuickBooks is popular accounting software, and Revel's POS solution enables you to manage your accounting from within its app, saving you time and effort. Revel talks a bit about its partnership with Intuit (maker of QuickBooks) and promises an easy integration.

Daily sales and inventory adjustments are automatically synced to your QuickBooks account for easier receipt management. If you'd like, you can also sync employee labor data to pay employees from QuickBooks using Intuit Payroll.

You can set up QuickBooks integration using a setup wizard in your Revel dashboard. The system will ask you to authorize data sharing between Revel and Intuit to enable auto-syncing.

Revel for Intuit QuickBooks

From there, you can also choose if you'd like to import employee time data, set up sales tax, activate discounts, and more. Once you've completed those steps, you'll see a table that lists different activities to be tracked with checkmarks indicating whether the data will be managed by your Revel point of sale system or by your QuickBooks account.

QuickBooks or Revel management

If anything looks incorrect, or you wanted the other system to record a particular type of information, you can edit the settings to reflect the correct tracking.

Employee Management

Employee management can be a challenge, but Revel aims to simplify it. You can schedule employees, manage payroll, control who uses the app and their privileges, and analyze staff performance using the free Homebase add-on. Homebase offers scheduling capabilities, team-wide messaging, and integrated time tracking.

If you'd like, you can take employee management a step further by utilizing integration with QuickBooks and Intuit Payroll to take care of payroll functions.

CRM

Satisfying customers doesn't have to be a mystery. Revel's customer relationship management tool records customer information and purchase behavior so you can offer them what they want, when they want it.

Revel CRM

Simply add customers to your customer database, and then you'll be able to start tracking important information, including their rewards card number and points, any balances on a house account, past orders, and more.

Additional Management Features

Revel systems also include specialty features like social media management and mobile device management.

With social media management, you won't miss out on a single tweet or post. You can tweet, see who checked in on Facebook, Foursquare, and Yelp, and read Yelp reviews.

The mobile device management function gives you peace of mind. What happens if one of your restaurant's iPads gets lost or stolen? Revel's mobile device management function lets you lock down or remotely wipe any device.

Gift Cards and Loyalty Management

Revel offers both proprietary and third-party gift card programs. For its proprietary solution, the company partners with Plastic Printers, who will help you design your cards.

For third party programs, Revel integrates with several different companies - including Incentivio, ValuTec, Paytronics, and more - but note that only Revel's proprietary gift cards work with online ordering. No matter which option you choose, you'll need to purchase the cards from the gift card company.

Additionally, you'll need to set up the option to sell gift cards within the Management Console. You can either create pre-set amounts, or allow the customer to choose the amount of the card at the time of the gift card purchase.

To redeem gift cards, you'll simply select "gift card" from the payment methods in the checkout screen.

Revel gift card redemption

You can also accept partial payment by gift card. If the customer wants to use a specific amount from the card, you can simply enter that amount before tapping "gift card." If the customer wants to use the full balance, it will automatically apply the entire amount to the balance when you tap "gift card" as the payment method.

If the amount available on the gift card exceeds the current bill, the balance due will drop to zero and the customer can use the card again at their next visit. If the bill is greater than the amount available on the gift card, the gift card amount will be deducted from the bill and the customer can choose another payment method to pay the balance.

Gift cards can be reloaded and reused.

Loyalty Program

LoyaltyXT, Revel's customizable loyalty program, allows you to send personalized messages to customers and incentivize repeat business. You can add new members from your POS system or from a dedicated web portal, which will also allow them the option to track their earned points. If you'd like, you can choose to offer new members a welcome gift as an incentive to join the loyalty program.

Reporting

Revel provides you with reports on customer behavior, employee performance, best and worst selling items, and more. You can access this data in real time.

In addition to the basic sales and labor reports, you can drill down to get more detailed information, including a report on returns/exchanges, ingredient-level inventory, reports of discounts or price adjustments, payment summaries, gift card reports, and more.

Revel reports

Reports offer the ability to filter by variables such as employee, order type, and payment status.

Revel Pricing for Credit Card Processing

Revel’s website doesn’t publish credit card processing costs, because it’s not a credit card processor.

Fortunately, Revel works with multiple credit card processors, so you’ll have options when looking for processing. Want to know exactly what you’ll pay for credit card processing? Use this no-obligation quote request tool to see pricing from the processors that support Revel.

The fees for credit card processing are in addition to the POS software and the hardware and accessories you may need to purchase.

Revel Systems Pricing

While Revel doesn't publish all costs on its website, the company does provide some starting points to help you decide what's in your budget.

The POS system software starts at $99/month per terminal, in addition to the cost of hardware (iPads, registers, etc.) you may need to purchase. However, there is a 2-terminal requirement for this rate, so the minimum would be $198/month for the two terminals. Additionally, that rate requires annual billing on a 3-year contract.

Credit card processing rates are in addition to this monthly fee, but are not specified. Revel offers its own processing, called Revel Advantage, but states only that it offers a "transparent, flat fee." You can read more about flat rate credit card processing and if it's right for you in our article on flat rate credit card processing.

If you'd prefer to use a different processor, that's an option. In that case, your processor will set the rates for accepting cards. You can get a quote for credit card processing using Revel POS systems for free in minutes by signing up here at CardFellow.

Have you used this solution at your business? Leave a Revel systems review!

Product Features

Universal

POS Systems

  • Mobile device management
  • Tableside Ordering
  • Tableside Payment Processing
  • Patron Online Food Ordering
  • Gift cards and customer loyalty tracking
  • Marketing metrics
  • Inventory management
  • Sales reports
  • Employee tracking & management
  • Payroll metrics
  • Quickbooks data export
  • PayPal acceptance
  • Integrated CRM (customer relationship management)
  • Windows-based system

  • iPad-Based System
  • Android-Based System
  • Bar Code Scanners
  • Card Readers
  • Cash Drawers
  • Receipt Printers
  • Customer Displays
  • Kitchen Printers & Monitors
  • Checkout Scales
  • Portable Receipt Printers

Revel POS Q&A


Revel POS Reviews ( 17)

Do you know this product? Write a review about it
from Business Owner, on Mar 04, 2023

The product doesn’t work. They pressure you into contracts then you discover it’s horrible functionality. The card reader randomly goes out in the middle of serving customers, customers can not pay invoices online-they have to walk into the store or you have to take a credit card over the phone, random charges with no receipt, sales are not reported in real time, 7 steps to close out an order, horrible customer service, 3rd party delivery doesn’t integrate properly, lost thousands in sales, worst business decision anyone could ever make. Loyalty customers won’t transfer and no one wants to sign up for the loyalty app because it is too many steps. The Revel insights app never has the correct sales so it is totally useless! Do not waste your money. After you sign a contract they refuse to let you out even though they will never be able to serve you well.

from Paul F, on Jan 17, 2021

One of the biggest mistakes I ever made in business. Wish I could give negative stars>

from mr pizza, on Jun 10, 2020

I would give it zero start, if I could.

from Julie, on Feb 14, 2019

Flexible in many things and inflexible in many things...Great reports. Complex set up and functionality. Can't edit the amount of safe drop, can't delete it, does not log nightly deposits, so it does a lot of things but does not do the simple things that managers need. Should've stayed with Square.

from Aaron Morrill, on Jan 22, 2019

Revel almost brought our pizzeria to a standstill. Countless hours on the phone with support, hours of tinkering, new hardware -- nothing could make the system work right. Worst of all, management didn't care at all. I've NEVER dealt with a company with less concern for its customers. After 18 months with the system, I ripped it out and went to Toast, which is solid as a rock.

from Michael, on Jun 29, 2018

They provide garbage hardware with very short warranty periods. Come on...a credit card machine that's designed to fail after 1 year with light use? And then you force merchants to pay $419 for another one? Big time scam. We do not recommend Revel and are switching to another brand immediately once the contract is up.

from Art, on Jan 10, 2018

Currently filing a class action lawsuit against REVEL due to many problems with the software. If you are a user of this program, make sure to check on your sales taxes, complete data and make sure your accountant reviews your reports. This software has caused nothing but headaches to my department and the company I work for. 100% against it!!!

from Jeffrey C. Livingston, on Nov 29, 2017

System works good for our store. Customer service is good.

from Julie Arellano, on Nov 28, 2017

We have used Revel POS for a couple of years and have been pleased with the customer service we have received with any issues or kinks with the system. The Revel team is great with follow through and making sure we get all issues resolved in a timely manner. It is easy to train new employees and support is always there to help is learn new features.

from Timothy Harris, on Oct 12, 2017

As a business owner please do your due diligence and run from this company. After calling to stop the recurring billing from Revel and receiving a ticket 1245556, which stated it was being sent to billing department for cancellation. Revel continued to bill until I contacted them a second time. Their excuse of needing to speak to someone in client relations (Brian L.) first before they would cancel the service. No indication when the 1st request to cancel (Spoke with Agne) was made that I had to call or speak to anyone else. They go on and on about company policy and how I don't see it their way. Someone calls to cancel a service, as a responsible business you cancel it, you don't leave the account open and continue to bill. If I say "cancel", I don't need a sales guy calling from customer relations to offer incentives or to gather facts about his product or why am I leaving. Stop wasting customer's time having them speak to multiple people just to have your company unjustly and perpetually remunerate itself month after month. CAVEAT EMPTOR.

from Lauren Porter, on Sep 12, 2017

Terrible! Revel charged us 4,000.00 in initial set up cost yet never came and installed their product. None of their payment processors were compatible with our type of business. Immediately started charging us 417.00 a month per location.That was back in June, it is now mid September we still do not have services. Revel refuses to refund any of our money even though we still do not have services and will not allow us to cancel without paying 3,000.00 in cancellation fees. I would not even give them 1 Star.

from John Brown, on Aug 16, 2017

See the reviews below. They are all telling the TRUTH about REVEL. I cannot say enough BAD things about this company and how they do business. Whoever is rating this a #1 system is definitely getting paid by REVEL. The entire package from this company is terrible. You will be making a BIG mistake for your business if you use them for your POS. Not only that, YOU will regret ever having bough this system as you will want to kill yourself after having dealt with them and their runaround tactics. DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE BUYING REVEL!!!

from Jason, on Jul 13, 2017

Their system is by far not number 1, it's for sure a 1 star rating! Between sales reps that lie, a company who says sorry our pos system doesn't work, but pay your monthly bills to us, sorry we don't give credits for our mistakes. The issues with the system are so many we don't know where to start! How about deleting recipes and we have to fill them back in and Revel deletes again and again and it sits in their tier 2 support and nothing happens. How about not laying out your ticket options correctly! We can go on and on, there are better systems out there, oh and Intuit doesn't even push Revel anymore because of problems like this!

from Ed Cowdrey, on Mar 04, 2017

My experience with Revel started bad and got worse. They were quick to sell me on all the bells and whistles, but when it came time to actually make things work, it would take days to get a reply. Then the little added fees started showing up that were not disclosed. You want to use your own iPad (with costs 50% of what they charge)...well that is just crazy talk. You want to integrate to your website...doesn't matter what the sales person said, pay some more money. Want to use you own CC processing...sure thing, just pay some more fees. I would not give them even one star unless I had to. Oh, and when I decided I had had enough and quit, they screwed me for unused training fees and an extra month of service.

from Stuart Amoriell, on Jan 15, 2017

I love the functionality of the product, but the concern I had when considering the purchase was related to connectivity issues. In short, would there be occasions when one of the iPads lost connectivity briefly, causing orders to be lost? Well...I was right to be concerned. We have had ongoing issues with lost tickets that don't make it to the kitchen in a timely manner, sales reports not matching actual sales, and overall downtime with server stations when it can't connect. I was reviewing Lavu at the same time, which has a hard-wired option, and should have gone with that. I went with Revel because they promised it would not be an issue and I preferred the Revel functionality.

from Frederic henry, on Oct 22, 2016

Revel is an awful system that is very difficult to operate in a food business and very complicated to program. When programming, you never have a global vision of the products with the various modifiers applicable to each product. When using, tickets get lost easily if servers don't precisely follow the useless sequences of buttons to push and there is no way to even know what ticket was lost until your customer realizes his food is not coming. Among other issues...

from CardFellow, on Apr 14, 2016

Revel is a tablet-based point of sale system, so you can use it in one location with stands or keep it portable to carry around your store or restaurant. It also has tons of features, so you can be sure that it'll do what you need it to do.

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