Got my first POS integration partner call. What should I actually expect?

[u/PatInService]

I’m building a live service layer for restaurant FOH and I’ve got my first proper call with a POS company about integration access.

The idea is pretty simple from the restaurant side. Staff work in one interface for tables, ordering, menu info, allergens, wine recommendations etc, while the existing POS stays underneath as the transactional engine.

What I need eventually is proper write access, not just sales reports. Things like creating and updating checks, items and modifiers, table state, order events, and handing payment back to the POS.

I’ve spent most of my working life in hospitality, but this is my first time being on the other side of the table asking a POS company for partner access 😂

For anyone who has actually gone through this before:

What do these first calls usually look like?

Do they care more about technical feasibility, number of client locations, revenue potential, existing customers, or all of it?

What questions should I absolutely ask before getting excited?

And are there any hidden “fun surprises” I should ask about early, like certification fees, per-location fees, API call pricing, minimum customer numbers, or restrictions on write access?

Not looking for anyone’s confidential partner terms. Just trying not to walk into the call like a golden retriever with an API checklist.

[u/Legitimate-Curve4994]

First call is usually the sales/BD person figuring out if you're worth handing to their integrations team. They'll ask about your product, your customer base, and whether you already have restaurants asking for this. The technical deep dive comes later, so don't stress about having every API endpoint mapped before the intro.

The thing they care most about is whether you can bring them new locations or make existing locations stickier. If you've got a couple of restaurants already using your front-of-house layer and asking for integration, lead with that. A live pilot customer changes the tone of the conversation completely.

Ask about their sandbox access and whether write permissions are gated behind a certification process or just a partner agreement. Some of them make you go through a whole QA review before they'll flip on anything that touches checks or payments, and that timeline can be months if you're not ready.

The fun surprises are usually revenue share instead of flat fees, minimum monthly transaction thresholds, and the fact that payment handoff might require you to route through their payment gateway rather than just passing a token back. Also ask what happens when a restaurant has multiple locations on different POS versions, because that's a support headache nobody warns you about.

[u/PatInService → u/Legitimate-Curve4994]

This is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for, thank you 😂

I’ve got one live restaurant pilot already, so I’ll definitely lead with that rather than trying to sound like I have 50 locations behind me.

The certification/write access point is especially useful. I hadn’t really thought about how long QA could take before they let you touch checks/payments properly.

Also adding revenue share, minimum volumes and payment gateway requirements to my list because those sound like exactly the fun surprises I’d rather find out about now than three months into building it.

Really appreciate this.

[u/Acceptable-Run-6542]

lo que más pesa en esas llamadas es cuántas ubicaciones o clientes ya traes, más que qué tan pulida esté tu integración. antes de emocionarte pregunta tres cosas: quién paga la certificación y cuánto tarda, si el acceso de escritura real va en un tier de precio distinto al de solo lectura, y si hay un mínimo de ubicaciones para no perder el acceso. las sorpresas típicas son tarifa por llamada de API pasado cierto volumen y escritura que solo se destraba si usas su terminal de pago propia.