For most stores and restaurants, the weeks between now and the new year decide the year. They are also the weeks when a frozen register, a dropped internet connection or a locked-out manager costs the most.
A little preparation now is far cheaper than a lost Saturday in December. Here is a practical checklist.
The short version
- Finish updates and changes early, then leave things alone during peak weeks.
- Have a backup internet connection and know how your card terminals behave offline.
- Set up seasonal staff with their own logins, and warn everyone about holiday scams.
Two to three weeks before the rush
- Update early. Install pending updates on the point-of-sale system, back-office computers, routers and card terminals now, while there is time to fix anything that goes wrong.
- Then stop changing things. Agree on a date after which nothing gets updated, replaced or reconfigured until the rush is over, except for emergencies.
- Test your internet backup. If you have a second connection or a cellular backup, unplug the main line for a few minutes and confirm the registers keep working. If you do not have one, this is the year to add it.
- Check offline mode. Find out what your card terminals do when the connection drops, and make sure managers know the steps.
- Have spares on hand. A spare receipt printer, scanner, card reader and the right cables can save a lane.
- Check the Wi-Fi. Guest Wi-Fi should be separate from the network your registers use, and it should hold up when the store is full. A quick review of your network setup covers both.
- Confirm your backups. Sales data, inventory, menus and pricing should be backed up, and you should know how long a restore takes.
Seasonal staff
- Give every seasonal employee their own login. No shared manager codes.
- Limit what those logins can do to what the job needs.
- Put an end date on each account, and remove them when the season ends.
- Spend ten minutes on the basics: do not plug personal devices into store equipment, and tell a manager about anything odd.
Scams that peak this time of year
- The gift card call. Someone claiming to be from corporate, IT or the card processor calls the store and tells an employee to activate or read out gift cards. No legitimate caller asks for this.
- Fake shipping and invoice emails. Messages about a delayed delivery or an unpaid invoice with a link or attachment.
- The fake support call. A caller says the point-of-sale system needs an urgent update and asks for remote access.
- Card skimmers. Check terminals and self-checkout readers for anything loose, added or tampered with at opening and closing.
The rule for all of them is the same: hang up, and call back on a number you already have.
Know who to call
Print a one-page contact sheet for each location: your IT support, your point-of-sale vendor, your internet provider and your payment processor, with account numbers and after-hours lines. Tape it by the manager’s desk. When the registers are down, nobody wants to search an inbox for a phone number.
Xceltek supports retail and hospitality businesses with managed IT and live support around the clock, including the busiest days of the year.
Want a second set of eyes before the rush?
We can review your point of sale, network and backups and flag anything worth fixing now.
Common questions
What is the most common cause of holiday downtime?
Often it is something ordinary: an internet outage, a last-minute update, or a single piece of hardware failing with no spare. All three can be planned for.
Should we update our point-of-sale system during the holidays?
Do it before the rush, not during. The exception is an urgent security fix, which your vendor or IT provider should help you schedule for a quiet hour.
Do we need a backup internet connection?
If your registers or card terminals depend on the internet, a second connection is one of the least expensive ways to protect your busiest days.
