25 Questions to Ask in an Event POS RFP
Choosing a point-of-sale system for a festival or temporary event is different from choosing one for a restaurant or retail store.
Your operation may exist for three days and then disappear. Hundreds of devices could be deployed across bars, food vendors, merchandise locations and VIP areas. Staff may be learning the system hours before gates open. Internet connectivity may be temporary. Vendors may need individual reporting and settlement. And your busiest hour of the entire year might happen Saturday night while 50,000 people are onsite.
That means a traditional POS feature checklist doesn't tell you nearly enough.
An event POS RFP should help you understand not only what the system can do, but what happens when you actually put it into the field.
These 25 questions are designed for festival operators and organizers of temporary events such as golf tournaments, races, fairs and other large-scale live events.
They can also be copied directly into your next POS RFP.
1. How much experience do you have supporting festivals and temporary events similar to ours?
Why it matters: Event POS is its own operating environment. Ask for examples comparable to your event in attendance, number of locations, transaction volume, event duration and operational complexity.
A provider supporting a permanent venue every night may be very good at what they do, but that doesn't necessarily mean they've managed hundreds of temporary devices, vendors and workers across a festival site.
Ask for specifics—not simply a list of customer logos.
2. What is the largest temporary event deployment you have successfully supported?
Ask the provider to describe the deployment in terms of:
Number of POS devices
Number of vendors and operating locations
Event attendance
Transaction volume
Number of event days
Payment methods used
Level of onsite support
Why it matters: Scale on a sales presentation and scale in the field aren't always the same thing.
You want to understand what the provider has actually operated.
3. What are all of the costs associated with using your system?
Ask bidders to provide the complete cost structure, including:
Payment processing rates
Per-transaction fees
Hardware costs
Software or licensing fees
Setup or implementation fees
Onsite support
Travel
Shipping
Network or connectivity costs
Add-on modules
Minimum commitments
Any other recurring or event-specific fees
Why it matters: Comparing only processing rates rarely provides an accurate comparison of total cost.
Ask every bidder to price the same event assumptions so you can compare the complete cost of each solution.
4. Can we rent or purchase the POS hardware?
Some organizations want hardware only for the event. Others operate enough events throughout the year that owning equipment may make more sense.
Ask whether the provider offers:
Hardware rental
Hardware purchase
Both options
Replacement and spare equipment
Storage or refresh considerations for owned hardware
Why it matters: The right model depends on how often you operate events, how much equipment you need and whether your organization wants responsibility for owning, storing and maintaining the hardware.
The RFP should allow you to compare the economics of renting versus buying rather than assuming one model works for every event operator.
5. What hardware options are available for different selling environments?
Ask about:
Full-size tablets
Handheld devices
Fixed and mobile configurations
Battery-powered operation
Battery life
Wired-power options
Weather and spill resistance
Durability
Charging requirements
Spare-device strategy
Why it matters: The device that works at a fixed merchandise tent may not be the best device for a high-volume bar, roaming seller, VIP area or line-busting operation.
Your POS hardware should fit the operation—not the other way around.
6. Does the POS continue operating when internet connectivity is lost?
If so, ask:
Where are transactions stored while offline?
How can operators tell that a device is offline?
Can operators see transactions or orders waiting to synchronize?
What happens when connectivity returns?
Does synchronization happen automatically?
Which POS functions, if any, require an active connection?
Why it matters: Temporary-event connectivity isn't the same as the network inside a permanent building.
Even a well-designed event network can experience interruptions. Operators need to understand exactly what happens before that occurs—not discover the answer during peak service.
7. Who is responsible for providing the event's POS network?
Ask whether the POS provider:
Requires the organizer to provide Wi-Fi
Works with the organizer's network provider
Can provide the POS network
Can provide backup connectivity
Has specific bandwidth, access-point or coverage requirements
Why it matters: “The POS needs Wi-Fi” isn't a network plan.
Responsibility for connectivity should be established well before load-in. If the POS provider can supply backup connectivity, understand when and how it would be deployed.
8. How do you determine how many POS devices our event needs?
Ask the provider to explain the methodology.
Device planning should consider more than attendance. It may include:
Number of bars and concessions
Number of checkout lines
Expected sales volume
Peak transaction periods
Vendor count
Merchandise locations
VIP areas
Mobile or roaming sellers
Historical transaction data
Backup equipment
Why it matters: Too few devices create lines and lost selling opportunities. Too many increase costs unnecessarily.
A good deployment plan should be based on the way your event actually operates.
9. How are menus, pricing and locations configured before the event?
Ask who is responsible for:
Building menus
Setting prices
Configuring taxes and fees
Assigning menus to locations
Configuring vendor-specific menus
Making last-minute changes
Pushing updates to devices
Why it matters: Festival menus change.
Sometimes they change before load-in. Sometimes they change an hour before gates.
Sometimes they change during the event.
Understand how quickly those changes can be made and who has permission to make them.
10. How do you onboard and manage independent vendors?
Ask whether the system supports:
Pre-event vendor onboarding
Vendor-specific menus
Vendor-specific hardware assignments
Vendor portals
Vendor-specific reporting
Permission-based access
Why it matters: A festival with 100 food and beverage vendors isn't running one business. It's coordinating 100 independent businesses inside one event.
The POS should make that easier to manage.
11. Does the organizer have a master dashboard across all vendors and locations?
Ask whether event management can see:
Total event sales
Individual vendor sales
Sales by location
Product mix
Transaction activity
Payment results
Clerk or seller activity
Why it matters: Vendors need visibility into their own businesses. The promoter needs visibility into the entire event.
Those two views should be able to coexist.
12. How are vendor payments and settlements handled?
Ask the provider to explain the complete flow from the guest transaction through vendor funding.
Can the system accommodate vendor-level funding?
Can the organizer use a centralized merchant account and settle vendors after the event?
Can settlement account for commissions and other event charges?
Why it matters: Processing the guest transaction is only the beginning.
At events with dozens or hundreds of vendors, settlement can become a significant post-event accounting exercise.
13. Can vendor fees and deductions be incorporated into settlement?
Ask whether settlement can account for items such as:
Revenue-share commissions
Booth fees
Equipment or seller charges
Commissary purchases
Cleanup charges
Damaged equipment
Other event-specific deductions
Why it matters: If every deduction lives in a separate spreadsheet, someone eventually has to reconcile all of those spreadsheets.
The more of that information that can be tied directly to the vendor's event activity, the cleaner the closeout process becomes.
14. What real-time reporting is available while the event is operating?
At minimum, ask about reporting by:
Event
Vendor
Location
Product
Clerk or user
Payment type
Transaction
Also ask how frequently dashboards update.
Why it matters: Reporting shouldn't only tell you what happened after the festival.
The most valuable event data may be the information that helps you make a decision while there is still time to do something about it.
15. Can different users receive different levels of reporting and system access?
Ask whether permissions can be configured separately for:
Promoters
Operations teams
Finance
Vendors
Concessionaires
Managers
Other stakeholders
Why it matters: A vendor should be able to see their own operation without seeing another vendor's financial information.
At the same time, senior event management may need visibility across everything.
16. How can we export and use our data after the event?
Ask about:
CSV or spreadsheet exports
Transaction-level data
Product reporting
Vendor reporting
Settlement reporting
Labor reporting
Payment reporting
Scheduled reports
Why it matters: Your data shouldn't become inaccessible once the event ends.
Make sure finance and operations teams can get the information they need for reconciliation, analysis and future planning.
17. What payment types does the system support?
Depending on your event, that could include:
Credit and debit cards
Mobile wallets
Cash
RFID
QR-based payments
Open-loop cashless
Closed-loop cashless
Stored value, credits or promotional balances
Why it matters: Don't select a payment model simply because a technology provider prefers it.
Start with the guest experience and operating model you want, then determine whether the technology supports it.
18. What RFID and QR cashless capabilities are available?
Ask the provider to explain:
RFID wristband payments
QR payments
Card-linked accounts
Stored-value accounts
Cash top-ups
Balance checking
Refund workflows
Promotional credits
VIP or staff credits
Attendee-level reporting
Why it matters: “Cashless” can mean several very different things.
The RFP should make providers explain exactly how their cashless environment works for both the guest and the operator.
19. Can the POS system also support access control?
Your ticketing provider may already provide scanning and access control, and that may be the right solution for your event.
But ask whether the POS provider can also support:
RFID access control
QR scanning
Entry validation
Multiple access levels
VIP or credentialed areas
Cashless payments using the same RFID or QR credential
Why it matters: Some events prefer separate best-of-breed systems. Others benefit from having access control and cashless payments operating within the same technology environment.
Understand your options before locking in the architecture.
20. What systems can your platform integrate with?
Ask specifically about compatibility or integrations with:
Ticketing systems
RFID and access-control platforms
Payroll and timekeeping software
Payment processing
Age-verification systems
Other event technology important to your operation
Also document the network requirements even though Wi-Fi itself isn't an integration.
Why it matters: Your POS rarely operates completely by itself.
Know what connects natively, what requires custom work and what simply needs to coexist alongside the POS.
21. What additional event-operations tools are available?
Depending on your operation, ask about capabilities such as:
Employee timeclock
Vendor commissary ordering
Order Ahead/mobile ordering
Bar tabs
Vendor management
Settlement tools
Why it matters: You may not need every feature today.
But replacing several disconnected event systems with one operating environment can reduce training, logins, data silos and reconciliation work.
Separate your must-haves from your nice-to-haves so optional features don't distract from the core POS decision.
22. Walk us through your implementation process from contract signing through post-event settlement.
Ask the provider to explain:
Planning
Event configuration
Vendor onboarding
Menu setup
Hardware preparation
Shipping
Load-in
Network testing
Staff and vendor training
Gates open
Live-event support
Strike
Equipment return, if rented
Reporting and settlement
Why it matters: You're not buying a piece of software.
You're deploying a temporary financial and operational infrastructure across a live event.
The implementation process matters just as much as the feature list.
23. What onsite and remote support do you provide before, during and after the event?
Don't settle for “24/7 support.”
Ask:
Will personnel be onsite?
How many?
When do they arrive?
Do they assist with setup?
Do they train vendors and staff?
Who troubleshoots devices during the event?
How do users request help?
What happens outside normal business hours?
Is remote support available in real time?
Who handles strike and equipment return?
Why it matters: The important question isn't whether support exists.
It's whether you can reach someone who can solve the problem when you actually need them.
24. Can you provide references from events comparable to ours?
Ask for references that resemble your event in:
Attendance
Transaction volume
Device count
Vendor count
Event duration
Payment model
Operational complexity
Then talk to those operators. Ask what went well.
More importantly, ask what went wrong and how the POS provider responded.
Why it matters: Every event has problems.
How a technology partner responds to them often tells you more than a polished case study.
25. Walk us through exactly what happens when something goes wrong at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday and our event is at peak volume.
Don't give the provider a specific failure scenario.
Let them answer.
Who notices the problem?
Who gets notified?
Who is onsite?
Who has authority to make a decision?
What can the event team see?
What happens to transactions already in progress?
What happens if connectivity is involved?
How quickly can equipment be replaced?
How does the organizer communicate with support?
What happens after the problem is resolved?
Why it matters: This question gets beyond the feature sheet.
Large live events are controlled environments filled with uncontrolled variables.
Internet connections fail. Equipment gets damaged. Staff make mistakes. Menus change. Power disappears. A bar suddenly gets slammed. A device gets dropped.
Something will eventually happen that wasn't in the plan.
You aren't only selecting a POS platform.
You're selecting the company you want standing beside you when it does.
The Bottom Line
A good event POS RFP shouldn't simply ask which provider has the longest feature list.
It should help you understand how each provider will operate your event.
Can the system handle your scale?
Can it keep operating when connectivity becomes unreliable?
Can you see what's happening while the event is underway?
Can independent vendors operate inside the same environment without losing visibility into their businesses?
Can your team manage hundreds of devices and locations?
Can you get the reporting and settlement information you need afterward?
And when something inevitably doesn't go according to plan, will there be someone who understands live events helping you solve it?
Those are the questions that separate a POS demo from an event operating plan.
25-Question Event POS RFP Checklist
Use these questions directly in your next RFP:
How much experience do you have supporting festivals and temporary events similar to ours?
What is the largest temporary event deployment you have successfully supported?
What are all of the costs associated with using your system?
Can we rent or purchase the POS hardware?
What hardware options are available for different selling environments?
Does the POS continue operating when internet connectivity is lost?
Who is responsible for providing the event's POS network?
How do you determine how many POS devices our event needs?
How are menus, pricing and locations configured before the event?
How do you onboard and manage independent vendors?
Does the organizer have a master dashboard across all vendors and locations?
How are vendor payments and settlements handled?
Can vendor fees and deductions be incorporated into settlement?
What real-time reporting is available while the event is operating?
Can different users receive different levels of reporting and system access?
How can we export and use our data after the event?
What payment types does the system support?
What RFID and QR cashless capabilities are available?
Can the POS system also support access control?
What systems can your platform integrate with?
What additional event-operations tools are available?
Walk us through your implementation process from contract signing through post-event settlement.
What onsite and remote support do you provide before, during and after the event?
Can you provide references from events comparable to ours?
Walk us through exactly what happens when something goes wrong at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday and our event is at peak volume.
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