Idealpos is a Brisbane built till that has been running in Australian retail and hospitality for a very long time, and reliability is the reason owners stay on it. This page compares it with Allvio across 43 capabilities. Idealpos includes 12 of them outright, does part of the job on 1, has 2 that cost extra as paid modules, delivers 4 through a named ordering integration rather than its own software, answers no on 1, and 23 are not what the product is for. That last figure needs one honest sentence and then no more: Idealpos is a till, it does not claim to be a marketing suite or a rostering system, and marking it down for that would be unfair.
As a till, it is thorough and well documented
The register side is where Idealpos has earned its reputation, and their own user guide shows the depth. Counter and table service, cash and card with split and part payments, kitchen screens and dockets, stock counts with low stock alerts, gift cards, refunds with dedicated void handling both during and after a sale, and cash up at end of day are all included. Discounts run three ways: automatic price changes at a set date and time, promotions with a chosen discount type, and price levels. QR ordering at the table is included. Sales and end of day reporting is a yes, and so is reporting on your phone, where Allvio only does part of the job because ours runs in a phone browser rather than a native app. Sales are tracked against a customer with the detail of each sale kept in their journal history.
Capability | Idealpos | Allvio |
|---|---|---|
Selling and taking payment | ||
Touchscreen till for counter and table service | Yes | Yes |
Card, cash, split and part payments | Yes | Yes |
Table plan and open tabs | Costs extra, a paid module | Yes |
Kitchen screens or dockets | Yes | Yes |
Stock counts and low stock alerts | Yes | Part of it, no stocktake at the register yet |
Discounts, happy hour and price levels | Yes | Yes |
Gift cards | Yes | Yes |
Refunds, voids and exchanges | Yes | Yes |
Cash up and end of day | Yes | Yes |
Online ordering | ||
QR ordering at the table | Yes | Yes |
Pickup and takeaway from your own site | No | Yes |
Menu built and changed in one place | Another product, menu in the ordering platform | Yes |
Modifiers, sizes and dietary flags | Part of it, a modifier button at the till | Part of it, no nested modifiers yet |
Online payment and split bills | Another product, through the ordering platform | Part of it, no online bill splitting yet |
Upsells and promo codes | Another product, online codes in the platform | Part of it, no automatic upsell prompts yet |
Orders land straight in the kitchen | Another product, through the ordering platform | Yes |
Bookings and reservations | ||
Booking diary | Not what it does | Yes |
Floor plan and table assignment | Not what it does | Part of it, no floor plan designer yet |
Bookings from your own website | Not what it does | Yes |
Deposits and no show protection | Not what it does | Part of it, deposits yes, no automatic fees |
Waitlist and walk ins | Not what it does | Yes |
Confirmations and reminders to guests | Not what it does | Yes |
Ticketed events and set menus | Not what it does | Part of it, set menus yes, no ticket tiers |
Availability rules and trading hours | Not what it does | Yes |
Knowing your customers | ||
One customer record | Not what it does | Yes |
Visit and spend history | Yes, sales tracked per customer | Yes |
Notes, preferences and allergies | Not what it does | Yes |
Segments such as regulars and lapsed | Not what it does | Yes |
Loyalty and rewards | Costs extra, a paid module | Yes |
Marketing | ||
Email campaigns | Not what it does | Yes |
SMS campaigns | Not what it does | Not yet live |
Automated messages such as birthday and win back | Not what it does | Yes |
Campaign results tied back to spend | Not what it does | Yes |
Your team | ||
Rostering | Not what it does | Yes |
Clock in and out | Not what it does | Yes |
Timesheets ready for pay | Not what it does | Yes |
Leave and availability | Not what it does | Yes |
Staff app on their own phone | Not what it does | Part of it, phone browser, no native app |
Back office | ||
Invoices and quotes | Not what it does | Yes |
Payroll and payslips | Not what it does | Yes |
GST and BAS figures | Not what it does | Yes |
Seeing how you are doing | ||
Sales and end of day reporting | Yes | Yes |
Reporting on your phone | Yes | Part of it, browser on a phone, no native app |
The rows that will settle it either way
Your own ordering page. Idealpos has no ordering site of its own. Pickup and takeaway from your own site is a no, and the menu, online payment, online promo codes and orders reaching the kitchen automatically all come through a named integration such as Mobi2Go, Mr Yum, Tyro Connect, Doshii or Local Serves. The integrations are properly documented and they work. They are still somebody else's product, with their own contract, their own setup and, on most of them, their own cut of every order. And because the online menu lives over there, a Tuesday price rise is typed twice.
The table plan. Tables and open tabs are a paid module rather than part of the base till. For a cafe with eight tables that is a small line. For a bistro it is the thing you cannot run service without, so price it in from the start rather than discovering it later.
Loyalty. Also a paid module. Visit and spend history is included, which is the useful half, but points, rewards and anything you would call a loyalty program is above the base price. There are no email or SMS campaigns to act on it either way, so the regular who has spent four thousand dollars with you never hears from the system.
Bookings, guest records and your team. Twenty of the 23 out of scope rows sit here. No booking diary, no booking page, no deposits, no guest confirmations, no one customer record with notes and allergies, no segments, no rostering, clock in and out, timesheets or leave. Every one of those is work you or somebody else does in another system, and the joins between them are your job on a Sunday night.
Where the numbers come from
One row per capability, judged only against what Idealpos publishes. Twenty three rows of not what it does mean Idealpos is narrower than an all in one, not worse at what it does, and a till this well documented is a reasonable thing to want. The question is who buys, runs and pays for the other twenty three. As you read, keep the three kinds of gap separate. Part of it means Idealpos does some of the job and it is already in what you pay. Costs extra means a paid module on top, and there are 2 of those. Another product means a separate signup and setup, and there are 4.
Allvio Complete is $399 per month ex GST for one location and $299 per month for each extra location, with every app switched on, no per user charge, and invoicing, pay runs and BAS figures in the same subscription. Build your own starts at $20 per month per app. The trial is 30 days and takes no card. Hardware is sold outright: $1,499 ex GST for the single station, $1,869 retail, $2,499 restaurant.
Who should still buy Idealpos
A bottle shop, newsagent, bakery or busy counter service cafe that wants a dependable Australian till from a company that has supported them for years, and that does not take bookings or run campaigns, will be well served. Their documentation is better than most and the modular approach means you are not paying for parts you never open. If your week includes reservations, guest notes, rosters and an ordering page you would rather own than rent, count the modules and the integrations before you compare anything else.
Every cell above comes from each vendor's own published material, checked in August 2026. Products change constantly: always confirm current capability directly with each vendor before deciding.