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SkyTab, Square and Pecan, installed and supported across Illinois. Two things make this state’s choice different: disclosure has to work across every channel, and a system bought today should still be right in 2027.
Illinois asks something of a POS that most states do not. Surcharge disclosure has to appear across in-person, online and phone orders alike, which means a stack where online ordering lives on a separate platform is a compliance problem before it is an operational one.
The second consideration is dated. The Interchange Fee Prohibition Act takes effect on 1 July 2027 and, if it survives appeal and federal preemption, will let merchants avoid interchange on the tax and gratuity portions of a sale. Claiming that requires transmitting tax and gratuity as separate data fields to the acquirer. That is a POS capability, and a system bought in 2026 will still be in service when the date arrives.
Beyond that, the usual questions apply: how many locations, what service style, and how much of your volume comes through third-party delivery, which in Chicago is often more than an operator expects.
Quick guide
An all-in-one restaurant platform with purpose-built hardware and a lifetime warranty. Runs online ordering and in-room service on one system rather than two.
One system covering the counter and the web checkout is exactly what the Illinois all-channel disclosure rule asks for.
A flexible platform with industry-specific modes for quick service, full service, retail and appointments. Fastest to deploy of the three.
Straightforward for suburban retail and counter service, with disclosure settings that carry through to the online checkout.
An open platform built for independent restaurants: fine dining, quick service, bars, cafes and pizzerias. Processing stays flexible rather than tied to the platform.
Open processing and the field-level control that the 2027 tax and gratuity rule is going to require.
Less about weather here and more about physical constraints and channel count. Chicago rooms are frequently tighter than the systems sold into them assume.
Illinois specifics
Survey
The room, the network, the channel mix and how much volume comes through delivery. The channel map is the Illinois-specific part.
Build
Menu, modifiers, tax rates for your exact address, printer routing, permissions, and disclosure configured across in-person, online and phone.
Install and train
Hardware in, staff trained on the floor including whoever answers the phone, and we stay through a live service.
First close
Tax totals, tips, delivery reconciliation and settlement, checked together. Chicago's combined rate makes tax configuration errors expensive quickly.
Illinois replacements carry one extra step: the disclosure setup has to move with you, in every channel, on day one rather than in the following week.
How we de-risk it
Any of the three can, but it is much easier when in-room service and online ordering are the same system. SkyTab is the most straightforward for that. If your online ordering runs on a separate platform, disclosure has to be configured and maintained in both, and that is where the gaps appear.
That depends on whether it can transmit tax and gratuity as separate data fields to the acquirer. Many older systems cannot. If you are buying this year, specify it now, because retrofitting the capability later is considerably harder than asking for it up front.
Yes, and in Chicago it usually pays for itself. A wall of unintegrated tablets costs labour and generates order errors, both of which are easy to underestimate until you measure them.
With Pecan, yes, because it is open. SkyTab and Square bundle processing with the platform. If your processor relationship is the fixed point, that decides the platform.
Yes. Chicago and the collar counties are the largest share of the work, and we also install in Rockford, Peoria, Springfield, Champaign and the Quad Cities.
Send us your last three statements and we will show you what this looks like for your Illinois business before you commit to anything.
