Impos FrontOffice POS — bank compatibility

Impos FrontOffice is a point-of-sale system for government and hospitality, built by Impos. Started in the Melbourne nightclub scene in 2005, now in 3,000-odd venues and owned by Canadian acquirer Jonas Software.

Certified on mx51, which is the engine behind several banks’ own terminal offerings rather than something a merchant buys by name.

The integration covers pay at table, tipping, phone and mail order and surcharging.

The mx51 integration uses SPI .NET or Spice and was last certified in May 2022, on Windows. mx51 holds 2 separate certified builds for it, so what works depends which one you are on.

Impos was started by Sean O'Meara in October 2005, and the first market was nightclubs — which is a good explanation for how the product behaves under pressure. It grew into one of the bigger Australian hospitality POS names, with offices in every mainland capital plus Hobart. By the time it sold it was in more than 2,700 venues across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands; it now claims over 3,000. It also claims 23 of Australia's Top 100 Restaurants and half the country's award-winning bars.

In November 2019 Jonas Software acquired Impos Solutions International. Jonas is a subsidiary of Constellation Software, the Toronto-listed group that buys vertical-market software companies and holds them indefinitely rather than flipping them. O'Meara stayed on and said the Jonas deal would mean "an increased focus on product and development." Jonas Software Australia's CEO Jeff McKee framed it as adding to a growing Australian portfolio — and it has kept growing since.

Most Impos merchants have no idea their vendor is Canadian-owned. It is not necessarily bad news — Constellation companies tend to be stable and well supported rather than pivoting every two years — but it does mean pricing and roadmap decisions sit a long way from Melbourne. Worth knowing when you are negotiating.

Impos also has ImPOS.