Business Systems
Managing and improving business-critical operational platforms and the workflows around them.
- Ownership of live operational systems
- Configuration, access and process control
- Turning messy operational reality into a workable system
Samuel Higgins
Financial Systems Analyst — EPOS & Business Systems
Business Systems. Data. Operations.
Financial Systems and EPOS specialist delivering business-critical technology, payments and operational systems in high-volume hospitality and major event environments.
I manage EPOS, payment systems, financial reporting, integrations and operational technology supporting Ascot Racecourse and events including Royal Ascot — from POS estates and payment infrastructure to reporting, stock control and internal tools.
Based in Richmond, UK · Systems · Data · Technology
Capabilities
What I Do
The work sits across operational technology, financial control, data and the tools that connect them.
EPOS & Hospitality Technology
Large-scale POS estates, terminals, tablets, printers, payment devices, kitchen systems and venue technology.
- KAPPTURE estate ownership at event scale
- Temporary and permanent venue deployments
- On-site operational support under trading pressure
Financial Systems
Payment reconciliation, tender analysis, transaction investigation, cost-of-sales analysis and financial reporting.
- FreedomPay, Global Payments, Worldpay and Stripe
- Investigating variances rather than just reporting them
- Finance-ready operational reporting
Data & Reporting
Transforming operational data into reports, dashboards, checks and actionable information.
- Structured extracts from operational systems
- Checks that catch issues before they become surprises
- Reporting designed for operators and finance, not vanity metrics
Automation & Integration
APIs, automated reporting, workflow automation and internal tooling where the standard product falls short.
- API and file-based integrations
- Repeatable reporting pipelines
- Internal tools for operational teams
Operations
Technology supporting high-volume hospitality, racing, events and complex temporary deployments.
- Royal Ascot-scale rollout and recovery
- Outlet, site and estate coordination
- Support processes that hold up on raceday
Scale
Featured experience metrics
Estate and event-scale figures. Sales value is what flows through the systems, not a personal revenue claim.
0+
EPOS Terminals
0
Outlets
0
Operational Sites
£60m+
Annual Sales Value Processed
0k+
Peak Event Transactions
0+
Deployment / Installation Checks
Selected figures represent the scale of the estate and event operations supported, including Royal Ascot. Sales value is throughput through the systems, not a personal revenue figure.
Experience
Professional timeline
EPOS and financial systems at Ascot, then earlier operational and systems roles in visitor attraction and hospitality.
Organisation
Sodexo Live! / 1711 by Ascot — Ascot Racecourse
Location
Ascot, Berkshire
Industry
Hospitality / Events / Racecourse Operations
Responsible for the management, development and operational delivery of EPOS, payment and associated financial systems supporting hospitality and retail operations across Ascot Racecourse. The link between Finance, Operations, IT, suppliers and frontline teams.
Responsibilities
- Own configuration, administration and operational delivery of the KAPPTURE EPOS estate — terminals, outlets, menus, pricing, sessions, users, stock locations and workflows
- Manage EPOS deployment and readiness for major events including Royal Ascot, scaling to approximately 750 terminals across 180 outlets and 35 operational sites
- Coordinate EPOS support teams alongside KAPPTURE engineers and third-party technology suppliers during major events
- Manage integrated and standalone payment solutions including FreedomPay, Global Payments, Worldpay and Stripe
- Support financial reconciliation between EPOS sales, payment providers, settlement reports and operational reporting
- Analyse discrepancies across sales, tenders, settlements, stock and payment data
- Develop automated reporting and internal tools using APIs, SQL, C#, Excel and databases
- Design and maintain reporting covering revenue, payment reconciliation, stock, forecasting and event performance
- Translate operational requirements from hospitality, retail, cellar, finance and event teams into practical system solutions
- Develop SOPs, training materials and technical documentation; provide technical escalation for EPOS, payments, printers, tablets, kiosks and kitchen systems
Selected results
- Led EPOS delivery across multiple Royal Ascot events in a permanent senior capacity
- Delivered and supported an EPOS estate of approximately 752 devices during Royal Ascot, across around 180 outlets and 35 sites, with peak event volumes of 300k+ transactions
- Coordinated an EPOS delivery team of approximately 10 internal staff plus 6+ external KAPPTURE engineers during major operational periods
- Developed automated reporting using the KAPPTURE API, databases and custom applications, reducing reliance on manual report preparation
- Built financial reconciliation processes combining EPOS and payment-provider data to isolate tender and settlement discrepancies
- Created a central EPOS training and operational knowledge platform covering tills, payments, stock, kiosks, kitchen systems and troubleshooting
- Introduced digital operational checklists and tracking for installation, testing and issue management
- Supported NFC-based digital voucher and staff entitlement systems, replacing elements of paper-based processes
- Improved stock depletion, verification and reconciliation between operational and financial systems
- Supported technology delivery for major hospitality operations including PGA Wentworth and the Royal Windsor Horse Show
Organisation
LEGOLAND Windsor Resort
Location
Windsor, Berkshire
Industry
Visitor Attraction / Hospitality
Managed high-volume food, beverage and concession operations across approximately 32 outlets, with teams exceeding 100 employees during peak periods.
Responsibilities
- Managed day-to-day operations across multiple food and beverage outlets
- Led and developed large operational teams in a fast-paced visitor attraction
- Managed staffing levels, rotas, labour allocation and deployment
- Monitored revenue, budgets, forecasts, KPIs and labour expenditure
- Managed ordering, stock control and operational availability
- Reviewed menu pricing, product costing and commercial performance
- Managed outlet standards, health & safety and operational compliance
- Supported recruitment, training and employee relations
- Implemented profit-protection controls and investigated operational discrepancies
- Balanced commercial performance with guest experience and operational efficiency
Selected results
- Ran multi-outlet F&B operations at visitor-attraction scale (approximately 32 outlets)
- Led teams of 100+ during peak operational periods
- Held commercial accountability for labour, stock, pricing and profit protection alongside guest experience
Organisation
The Prince Albert
Location
Windsor, Berkshire
Industry
Pub / Restaurant / Hotel
Broad operational and systems role across a combined pub, restaurant and hotel — day-to-day hospitality management plus the technology and financial systems underneath the business.
Responsibilities
- Supported day-to-day operation of the hotel, restaurant and bar
- Managed business systems including booking platforms, hotel systems, website administration and operational software
- Administered systems including OpenTable and QuickBooks
- Managed financial reconciliation, cash controls and operational reporting
- Managed staff rotas, labour deployment and operational requirements
- Supported budgeting, purchasing and cost controls
- Managed health & safety, compliance and operational procedures
- Supported payroll-related processes and staff tips administration
- Introduced systems and processes to improve operational efficiency
- Worked hands-on across front-of-house and back-office operations
Selected results
- Combined operational management with ownership of booking, finance and web systems
- Ran reconciliation, cash controls and discrepancy investigation in a live hospitality business
- Introduced process and system changes aimed at reducing friction rather than adding administration
Work
Projects
Problem, solution and impact first. Professional work is sanitised; personal projects are labelled separately.
ProfessionalEPOSOperations
Large-Scale EPOS Deployment
Planning, configuring and supporting KAPPTURE EPOS estates for major events including Royal Ascot — hundreds of terminals across hospitality, retail, bars, boxes and cellar operations.
- Problem
- Stand up a reliable, supportable POS estate across many sites and outlets, on a fixed operational deadline, without losing track of devices, readiness or issues.
- Solution
- Treated the rollout as an operational system: KAPPTURE configuration standards, installation tracking, site readiness, payment device pairing and a support process that could absorb raceday volume — coordinating internal staff and KAPPTURE engineers.
- Impact
- Estate visibility across sites, outlets and terminals
- Systems / technology
- KAPPTURE terminalsPrintersFreedomPay / Global Payments / WorldpayMPOS / tabletsKDS / kiosks
752+
Terminals
180
Outlets
35
Sites
300k+
Peak event transactions
ProfessionalFinanceData
Financial Reconciliation & Payment Analysis
Reconciling EPOS tender reporting against card settlement and standalone payment sources, then investigating the variances that remain.
- Problem
- Payment data arrives from more than one place. EPOS tenders, integrated settlement, standalone terminals and digital sources do not automatically agree — and finance still needs a defensible view of what traded.
- Solution
- Built a repeatable reconciliation view: source-level comparison, variance isolation, and transaction investigation where the numbers do not meet.
- Impact
- Clearer view of integrated vs standalone vs digital tenders
- Systems / technology
- KAPPTURE tender reportingFreedomPayGlobal PaymentsWorldpayStripe
Multiple
Payment sources
Illustrative
Figures in examples
ProfessionalOperations
Stock & Inventory Process Improvement
Improving KAPPTURE / K-Stock processes around counts, depletion locations, PAR levels, transfers, verification and reconciliation between physical operations and financial records.
- Problem
- Stock figures were hard to trust: outlet vs cellar, transfers, depletion locations and event-time movement created discrepancies that were expensive to unwind after the fact.
- Solution
- Reviewed the system and the process together — counts, PAR, transfers, verification and reporting — so discrepancies had a place to land and a reason attached.
- Impact
- Clearer ownership of outlet vs cellar stock
- Systems / technology
- K-StockOutlet stockCellar stockDepletion locationsStock verification
ProfessionalAutomationData
Automated Reporting Platform
A pipeline that retrieves operational reports, stores structured information, calculates performance and distributes reporting to stakeholders.
- Problem
- Operational reports were being pulled, cleaned and forwarded by hand. The result was slow, easy to drift, and difficult to repeat with the same definitions.
- Solution
- Built a pipeline: source → processing → database → analysis → report → stakeholders. Retrieval, structuring and distribution became a system rather than a ritual.
- Impact
- Repeatable reporting with stable definitions
- Systems / technology
- KAPPTURE reportingSQL databasesStakeholder distribution
ProfessionalSoftwareOperations
EPOS Stock Verification Tool
Internal web application that turns stock-controller submissions into classified, trackable work instead of inbox attachments.
- Problem
- Stock verification reports arrived as unstructured submissions. Matching outlets, reading product variances and knowing what was still outstanding required manual effort every cycle.
- Solution
- A web workflow: paste the report, extract the outlet, match it, analyse product variances, classify the submission, and track completed vs outstanding work with exportable results.
- Impact
- Submissions classified instead of parked in email
- Systems / technology
- Stock verification reportsOutlet matchingReview queue
ProfessionalOperationsSoftware
EPOS Training & Knowledge Platform
A structured online knowledge base for tills, payments, stock, kiosks, kitchen systems and troubleshooting — written for people who have to run the estate, not only configure it.
- Problem
- Event and venue teams needed consistent guidance for KAPPTURE, payments, stock and kitchen systems. Knowledge lived in people, inboxes and one-off walkthroughs, which does not survive a 750-device raceday.
- Solution
- Built and maintain a central training and operational knowledge platform covering procedures, device types, stock, kiosks, kitchen systems and troubleshooting, alongside SOPs used by operational and management teams.
- Impact
- A single place for operational guidance instead of tribal knowledge
- Systems / technology
- KAPPTURE tillsPayment devicesK-StockKiosksKitchen systems
ProfessionalOperationsEPOS
Digital Voucher & Entitlement Systems
Support for NFC-based digital voucher and staff entitlement systems used in major-event operations, replacing elements of paper-based processes.
- Problem
- Paper vouchers and entitlements are slow to issue, easy to lose and hard to reconcile against what actually traded. Major-event operations needed a more controllable path from entitlement to redemption.
- Solution
- Supported the development and delivery of NFC-based digital voucher and staff entitlement systems so issue, redemption and operational control sit in the same process as the wider EPOS and payment estate.
- Impact
- Less reliance on paper entitlements during major events
- Systems / technology
- Digital vouchersStaff entitlementsKAPPTURE estate
Personal ProjectSoftware
CS2 Ledger
Personal Chrome extension and local dashboard for classifying, valuing and analysing a Counter-Strike inventory.
- Problem
- Inventory, pricing and trade history for a Counter-Strike collection lived across marketplaces, spreadsheets and memory. There was no single ledger for valuation, profit/loss or trade-up planning.
- Solution
- A personal extension plus local dashboard: classification, pricing integrations, a transaction ledger, trade-up planning, case P&L, history, exports and analytics.
- Impact
- Inventory treated as a ledger, not a screenshot
- Systems / technology
- Inventory classificationTransaction ledgerAnalytics
Personal ProjectInfrastructure
Home Infrastructure Lab
A personal lab for Linux, containers, remote access, local AI and GPU compute — used to understand infrastructure by running it.
- Problem
- Infrastructure knowledge that only exists as documentation is fragile. A lab is the way to understand Ubuntu, Docker, networking and local AI without pretending it is an enterprise estate.
- Solution
- Run a home environment: Ubuntu Server, Docker, Portainer, Cockpit, Tailscale, local AI models, GPU compute, networking and self-hosted services — documented as a lab, not as production.
- Impact
- Hands-on Linux and container operations
- Systems / technology
- Self-hostingRemote managementContainer platform
Platforms
Systems & Platforms
Grouped by the operational layer they belong to. Not a logo wall.
EPOS / Hospitality
The operational layer: devices, outlets and the software that takes an order through to the kitchen and the till.
- KAPPTURE
- K-Stock
- POS terminals
- MPOS
- KDS / kitchen management
- Kitchen printers
- Kiosk systems
- Mobile ordering
Payments
How tenders actually settle — integrated, standalone and the reconciliation work that sits in between.
- FreedomPay
- Global Payments
- Worldpay
- Stripe
- Ingenico
- PAX
- Integrated & standalone devices
- Settlement reconciliation
Data
Extracts, checks and reporting used to understand trading, stock and exceptions.
- SQL / MySQL / SQLite
- Excel
- REST APIs / JSON
- Revenue reporting
- Variance analysis
- Reconciliation
- Operational dashboards
Development
Used for internal tools, reporting automation and integrations — not as a separate product career.
- C#
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- React
- Next.js
- APIs
- Automation
- Data integration
Business systems
Commercial and operational platforms used alongside EPOS — bookings, finance and web administration.
- QuickBooks
- OpenTable
- Booking systems
- Stock management systems
- Web administration
Infrastructure
Day-to-day environments plus a home lab used to understand Linux, containers and remote access.
- Windows
- Linux
- Ubuntu Server
- Docker
- Tailscale
- Networking
- Remote management
Model
How the layers connect
A compact view of the path from operations through systems and data into commercial control.
Operations → Systems → Data → Business
Operations
EPOS
Payments
Stock
Data Layer
Reporting
Automation
Analysis
Business
The same path shows up in the work: operational systems generate data; data becomes reporting, automation and analysis; that loop supports commercial control.
Skills
Skills matrix
Classifications instead of percentage bars. Levels are editable in src/data/skills.ts.
Systems
- KAPPTURE EPOS estate managementAdvanced
- POS configuration & deploymentAdvanced
- Hospitality / venue technologyAdvanced
- Business systems administrationAdvanced
- Systems integrationStrong
- K-Stock / stock locationsStrong
Data
- Operational & revenue reportingAdvanced
- Excel / structured analysisAdvanced
- Reconciliation datasetsAdvanced
- SQL / MySQL / SQLiteStrong
- REST APIs & JSONStrong
- DashboardingStrong
Finance
- Payment reconciliationAdvanced
- Tender / settlement analysisAdvanced
- Variance investigationAdvanced
- Revenue reportingAdvanced
- Profit protectionStrong
- Budgeting & forecastingStrong
Operations
- Major event / racecourse operationsAdvanced
- Temporary large-scale deploymentsAdvanced
- Outlet operations supportAdvanced
- Stock control processesStrong
- SOP development & trainingStrong
- Operational readinessAdvanced
Development
- C# automation & internal toolsStrong
- APIs / RESTStrong
- TypeScript / JavaScriptStrong
- React / Next.jsStrong
- SQL databasesStrong
- HTML / CSSStrong
Infrastructure
- Windows administrationStrong
- Linux / Ubuntu ServerStrong
- DockerStrong
- Networking fundamentalsStrong
- Tailscale / remote accessWorking Knowledge
- Self-hosted servicesWorking Knowledge
Project Delivery
- Technical project coordinationAdvanced
- Supplier & vendor managementAdvanced
- Stakeholder managementAdvanced
- Team leadership (event delivery)Strong
- Deployment documentationAdvanced
- Process improvementStrong
Method
How I work
Analytical enough to find the failure point; hands-on enough to implement the fix.
01
Understand
Start with the operational requirement, the constraint and the failure mode — not with a preferred tool.
02
Analyse
Review systems, processes, data and hand-offs. Find where information is lost, duplicated or trusted too early.
03
Design
Create a practical solution that fits the operating environment, the people using it and the time available.
04
Implement
Build, configure, integrate or automate. Keep the change small enough to land, complete enough to be used.
05
Validate
Test against real operational and financial requirements: trading, settlement, stock, support and edge cases.
06
Improve
Use data, exceptions and operator feedback to tighten the process once it is in the wild.
About
Technology that has to work on the floor
I am responsible for EPOS, payments, financial reporting, system integrations and operational technology that have to work under live trading pressure — including Royal Ascot-scale deployments.
The useful part of the job sits between Finance, Operations, IT, suppliers and frontline teams: configuring systems correctly, keeping them resilient, and making sure they produce information people can actually use.
Where the standard product falls short I build the missing piece — KAPPTURE API reporting, reconciliation processes, training platforms, digital checklists and stock controls — then document it so other people can run it.
Contact
Start a conversation
Use the form for a direct message, or LinkedIn. Email and phone stay out of the source until they are set as environment variables.