This week the host is the guest. Ian Gollahon sits down with Beau Hamilton on the SourceForge Podcast to explain what a laundromat POS system does, which laundromats need one and what to compare when choosing a laundromat POS.

SourceForge is a software review site, similar to Capterra, where business owners read and write reviews of the software they use. Beau asks the questions a first-time buyer would ask, and Ian answers from two sides: as co-owner of Liberty Laundry, three stores in the Tulsa area, and as co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS.

Ian explains the difference between a self-serve payment system and a laundromat POS, why unattended stores usually do not need a POS and why a generic retail POS like Square stops being useful once a wash-dry-fold order is rung up. He covers the costs that matter more than the monthly subscription, how machine start integrations tie attendant machine starts to orders, and why first-time owners who start with delivery often struggle.

What's covered:

• Laundromat POS systems vs. self-serve payment systems

• Attended vs. unattended laundromats

• Why Square and other retail POS systems fall short for wash-dry-fold

• Total cost: processing fees, hardware and training time

• Self-serve payment and machine start integrations

• Machine start ratio and attendant theft

• Timestamps and audit trails for lost laundry

• Time clocks and attendant to-do lists

• Why delivery should come after a busy wash-dry-fold service

• Scaling one dashboard across multiple stores and LLCs

• Picking a POS that fits your priorities

• How Wash-Dry-Fold POS uses AI in development, websites and support

00:00 Introduction: Ian on the SourceForge Podcast

00:48 Meet Ian Gollahon and Wash-Dry-Fold POS

02:58 Liberty Laundry as the Testing Ground

04:44 What a Laundromat POS System Is

06:43 Does Every Laundromat Need a POS?

09:08 Why Square Falls Short for Wash-Dry-Fold

12:19 What to Compare When Choosing a Laundromat POS

16:18 Self-Serve Payment and Machine Start Integrations

18:39 Audit Trails, Lost Laundry and Employee Theft

22:01 Time Clocks and Attendant To-Do Lists

24:55 The Biggest Mistake: Starting With Delivery

28:55 Scaling From One Store to Many

30:52 Is There One Best Laundromat POS?

33:50 How Wash-Dry-Fold POS Uses AI

37:45 The AI Support Chatbot

39:17 Where to Learn More

Ian Gollahon is co-owner of Liberty Laundry, a three-store laundromat chain in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area that did $2.5 million in revenue in 2025, and co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point-of-sale system for laundromats. He has spoken with more than 3,000 laundromat owners over the last decade.

washdryfoldpos.com

washdryfoldpos.com/choosing-a-laundromat-pos-sourceforge-podcast/

sourceforge.net/articles/laundromat-pos-system-laundry-software-wash-dry-fold-pos-sourceforge-podcast-episode-135/

libertylaundryok.com

laundromat-ownership.com

Gross revenue, SDE, EBITDA, free cash flow and net income all describe what a laundromat earns, but each one measures something different. Ian Gollahon explains what each metric includes, how they compare to each other and when a buyer, seller or bank would use each one.

This is Part 3 of Ian's laundromat valuation series, written alongside his Full Cycle Magazine article from the CLA. Part 1 covered leases and assets, and Part 2 covered gross revenue and SDE. This episode focuses on EBITDA and free cash flow.

EBITDA takes out the costs that depend on who owns the business, so it shows what the laundromat could earn for any owner. Free cash flow works the other way. It reflects your own loans, your own taxes and the cost of replacing machines, which is why banks use it to judge whether a laundromat can carry its debt.

What's covered:

• Gross revenue, SDE, EBITDA, free cash flow and net income: what each one measures and how they compare

• Why EBITDA takes out interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization

• Why a buyer's interest, taxes and depreciation could be higher or lower than yours

• How entity type affects what a laundromat pays in taxes

• Asset sales, depreciation and goodwill

• CapEx and the cost of replacing machines

• How banks use free cash flow

• Where the owner's salary shows up in each metric

• Why laundromat listings often use these terms loosely

00:00 Introduction and Part 3 of the Valuation Series

01:04 Recap: Leases, Assets, Gross Revenue and SDE

03:29 What EBITDA Is

05:06 Earnings Before Interest

07:03 Taxes and Entity Type

09:00 Depreciation and the Asset Sale

10:59 Amortization and Goodwill

11:52 Why EBITDA Differs From Net Income

12:28 Free Cash Flow

13:11 CapEx: Who Pays for New Machines

14:56 EBITDA Depersonalizes, Free Cash Flow Personalizes

15:33 Why Banks Use Free Cash Flow

16:38 Owner Salary and Free Cash Flow vs. SDE

18:00 Next Episode: Net Income

18:38 Clearing Up the Confusion in Laundromat Listings

Ian Gollahon is co-owner of Liberty Laundry, a three-store laundromat chain in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area that did $2.5 million in revenue in 2025, and co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point-of-sale system for laundromats. He has spoken with more than 3,000 laundromat owners over the last decade.

washdryfoldpos.com

libertylaundryok.com

laundromat-ownership.com

laundryassociation.org/fullcycle/2026/09/how-much-is-your-laundromat-worth/

Carmen Cardiel helps run 55+ laundromat locations across Arizona and Southern California. She joins Ian Gollahon to break down the systems that hold up at that scale, and the ones that quietly fall apart.

Carmen has been with Coinless Laundry for 12 years. She runs operations from the Arizona corporate office, which manages 33 stores, with a satellite office in Santa Ana covering Southern California. Fourteen stores offer wash and fold, three processing plants handle the commercial and bulk work, and almost 200 employees make it run.

Coinless documents every machine outage twice a day, on the AM and PM shifts, and keeps separate on-call rotations for maintenance and for systems. Carmen's own request for a plain "is this machine operational, yes or no" filter changed how Wash-Dry-Fold POS handles repair tickets, because sorting a squeaky washer from a dead one matters differently at 55 stores than at three.

Carmen also walks through running Cents and Wash-Dry-Fold POS side by side, and why Coinless consolidated onto one system. Her deciding factors were what her staff could learn and use at the counter, plus the long-term math on subscriptions and card processing across every location. Ian explains why processing terms barely register at low volume and turn into one of the largest line items as a chain grows.

Then there is the hardware. Coinless runs true Windows PCs at the counter, not Android tablets, because one commercial customer makes her staff log into an outside portal and upload photos into someone else's database. The POS is the brain of the laundromat, so it has to drive the weight scale and the label printer, and still open a browser.

Topics covered:

• Running 55+ locations across two states from two offices

• Windows POS hardware compared to Android tablet systems

• Why card processing scales into a major cost at multiple locations

• Running Cents and Wash-Dry-Fold POS side by side, and why they consolidated

• What a laundromat processing plant is, and why you cannot start with one

• Training almost 200 employees on the same procedures

• Why Arizona laundromats slow down in summer

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:42 Carmen's background and 55 stores across two states

02:31 Wash and fold locations and three processing plants

03:44 Training almost 200 employees

05:15 The two biggest challenges at any scale

06:01 Maintenance and twice-daily machine reporting

07:45 The repair ticket filter Carmen asked for

09:41 What a laundromat processing plant actually is

11:55 Why you cannot open a processing plant first

14:53 From paper tickets to a POS system

17:32 Running Cents and Wash-Dry-Fold POS side by side

19:38 Subscriptions and card processing at scale

21:03 Features compared to ease of use

26:05 Windows PCs compared to Android tablets

30:33 The craziest thing Carmen has seen, and the FBI

34:17 Closing

Ian Gollahon is co-owner of Liberty Laundry, three laundromats in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, and co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point of sale system for laundromats.

https://coinlesslaundry.com

https://www.washdryfoldpos.com

https://www.libertylaundryok.com

https://www.laundromat-ownership.com