Why You Need a POS System in a Restaurant?

Christopher
Technology Innovations
5 min readFeb 5, 2020

A flexible restaurant POS system should empower tracking sales metrics that help to understand better how sales can improve business.

Although there are many ways to take effective control of your restaurant, only a few make a real difference. One such method is taking advantage of POS reports. It gives more opportunities for restaurant owners to enhance the customer experience. Electronic POS software systems streamline restaurant operations by automating the transaction process and tracking relevant sales data.

POS system proving a number of reporting features will make restaurants smarter, empowering them to make more informed decisions. By monitoring inventory and buying trends, hotel managers can efficiently address customer service issues. Here are some of the essential POS reports needed to run a successful business.

Sales Reports

The common sales report should have essential data concerning sales, and the data contained in it depends on the POS provider. The data should allow one to track sales by the following criteria:

• Guest count is an assessment that allows knowing the number of guests dine and the average amount spent by them

• Period of time is an assessment for spotting trends like peak hours, comparing sales year-over-year, or the effectiveness of a special promotion

• Sales by server give insights about the quality of employees, thus ensuring the ones who need training

• Table turn time helps to determine the profitability of every seat in a restaurant by measuring how long it takes for a table of guests to dine from start to finish

Product Mix Reports

Product mix reports show sales by item, category, or department. Make smarter decisions by not considering the less popular items in a restaurant. This can save money and improve the bottom line. Another method to make smarter decisions is by considering the cost of ingredients for menu items.

Inventory Reports

Inventory reports allow tracking the consumption of ingredients to plan better for future sales. Any inventory report should give the following:

• Inventory valuation provides the amount of cash tied up in stock and what inventory is on-hand

• A regularly updated sheet that includes par levels, quantities of products on-hand, and low stock items to reorder easily

Labor and Employee Reports

Employees are one of the most significant assets that restaurants should track for productivity. For most small businesses, employee labor costs are another top pain point. Labor reports give insights into employees’ performance. Some POS systems include integrations for third-party software solutions to allow business owners to manage employee scheduling tasks and payroll programs.

Exception Reports

Any restaurant willing to make improvements should have exception reports in its POS reports suite to monitor the employees. It gives all the voids, refunds, and discounts for a given time by staff members. The report can help identify the following things.

• An inadequately trained employee on the point of sale software

• An employee who is not familiar with the restaurant’s discount policy

• A crafty employee who is trying to steal

X Reports and Z Reports

No doubt, if it is a full-service restaurant or quick-service restaurant, X’s and Z’s are a part of day-to-day procedures. At the end of each shift, bartender, server, or cashier will produce a shift report or X report of their daily sales. These reports have the following information.

Individual total sales for food and beverage, along with a cumulative total

• Coupons, discounts, or promotions applied

• Cash tips and credit card gratuities given to the employees

Instead of gathering a number of reports from the point of sale system, collect those with quality. Apart from the above-mentioned reports, there are dozens of additional POS reports available that one can use to measure and manage the restaurant.

The Intelligent, Integrated Restaurant:

Technology has traditionally been a neglected area in restaurants, a necessary expense that is treated as a cost center, rather than a profit center. In recent years, that thinking has shifted due to several factors. New technologies such as delivery as a service have allowed restaurants to offer additional revenue streams that were notan option in past years.

Additionally, a system that produces actionable data can enhance current revenue streams to raise profitsin areas that are traditionally hard to predict. It is an exciting time for hospitality technology. You can build a system that adds value and opportunity, increasing profits and customer satisfaction. We will discuss a few of the many possibilities in this article.

  • Check This Out: Food and Beverage Technology ReviewA fully integrated technology system is needed to take advantage of these possibilities. You may have heard that in life, communication is an important factor of any successful relationship. This is true of your restaurant systems as well. The point-of-sale system needs to communicate effectively with other systems in the restaurant.

If it is connected to the inventory, labor scheduling, and financial systems, you can begin taking advantage of data to enhance the customer experience. An example would be using the point-of-sale connected to an inventory system to enhance and solidify actual versus theoretical food costs. If you substitute or remove an ingredient during a transaction, the ingredient should add back to inventory automatically. This may appear to be a small improvement, but it can add up to a larger gain.

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Christopher
Technology Innovations

I am a technology blogger, who loves to read and write on the latest in technology.