Selecting the Best Software for Your Restaurant to Scale Your Business

You probably didn’t get into the restaurant industry because you wanted to spend time trying to figure out technology. You much prefer good people, good food, and good drinks, and wanted to bring them all together. That being said, spending a bit of time sorting out the tech side of things particularly when it comes to your Software for Restaurant is a must to keep business running smoothly. Around 95 percent of restaurateurs reported that restaurant technology improves their business efficiency, and 73 percent of diners said that restaurant technology improves their guest experience. You've likely asked yourself, how do I choose the best POS system for my restaurant or bar? In this article, we'll be answering that question.

Inventory Management

Food costs are estimated to be 28-35 percent of restaurant sales, but yet restaurants leave around $2 billion in food waste each year. Simply putting, inventory is critical, and managing that inventory is something that can be efficiently done with a good POS system. Look for a platform that tracks inventory based on orders, which will notify your wait staff when an item runs out, and that will generate purchase orders when the stock of an item gets low. When it comes to bars choose a platform that tracks the alcohol poured in every drink and alerts you when you get low on any ingredients. There are even systems that store drink recipes, allow you to see stock in real-time, and report on the best-selling drink orders.
 
Menu Management and Comprehensive Reporting

There are drink specials, dining specials, seasonal items and you need a Software for Restaurant that can keep up with all of those situations, plus all of the inventory changes you have every day and every week. Being able to program your POS to automatically accommodate these changes means servers won’t have to remember all the specials, or that someone won’t get charged the happy hour price instead of the regular price.

Do you know which servers are performing the best? Are you aware of your top-selling items? Sales (by item, hour, department, etc.), food costs, and labor expenses are just a few of the metrics that a good restaurant POS should be able to track. For example, POS reports can show you when you’re busiest and what the most popular drinks are so you know how to stock and staff accordingly. A good POS system generates those reports so you can accurately view your operation’s performance, take note of areas of improvement, and make educated business decisions as a result.

Technical Support

Whether you run a bar or a restaurant, you know the panic when your system goes down and that could be at midnight. The system you choose should provide customer support 24 hours a day so you can get your system up and running again in no time flat. Good support should also be there when you’re not in a panic situation, including during the initial setup, and with ensuing credit card help, software upgrades, and ongoing training. Technical support is often overlooked, but reliable help from your POS provider will go a long way towards your establishment’s success.