It’s not uncommon to find restaurant operators relying on one or two of the 3 most important data management systems created for the industry—point-of-sale, back-office and accounting. And operators who are using all three don’t always have systems that can integrate with each other. Successful restaurant management includes controlling your numbers on multiple levels, a task that long ago outpaced mere cash registers and adding machines. Restaurateurs who understand the big picture of their business know to integrate all three systems to give them the clearest picture of how well their business is performing. Read on to learn more about the three most important systems your restaurant needs.
A POS System
Few
businesses are as numbers driven as restaurants, and there’s no better
tool to have at the front of the data chain than a modern point-of-sale
system. A POS will help collect, organize and help an operator interpret
a restaurant’s numbers. Some advanced POS systems will even track
current and historical guest counts, transactions, guest order
specifics, trends and much more. A POS delivers orders to the kitchen
accurately and quickly, communicates to counter workers and servers when
items are running low or out, and prompts service staff to “suggestive
sell” specials and high-margin items. Some offer employee time clock,
and dashboard features but POS systems typically lack the robust
features provided in a true back-office system.
A Back-Office System
Arguably the most important data management component in a restaurant, a back-office system
is the information hub for all others. Maximized through integration
with a POS system, it can manage inventory, purchasing, scheduling and
even food safety (HACCP) compliance. Using its precise tracking of
sales, purchasing, and inventory,
operators can reduce shrinkage that occurs through waste and theft.
Operators can improve purchasing accuracy through suggested orders that
balance current inventory with historic and forecasted sales. A
back-office system also increases productivity with automatic purchasing
and reporting, and using historical sales data. It can evaluate labor
cost as a factor of sales to create optimal suggested labor schedules
and ensure labor numbers remain on target. A back-office system is by far a critical component operators need in order to scale their operation.
An Accounting System
By
tapping into the power of a robust back-office system, an accounting
system becomes the essential bookkeeping tool. It manages payroll to the
penny by merging time and attendance data from the POS and back office
systems. It accomplishes the task of billing by reconciling purchase
orders and invoices from purchasing data supplied by the back-office
system. Financial reporting is simplified when the system is programed
to generate income statements and balance sheets, keeping operators
fully aware of their business’s financial standing anytime they want to
know.
Some may consider such data automation systems pricey
and unnecessary. Yet in reality, by providing restaurant operators the
exceptionally tight control over crucial numbers, such systems pay for
themselves in as little as a year or two through the accumulation of
cost savings. Such systems provide keen insights into how a restaurant
is actually working by highlighting top-selling items and loss leaders,
sales peaks and troughs, balanced labor costs and dangerous overtime
potential. In short, these incredible three-component systems give you
the facts about your business and then let you decide how to run it
profitably.
