From finally achieving a perfectly-coordinated employee schedule to ensuring that a popular location never runs out of a hot menu item, operators serious about increasing their profit margin rely on accurate restaurant reporting regarding inventory, purchasing, and staffing.
And while many companies run weekly profit and loss reports, the data provided is often irrelevant by the time a manager or operator sifts through the information and identifies areas of concern. Meanwhile, inventory continues to fluctuate, certain shifts remain perpetually understaffed, and that popular (and potentially highly profitable), menu item sells out long before closing.
Fortunately, these issues can be resolved with a daily sales report, one including up-to-the minute data on purchasing needs, inventory trends, and staffing requirements. Acting on this data can help significantly reduce prime costs, and allows both operators and managers to react proactively to constant changes inherent in the food industry. And a daily sales report is easy with the right tools. A full back-of-house platform with purchasing, inventory, and time and attendance software can help restaurant management navigate everything from a price increase in cilantro to an unexpectedly busy lunch hour.
Time & Attendance
A successful restaurant can’t afford to overstaff during a mid-afternoon lull, but still needs to be prepared and efficient during its busiest hours. Accurate data regarding hourly sales vs. labor costs is critical to keeping things running smoothly. By using the data pulled from your scheduling system, you get reports that allow managers and owners to pull hourly sales vs. labor cost analytics in real-time, as well as monitor shift-swapping requests to prevent staff shortages or over-scheduling.
Inventory
Any restaurant operator will tell you they want to close the gap between actual vs. theoretical food costs. While itemizing every inventory item could be daunting for a single individual, an inventory management system allows managers to create recipe costing and inventory tracking tools to identify those gaps that stand between prime costs and potential profit.
Beyond eliminating food waste and unnecessary over-purchasing, our restaurant reporting system can identify which menu items sell better based on a variety of scenarios, including day of the week or during special events. Knowing exact food and beverage costs can reduce waste by up to 6%, and those savings go directly back to your bottom line.
Purchasing
Furthermore, since the majority of food waste is a result of overproduction, food expiration, over-portioning, and spoilage, recording the specific causes of food waste can lead to smarter future purchasing decisions. You can streamline purchasing with automated electronic ordering based on data input, so the days of running out of a favorite appetizer while throwing out excess side dishes remain permanently in the past.
A daily profit and loss analysis is vital for helping reduce prime costs and improve profit margins. But compiling all the relevant information needed for meaningful restaurant reporting is challenging, especially without the right tools. Our full-featured, cloud-based restaurant management system is a game-changer when it comes to creating comprehensive profit and loss reports, and a guaranteed way to help restaurants make smart decisions towards improving the bottom line. Short of predicting the future, there’s no better way to navigate today’s busy and dynamic restaurant industry.
