Tired of dealing with undecipherable hand-written? Would you like to know for sure how much of each specific food item to to order tomorrow or next week – instead of just going by a best guess? Then you’re prepared to make this valuable investment in your business.
A good Point of Sale (POS) system can bring you to a whole new level of control over your business operations, which greatly helps you increase efficiency, boost profits, and improve inventory management. Transitioning from a traditional cash register using a paper-based order system to a restaurant point of sale system can be hard, but the result is a system that will pay for itself in a very short time then drop additional profit to your bottom line each month you use it.
Restaurant Computer systems – Buying Tips
•Always prepare for the worst. As with all modern POS systems, you should know that daily backups are crucial. Be updated, you can ask your POS vendor about automated backup schedules.
•Clean up. Preventative maintenance ensures the reliability of all your computer POS equipment.
•If you dislike heat… When choosing printers, remember that the heat in the kitchen can be enough to ruin thermal paper. Impact (dot matrix) printers are a the most popular.
•Locate an experienced sales organizatioon. We recommend POS-For-Restaurants.com. Restaurants have very specific POS needs. POS-For-Restaurants can help you locate an experienced point-of-sale company in your area who is the best option for your restaurant.
What is a restaurant POS system?
If you wish to review in-depth service offerings from multiple restaurant POS providers, use BuyerZone’s free tool for vendor comparison.
A basic POS system is a glorified cash register, but more appropriate for your specific type of business. Basically, a restaurant POS station consists of a computer and cash drawer, a printer for receipts, and a touch-screen monitor. Most restaurants have multiple stations like this, with additional component parts that are determined by the type of restaurant.
For retail-style restaurants like a sandwich shop, their POS systems mostly include printers in the food preparation area, to eliminate errors that can happen when a hastily or carelessly written orders are sent to the kitchen. For quick-service restaurants, POS systems are practically a requirement for living up to their name: orders taken on terminals in the front are displayed on monitors in the kitchen, ready to be quickly prepared and delivered to the customer.
Point of sale systems for casual dining and quick-service are a bit different. These systems need to be designed alongside your menu and seating plan so enable them to communicate orders to the kitchen and bar, track reservations and seating, and handle transactions.
Fine dining POS systems typically include more stations: multiple server stations, a bar station, a host or hostess station, and appropriate printers for the kitchen compared to most basic POS systems. They also have more flexibility – including creating and storing open checks, let servers send priority orders to the kitchen to start the next course, as well as track which server is serving which customers.
Restaurant POS options
POS systems can greatly reduce the time your staff spends in the kitchen, speeding up the order process. The efficiency gain is always well worth the effort. If your restaurant has 20 tables and has an average check of $45 can increase turnover by one party per table, which is an extra $900 on a busy night. Additional savings come from reduced shrinkage: servers can’t provide complimentary food to friends without entering them in the system.
In addition to the direct cost savings, a restaurant POS system can offer detailed reports that can can greatly help when it comes to business decisions. Sales reports help you better predict staff volume and their schedules more appropriately. Inventory reports help you order the right ingredients week after week, cutting down on waste. And order reports let you see which items are most profitable, which items generate the the least profit, and those you should drop from the menu
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The author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com with over 20 years experience helping restaurants nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits using restaurant POS systems.
You may visit POS-For-Restaurants.com for more information on how our national network of restaurant point of sale experts can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times.
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