For many restaurateurs, a cash register can provide all the sales analysis and cash control needed.
Restaurant cash registers work well when there are only a few items or sales categories and no need for remote printing to the kitchen or other interfaces such as credit card processing, gift cards, payroll, online web ordering, delivery and mapping, liquor dispensing, surveillance, loyalty, mobile marketing, online reservations and accounting systems. A restaurant cash register might be all you need for a small café, coffee shop, sub shop or simple counter service operation.
There must be a reason why restaurant chains and most independent restaurants have made the investment and utilize a restaurant POS system in their operation? The reason is, the right restaurant POS system will pay for itself very quickly. Tablet restaurant POS systems have made the purchase of a POS system even more affordable. It is of the utmost importance that you know what features and options your operation requires before selecting a restaurant POS system.
Purchasing a POS system for your restaurant is no small matter in terms of investment and value. If properly designed and implemented, the restaurant POS system is one of the keys to your operation’s success. The restaurant POS system interacts with all aspects of your business, from the front of the house, to the kitchen and to back office accounting and management. Employee timekeeping and HR management, food and beverage inventory, operational reports, etc., are all functions of a well designed restaurant POS system.
Let’s look at some of the ways a restaurant POS system can reduce your hard costs.
- Elimination of Manual Guest Check Errors – Industry reviews of guest check audits show mistakes in pricing, addition and sales tax indicate a possible savings of 1% of restaurant sales.
- Guest Check Cost Savings – Utilizing soft copy checks instead of pre-printed hard copy checks and the elimination of guest check issuing, guest check accounting for all used and unused checks issued plus the elimination of “Lost” checks creates a substantial annual savings.
- Requisition and Production Controls – According to National Restaurant Association studies, a 2% decrease in food and beverage purchase costs are attained by utilizing requisition printers or kitchen video displays. All items sent to the bar and kitchen prep areas via remote printing are accurately charged for and accounted for. Inventory consumption and waste are reduced with purchasing and prep lists based on actual item sales reports. Inventory shrinkage is also reduced with a POS based F&B inventory system.
- Increased Beverage Sales – By forcing a beverage be entered for each guest that orders an entree can significantly increase non-alcoholic beverage sales.
- Server Tip Fee Charge-back – Deducting the merchant processing fee percentage from staff charged tips can often times pay the monthly lease for a restaurant POS system. The recovered fee is only calculate on the charged tip portion of the charge. Since the restaurant is not sharing in the tip why should it pay the processing fee for the tip portion? This is not legal in all areas, consult with your attorney prior to implementing.
- Labor Cost Savings – Labor costs are reduced by utilizing detailed departmental labor reports, guest counts, departmental sales, hourly sales and productivity by employee to schedule staff based on accurate data for each day of the week. Most table service restaurants eliminate the cashier function and replace it with server banking, this eliminates over/short losses and speeds up the payment process. Automatic individual reports and cash accountability reduce bookkeeping and balancing time by approximately 20 minutes per cashier, server and bartenders for each shift worked. Weekly payroll preparation is greatly reduced with the POS timekeeping function.
We didn’t include faster customer service, the management reporting or the peace of mind a restaurant POS system provides since these are dependent on how well you utilize your restaurant POS investment. We do have a Return on Investment Worksheet so you can calculate your projected restaurant POS payback based on your annual sales, per person average sale, number of servers/cashiers per day based on your restaurant POS system investment.
Your restaurant POS system purchase decision is critical to your restaurant’s success, our mission is to provide the independent and unbiased information and resources you need to make an informed purchase selection.
POS-Advice.com was created to provide up to date, free, independent and unbiased restaurant POS information, resources, white papers and educational videos for restaurateurs so they can make an informed restaurant POS purchase decision.
