Looking For The Rigth Restaurant POS Software and Hardware For Your Business?
Restaurant Software
Want to run your restaurant to succes? Then let’s get back to the basics: right location, good food and service. These days, there’s another important consideration: a reliable restaurant software running your POS systems.
Though the physical components are more visible, your POS software is the the core of your POS systems. Doing a careful evaluation of restaurant POS software is key to getting a system that will satisfy your customers and staff.
What to look for in restaurant software
First of all, identify your needs, know what task you need the software to do. Any reasonable restaurant software is able to handle checks per customer or per table, track orders per server, move diners from the bar to a table, manage list of customers that are waiting as well as the reservations, and more.
Once you’re satisfied that a particular piece of restaurant software can meet your basic requirements, give it a test drive to see how easy it is to use. While there will always be a learning curve for your employees when you purchase a new POS system, choosing restaurant software that’s easy to use can reduce the learning curve to manageable levels.
You may learn more about ease of use by having one or two of your servers involved in the evaluation. They may try different kinds of inputs and changes to the system that can cause problems with some software.
- Security – each employee should have their own user account. You should be able to limit access to sensitive reports and functions (such as comping meals) to managers, as long as you want.
- Flexibility – servers should be able to control checks to match your patrons’ whims: easily splitting checks and tracking special orders, for example.
- Reporting – one the main advantages of restaurant software for owners and managers is the detailed reporting available. Make sure the software you choose lets you get the neccessary detailed information about your business either per server or over all transactions from daily to annually.
- Multiple location support – if applicable, make sure the system is capable of tracking and reporting on multiple locations, including local differences in staffing and pricing.
What to look for in a hardware
Of course you’ll need to invest in restaurant POS hardware as well: computers to run the restaurant software on, touch-screen displays for servers to enter order, and printers to produce order slips for the kitchen. Along with POS software is hardware – the biggest hardware decision you’re going to to make is how many stations will you need.
Ready to start contacting restaurant software vendors? You can read more information and receive free unbiased quotes from the Restaurant POS professionals serving your area.
The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience meeting the automation needs of restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.
Can My Business Grow With A POS System?
Can My Business Grow With A POS System?
Some of you might think “Do I really need a point of sale system?”. Though cash registers and sales ledgers maybe affordable for making transactions, but is it really the an efficient way to run your business?
While it is true that POS system requires expenses, it is very important to take into consideration the vast benefits it can give for your business. Regardless of what industry you are in, the goal is to have more sales and generate more revenue. POS can be your first step when achieving your goals – and many others. Here are some of what POS systems can do for your particular business:
Gives you more focus on your business - POS systems allow companies to concentrate on growing the business. When you’re not worrying about how your transactions are processed, you can spend more time working on new techniques, promotions, and other initiatives to take your company to the next level.
Get Increased Functionality - Your POS system is not just a cash register! With its advanced features, it can take reservations, process special orders and provides guest beeper systems to keep your business operating smoothly.
Streamline Your Operations - There’s little room for error with a POS system. Every information is entered and recorded accurately so the lines of communication are always clearly outlined. With a POS, orders are quickly served to customers with improved accuracy! In return, it also improves your productivity and the level of customer service your retail business can offer.
Improve inventory management - One of the most important task in food service industries is to check whether your supplies, perishable goods, are still in good state before you serve it to your customers and be able to stock enough supplies without letting them to go to waste when soldunsold. With POS systems, you’ll always be informed when you’re running low on stock and which items are best sellers so you can plan ahead.
Reduce Shrinkage – Implementing POS can keep your staffers honest. With paper receipts and an old-fashioned cash register, you can never prevent temptations like pocketing a few bucks or give free meals and special discounts to friends. POS curbs these activities tremendously by providing an accurate account of where your merchandise (and money) are going.
Decreases The Chance For Errors – If you’re in the food service industry, you no longer need to decipher chicken scratch from busy wait staff! POS allows you to easily key in orders, including specifics, to decrease the chances that it will come out wrong. By this, you can keep your customers happy by serving them the right order. So you will no longer have to re-cook orders and waste food, plus it’ll save you a great amount of money.
Track Costs - If you don’t have prices clearly entered in a database, you might as well let customers shop with their own pricing gun. Slapping price stickers on items makes it too easy for thieves to swap labels. With a POS, every item you sell is bar coded and tracked so you always know each item will sell for the right price. And if you need to make changes, your POS terminal can do all the changes at once!
Increasing Patronage - By limiting the time customers wait in line, you can have more customers coming in your front door. And when your customers do not have to wait for a staff to bring their checks, collect payment and clear their tables, you can serve more customers and generate more money.
Getting Accurate Reports - With POS, you can do more than what you could with multiple ledgers and spreadsheets. You can easily make record of sales, track, sort, organize data as well as make revisions whenever necessary. The value of reporting is such a key component to a POS system. It allows you to track what is sold, see what products needs to be restocked and reordered, and help you make future plans. You can use it as a reminder tool when you’re running low on supplies.
Tracking Customers’ Data - Build your customer loyalty and let the POS be your guide. Every customer you will ever greet through your doors will be entered into the system when they order something. Keep tabs on what they order and how often they visit your location. Then using this data, you can target for sales and other future plans. With these information, you can identify and limit poor selling items in stock and earmark funds for the best sellers.
There are critical things to consider for your POS system purchase in any industry. Just be sure to meet with at least 3-4 qualified vendors before making a decision. In any case, you can always request for a free POS system quote, where vendors will be able to help you meet your your needs once you supply them enough info about your POS needs. Provide them with the details of the information you wish to track and the features that can help you ease your job. Always be aware when the POS software appears to MAKE you do things differently. This is often the recommended set of procedures that allow the software to improve your business efficiency. With proper planning you will have a POS solution that makes your business more efficient, more profitable, more enjoyable, and keep your customers coming back!
For more information or an online resource:
You may visit POS-For-Restaurants.com
The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.
The Importance of Having Proper Restaurant POS Equipment – Part I
For the longest time, most people thought of their point of sale system as a fancy cash register. With technology becoming more advanced, many innovations being developed today are becoming standard features within the POS industry.
1. Wireless Hand Held POS Devices. The newest generation of wireless restaurant hand held POS devices allow your servers greater freedom to take orders as well as collect payment without leaving the customer. Your waiters are able to present daily specials to your customers on the spot, process credit cards from one table to the next, send a bread request for table 37 to the kitchen, and also the ability to add walk-ins to the waiting list – all from the handheld device. With this, your servers can spend more time interacting and keeping your customers happy.
2. “Sticky” Paper Printers. Another one of the newest and most brilliant invention for POS systems are the printers that uses “sticky” paper. This type of printer uses paper similar to a Post-It that allows you to post the receipt over and over again. Print the paper to whatever length you want, then stuck to any surface where it will stay unless you remove and/or plan to stick it elsewhere. With this type of printer, the paper can stay with the order through the entire order process. The new paper is also liner-free which eliminates the need to manage non-recyclable waste and can be easily removed and restuck to a different surface – again and again, whenever you want. It can be used for all orders, exceptions, specials, as bag tags or any combination.
3. Digital Menu Board/Signage. Want to deliver media rich content, using video, audio and pictures to your customers using your POS system? There are POS bundles have fully integrated and seamless digital menu board software that can be used to create content using the same database. Menu pages, titles, menu items, and prices can all be twined with high-quality multimedia to give your restaurant menu board that can give both a dramatic and interactive display without having to spend extra money for addtional components.
With most digital menu boards, content is sent to the displays from the store database in real-time, so the menu board continually updates throughout the day with menu changes, scheduled price changes, daily specials and so on.
4. Self-Service Kiosk. Have you thought about a customer self service kiosk for your restaurant? Many of our clients have. There are POS packages out there that allow adding a kiosk with no separate software required. With this method, adding a Kiosk to your restaurant has never been so easy. Most kiosk software is designed to cut down on labor costs and speed up the ordering process, enabling a whole new level of profitability. The Kiosk will pull menu items directly from your menu database on the POS terminal, providing a seamless integration into your POS system. Most packages can enhance the customer’s user experience even further, using sound and motion graphics, to engage your customer.
5. Paging Customer Cell Phones. Some restaurants are opting to take a more modern approach by paging customers’ personal cell phones. The restaurant host or hostess simply takes your guest’s cell phone number and enters it into their cell phone paging system device. And when their table is ready, the paging system sends a call to the cell phone with an automated voice message to notify the guest that he or she may now approach the host or hostess to be seated. This can be a convenient way for guests who want to roam around farther than common pagers will allow and you won’t fear of the customer walking away with your pager.
This small list is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to restaurant technology. More to come in the following months…
The author Michael Tash is Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com. With over 20 years of restaurant experience, POS-for-Restaurants.com helps you use your technology to be more efficient and more profitable.
Evaluating Restaurant and Bar POS software features
Bar and Restaurant: POS software features
Product shrinkage or lack of inventory shouldn’t give that much problem to a Bar owner. Having the right bar POS software can help avoid these worries and concentrate on making the business run perfectly smooth and growing profits.
You can handle almost any customer transaction using bar POS software. It can also display information such as the average bar tab you get every night, the number of open tabs, returns or voids, as well as credit card processing details. The software also provides comprehensive reporting so you can manage inventory, determine which top-selling items to keep in stock, and track the performance of new products.
Bar POS software features
The most important bar POS software feature is the liquor inventory control. It can track all the liquor, wine, and beer in stock as well as inform you if it’s time to re-stock running low resources. It can even track how much liquor goes into each drink, so you would know how much money you can expect to make. It also helps keep employees honest – since supplies are closely monitored, they’ll be less likely to give their friends free alcohol.
This software also offers other cool features to help you streamline your operations and track overall sales performance (you may want to request for a free POS system quote where a bar Point of Sale expert can tailor the right POS solution to meet your needs):
- Secured login– It requires authorized staff to be able to login.
- Liquor control devices (LCDs) – This helps reduce shrinkage by tracking the exact amount of alcohol barternders pour on bottles and glasses.
- Recipe lookup – This provides bartenders a “cheat sheet” reference for looking up on indgredients when preparing mixed drinks.
- Data import and export – Downloads reports into your word processing or spreadsheet software for your personal bookkeeping efforts.
- Email list maintenance – Helps build your customer loyalty efforts by sending customers emails about limited offers, new product releases, and special events at your establishment.
- Gift card management – Supports your bar and restaurant with its gift card capabilities that can bring in repeat business.
- Schedule promotions – Automatically manages price changes for limited time promotions like “happy hour.”
- Barcode readers – Easily scan barcodes on beer and malt beverage bottles to save time.
- Employee scheduling – Determines the right number of staff needed for certain shifts based on your sales history.
- Customer management tools – Help manage open bar tabs, check split requests, and gratuities.
- Food service integration – A very useful feature that lets your process both food and drink orders on the same screen.
- Menu management – Toggles between different liquors so you can accurately track the amount of liquor that goes into certain drinks.
Need more information or an online resource?
Go to POS-For-Restaurants.com
The author of this article is the Vice-President on Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.
Restaurant Guide: Choosing The Right POS Management Software
A Simple Guide to Restaurant Point of Sale (POS) Management Software
Learn the types of restaurant POS software that will help your business grow and save your money on costly mistakes by purchasing the wrong POS software.
A lot of people may thing that the restaurant business is not worthy of investment and would rather venture on a different business. Although, a growing number of restaurant POS software programs have been developed to help you with nearly every aspect of running your business. And there’s more good news: most of this software is affordable for smaller retail businesses that operate only a few eateries or even a single location. The current available software products can help you:
- Greatly increase profits|Double your profits|Increase your profits
- Lower food costs
- Streamline staff scheduling
- Improve customer serving
- Improve your reservations system
- Gain complete control of inventory
- Design menus
Cost out your recipes
Accurate recipe costing can put you on the fast track to success. With the right figures, it’ll be easy for you to identify your most profitable meals and those that aren’t cost-effective. POS software programs eliminate human error in this vital area.
Reservations and table management
A restaurant reservation software can help reduce no-shows, take reservations from your website, cancelled reservations, differentiate VIPs from regulars, take customer information and more. With this POS software, you can maximize and improve both table and guest management.
Control and track inventory
Restaurant inventory management includes controlling quantities of goods, proper handling, re-stocking and delivering. It can be considered as the crucial part of business management, so it’s very important for the restaurant owner to have full control and keeping track of his invetory.
Recommended:
The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant Point of Sale software are available at POS-For-Restaurants.com
Correct ordering and purchasing
To efficiently manage your ordering and purchasing process, go for for the POS software that can do the job while you concentrate on other revenue-generating activities.
I recommend:
The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant Point of Sale software are available at POS-For-Restaurants.com
Designing menus
making a menu design is one of the fun part yet it can be time consuming and expensive if you don’t know how to create your own designs, you will then need to hire a graphic designer to to make a menu design for your business. To eliminate this, you can simply purchase a POS software that creates menu designs!.
Employee scheduling
Manually arranging staff schedule is very time consuming and could even result to mistakes such as understaffing or overstaffing. So for a restaurant owner, this task can really cause a serious heahache.
Recommended:
The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant POS software are available at POS-For-Restaurants.com
A few simple advice that can really help your business’ growth
- When operating on more than one restaurant, it’s alway a wise decision to test-drive your software first on one before implementing it to all.
- Learn and grow your knowledge using your restaurant POS software programs! These software programs have powerful reporting features which you can review and learn your sales, customers and menus. By this, you can easily plan for changes that will surely help increase profits.
POS Systems: Looking For Answers? Here They Are!
Considering the cost are POS systems really better than paper records?
It will definitely take a lot of time to record every business transaction by hand. And it still doesn’t include the time to make copies of the information into a spreadsheet or database for further analysis! If you don’t want to regret loosing valuable time on these tasks, try using a POS system that will take care of all sales, returns, taxes, inventory, etc. so you are able to concentrate more on the other plans for your business’ success. While POS takes an investment to get started, the time savings and productivity increase more than makes up for the expenditure.
I don’t know much about computers. Can I still use POS systems?
Sure! A vendor can help you set the software to perform the tasks that you want. You’ll then be able to navigate through a series of menus that’s easy to follow. When the vendor sets your POS system, they will provide full training for you and your employees on how to use the system. And if there’s any problem with the system, a POS customer service professional is just a phone call away!
What equipments are required to set up?
For starters, you’ll be needing a phone connection, internet access and working electrical outlets. If you already have these, then your POS vendor will be able to set you up in a cinch! You don’t even need to own a computer since most vendors provide one as part of the entire system package.
Does a POS system really help prevent theft?
Shrinkage is a threat you need to eliminate for good!. There are various applications which allows you to accurately track items in your inventory for you to have an exact estimation of how much profit you should realize for every sale and pinpoint problems with your margins. If there are mistakes on the sales reports, you’ll know immediately so you can address the problem head-on.
Can POS handle sales or manage inventory?
Both can be handled by your POS with no problems! You can enter all the information you want AND check out the inventory… and those aren’t just the tasks you can do, there are so much more you can do with a POS. POS terminal and software also allows tracking of sales performance, generate different reports, set up reminders for inventory that’s running low, and plan future sales campaigns. You can use the customer data you collect to target effective sales campaigns and stock your shelves with the items they purchase the most.
Is wireless required?
If you’re a business person on the go, especially doing tradeshows or processing orders in a restaurant, it’s best if you use wireless technology. With this, you can easily process any transaction without having to go back to a POS terminal.
Should I buy a flat-screen LCD monitor, or a less expensive CRT monitor?
LCD monitors provides more benefits for a restaurant compared to CTR monitors. LCD monitors are far more attractive for customers, easy to place on top of any counter table, doesn’t need much electricity and lasts longer. CRT screens are fine for low volume sales and if you are not really sure that POS is right for your business. But with the additional benefits afforded to flat screens, there will be little cost difference between the two.
Wich printer is better: a thermal printer or a dot matrix printer?
You’ll find that most businesses prefer to use thermal printers since they have less moving parts so they last longer. For wireless, it’s the only option you have. However, dot matrix printers are safer choices in hospitality kitchens because of the heat from the ovens, grills, and fryers could warp thermal paper and ink.
What happens if my POS breaks down during business?
This is why back ups are so important for any type of business. System failures can happen any time – power outages, system crashes, viruses, natural disasters, etc. By implementing a backup solution (more preferable is an offsite backup so your critical data is protected), you are assured of being able to restore lost or damaged files, and run the business smoothly. More importantly, with backups, you ensure you can easily retrieve all customer information, as well as your sales figures and reports that you’ve saved prior to the crash.
What kind of customer support can I expect?
Since customer service policies vary from vendor to vendor, there isn’t a simple answer to this question. While one might have round-the-clock telephone support and local repair technicians, others may only have phone support during normal business hours and can only schedule repair requests a full day in advance.
That’s why it is very important to keep in contact with your POS vendor in case of problems, especially if you baught separate POS equipments from different vendors, you can look into the offerings of different vendors and take your time before making a purchasing decision.
Does POS work if I have multiple locations?
Generally, if you a few more of POS systems in various locations of your businesses, you can choose from two options. First, you can have each location operate independently with its own POS terminals and software. You can then send reports over to the corporate offices at the end of the day or week.
The second option involves connecting all terminals to one server allowing reports and sales figures to be uploaded and downloaded in real time. What you’ll benefit from option number two is that it’s available remotely. But, since several POS terminals will be working on the same server, expect backlogs when all send their information at once.
With both solutions, you have to think about having a robust back up solution since all locations are connected to one server – if it fails, every location could be inoperable.
Do I need to license my POS software?
You typically need an individual license for each terminal hosted on your network. There are POS vendors who’ll offer you discounts depending on the number of terminals that needs licenses.
Should I purchase a service contract?
It’s certainly worth the expense if you want to stay up and running at all times. Once you get set up with a POS system, you’ll be able to use for day-to-day business operations and analysis of your business. If the machine breaks down or you experience a disaster, you probably don’t want to keep it any longer.
There are maintenance contracts offered by vendors, depends on the vendor, which can cost a couple hundred bucks a year who can provide you services each time a POS terminal of yours breaks, so you can go ahead and concentrate in making your profits grow.
Need more information or an online resource?
Go to POS-For-Restaurants.com if you want to receive multiple quotes for your Restaurant POS Systems.
The author of this article is the Customer Relations VP at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving businesses throughout the U.S.
The Importance of Having Proper Restaurant POS Equipment – Part II
For such a long time, most people thought of their POS system as a fancy cash register. With technology becoming more advanced, several innovations have become standard features within the POS industry. Here are a few more:
1. Employee Scheduling. Some restaurant POS packages includes a “staff scheduling” feature. You can expect to increase efficiency and dramatically reduce overall labor costs by controlling clock-ins and clock-outs, utilizing forecasting tools and control staffing levels. This smooth feature allows easy schedule access, unlimited shifts and multiple job positions for each employee. You are also able to tie in any number of security functions to any job position. Some of the packages even allows you to post schedule on a website and sends an email of the schedule to your staff automatically. Keep your labor costs in check and increase employee performance by managing time and attendance efficiently and effectively.
2. Software Upgrade Assurance or SUA. SUA is a software maintenance program that gives you a distinct advantage when purchasing a POS system. You are able to help stretch your investment and extend the usable life of your Restaurant POS system. Customers who are on an SUA plan will always have the most current software version. This basically keeps their POS system new. Whenever you receive a software upgrade it’s just like you’ve bought the latest POS system available with the newest, most up to date features your restaurant can greatly benefit from. The most current features of POS systems set ensures that you have the best possible ROI by allowing you to have a full advantage of the power the POS software offers.
Another very important feature of SUA programs is that no software purchase is required if you upgrade or replace a hardware. When hardware needs to be replaced there’s a drastically lesser cost for upgrading it.
These programs typically works on a yearly small fee to acquire their benefits. Ma customers are satisfied receiving the huge benefits of this program which helps your business reap the full return on your POS investment.
3. Restaurant Tip Handling. Some of the point of sale software products includes a tip tracking feature. Once a staff is set as a tipped employee, your POS system will require a tip declation before clock out. Servers and waiters who ring sales will have their total sales tracked. Tips collected through credit card sales are tracked and shown on the server closeout report. Before signing off, servers or waiters will be shown their total sales for the day, tips collected and then will be asked to declare their cash tips. This functionality will help you enforce tip regulations and manage the tracking declared tips, charge tips and hours worked for every tipped employee.
4. Customer Loyalty Programs! As the business owner you would like your restaurant POS system to provide accurate information on your customer’s number of visits, frequency of visits, their buying habits, entice repeat visits and purchases through reward programs. You are able to do all this while managing the programs and preventing “sweet hearting” by employees.
Some POS packages come standard with a frequent diner or customer loyalty package that does all these things and more. They utilize secure methods of tracking your guests and their buying habits. Establish a database of guest’s information with an account number. This number can be their phone number or any number system you want. However, the most popular and secured method is through magnetic cards with your restaurant logo on them. These cards can act as a simple reminder of your restaurant to your customers by having your business logo in their wallet or purse. The POS software will secure the reward programs you put in place and prevent your server or waiter from giving free food. Rewards are given only when earned through purchases, frequent visits or for items on your menu that you wish to highlight. The establishment of reward programs takes your employees out of the game and puts you in total control.
If you pay enough attention to your business needs, you will find that there are so many ways you can do to help run your restaurant more efficiently. So stop wasting more time and money relying on POS system that doesn’t work for you, instead focus more on what restaurant technology best suit your business needs.
Michael Cummings is Vice President of Customer Relations for POS-for-Restaurants.com. With over 20 years of restaurant experience, POS-for-Restaurants.com helps you use your technology to be more efficient and more profitable.