Posts Tagged ‘Restaurant pos’

Restaurant POS Systems: Enhancing Profit Through Innovation – Make it Happen!

Restaurant and hospitality operators have become much more tech proficient in recentyears, no wonder they’re really good in sourcing out POS software. Not only are they more comfortable choosing new POS systems, but they’re also demanding a bigger bang for their buck when it comes to their restaurant POS software choices. So if you’re thinking of upgrading a POS system, check out this 2009 stuff on POS systems.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that hospitality operators were excited to see the first restaurant POS Systems hit the marketplace. Can you still remember what your first restaurant POS system was? You had a shiny and smooth looking keypad, a little black plastic “key” and a book of PLU codes to memorize. You punched in your food and beverage orders, and just like a miracle, the beverage orders are printed out out at the bar while your food orders are printed simultaneously in the kitchen. It was exciting, sleek, and revolutionary.

The world of restaurant POS systems has come a long way since those early days. Today’s hospitality operators are becoming much more tech savvy than ever before, and the POS industry is slowly responding. The big players in Point of Sale software systems are still active, but there has been a fast growing number of smaller companies have emerged in recent years, and the big guys could see their portion of the POS pie gorged up quickly if they don’t furnish the current demands of today’s hospitality operators. Below are the top features in 2009 you should be looking for in a new POS system.

Data Reporting -

Food and labor cost, these are the top two issues every hospitality-based business needs to handle carefully. Keep those things in check, and your chances of succeeding in such a competitive market are impressively increased. By simply allowing your managers to access important data with the use of a modern POS system, you can handle these profit killers with ease. A POS system with a high standard data reporting capabilities will allow you to forecast business volumes, which gives managers the information they need to handle scheduling and avoid unnecessary labor costs. You can even monitor staff time and attendance more precisely using a POS system. Real time and instant access to data also allows managers to and make snap decisions to address discrepancies in cash flow and adjust inventory levels. Once your POS system is able to handle these issues, you’ll be able to run your business to success.

Management and Integration of Back Office -

Having all your POS terminals linked together, combined with the ability to run reports, make menu and pricing changes on the fly, check inventory levels and consolidate payroll at one central location is crucial to running a business efficiently and profitably. A modern POS system will allow you to do these tasks quick and with no effort, all from the back office. Integration and management of your back office should be at the top of your “to do” list.

Proper Customer Relationship Management -

A successful promotion can can go from a simple sales ad (can be a promotion on your poor performing meals or items) into a huge profit booster. Determining if your coupon or gift card program is working as it should, however, can be difficult. If your POS system can quickly help you evaluate which promotions are effective and which are not, so you no longer need to waste money and time. Having a POS system that can keep track of customer histories, their likes and dislikes, comments, etc. can give you valuable insight into what future promotions you can come up with, and which ones should bite the dust. Effective customer loyalty and points programs make your customers happy and keep them coming back. So, when it comes to CRM, you can leave most of the thinking to your POS system.

Wireless Technology: Mobile Computing & Hand Held Devices -

Wireless point of sale systems are imperative for businesses that operate outside of traditional, brick and mortar locations. Even venues like ski resorts, fairs or stadiums can benefit from from a wireless point of sale system (a portable concession stand or the ones used in private suites). In traditional environments, such as a restaurant, there are many great benefits that wireless devices can provide, especially wireless hand held devices.

With wireless hand held units, your serving staff can save time by easily taking orders from table to table or customers in line without having to return the POS terminal, and therefore are much more productive. Since each order is sent instantly, at the table, the serving staff are able to go quickly from one table to the next. Managers can lower staffing levels by scheduling just a few skilled staff, provide them with larger sections, and set their primary focus at greeting customers, take orders and up-selling. Non-serving staff can then be hired (at significant payroll savings) to send off food and clean sections. When your serving staff are able to remain on the floor, the result is a excellent customer service experience for your patrons and greatly increase sales though up-selling and faster table turns. Also, wasted food decreases because taking orders directly at tables help reduce errors.

Another great feature with wireless hand held devices is that it sends evenly spaced orders to the kitchen, so your kitchen can prepare the orders more properly by not overwhelming it with several orders at once. By this, efficiency is greatly increased in your kitchen and further decreases waste. The wireless hand held technology has been greatly refined in recent years, with its increased battery life and ease of usage it improves staff performance. The time indeed has come for retail businesses to embrace wireless POS technology.

Securing Payment -

Having payment security is very important for restaurants and any retail businesses today. With the incidence of fraud and identity theft reaching epidemic proportions, keeping your client’s credit card data safely is very important. The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection, you may visit here anytime. Are you sure your POS system is secured and can comply with PCI standards? Well, if it’s not, it needs to be.

Self Service Technology -

The self-service technology have been the talk of the town in recent years. Having moved beyond kiosks, the self-service option give restaurateurs’ the ability to let customers process their own orders, reducing waste. Touch screen terminals are now intuitive and easy to use, and offer add on/up sell items instantaneously, which effectively boost the average check totals. The traditional “server staff” is replaceable by food runners, or counter staff, who’s also capable of doing quality checks. Payments can even be done by customers, fastening table turns and increased cover counts.

Self-service stations may not be attractive for patrons looking for a fine dining experience, but it certainly is attractive for those who operate fast food or quick serve/casual dining establishments. I don’t recall Remanco offering all these features!

Enterprise & Multi Unit Capability -

For those who operate large and multi-venue operations, searching for the right POS systems has never been easy. Because to logistics and a host of other hurdles, businesses with multiple locations were forced to be imaginative in how they organize the collection of cash and data. Businesses such as these require enterprise wide systems that offer features such as client recognition capabilities, hospitality and retail sales, gift card processing, quick and easy debit and credit options, and more. You may also need a system that can get around cabling and network issues, and preserve precious data in case of a disaster that causes system or network failures. And if your company falls into this category, an enterprise POS solution that is reliable and flexible is a perfect choice.

With the above list in mind, you might think that it would be difficult to find a POS system that offers all of the above and more. One POS system, in spite everything, consistently stands out and is without peer in the POS industry. Toronto based Volante POS Systems, is the finest, modern and flexible POS system. The Volante seemingly posses all these features and much more. It’s also fully PCI compliant. Volante first boasted its superiority in 1993, and is cross platform compatible, so it will run whether you use Windows, Linux or Unix. Linux POS solutions are very attractive these days, since they allow business owners to cut costs by saving on Windows licensing fees, and are easy to use.

With the above shopping list in hand, so as a hospitality operator you should feel prepared when looking to upgrade your current POS system. If the POS software you’re looking at doesn’t offer the features mentioned above, move on. With our economic state today, you really can’t afford not to.

If you seek more information or an online resource?

Visit POS-For-Restaurants.com

The of this article author is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience helping restaurants of all types become more efficient and profitable throughout the U.S.

Your computer hardware acts as the core component of your POS terminalrunning all the applications on your POS terminal such as the POS software you’ve installed. You can either buy a complete PC-based POS system or buy them separately, but make sure that all components are compatible with each other. You may want to buy all your components from one reseller so that setup and ongoing support is easier to reach, since the reseller can take responsibility for the entire system.

An average POS computer should be able to work perfectly fine for your business, but keep in mind that some POS software requires newer operating systems, so better be prepared for regular updates. If you want to purchase separate components from different POS system sellers, make sure that you coordinate and keep in contact with them should any problem arise, especially when it comes to compatibility problems.

Don’t use your restaurant POS computers for anything other than POS! Because some business owners ignorantly connects their POS computers to the internet to browse the web or send emails, most of them end up having corrupt files, data loss or suffer from system crashes. Although all of these can be repaired by having a good back up plan, it is still much safer that you do not use your POS computer for anything other than POS. You may be able to restore your files but once you ignorantly use it again to connect to the internet, you’ll end up with the same old problems. Loosing valuable time and spending loads of money on continues repairs.

Your POS Software

It is very important that you check first a POS software before buying it. Is it compatible with your system? Does it have the features your retail business needs? Is it affordable? Does the price seems reasonable? These are just some of the things you have to figure out before buying any POS software for your computer.

Most restaurant POS software packages offers the same functionallity, so choose wisely based on their prices. With its powerful tools you can easily create checks, place special orders, generate waiting list, move diners from the bar to a table and even track orders per server! You may also add more features depending on the volume of customers you get and for your convenience as well.

Using Internet data boards: This type of POS computer component takes a snapshot of the day’s business which you can access from anywhere with a web connection. For retail business owners, this can be very useful if you have multiple branches. It can provide a significant peace of mind as well as download data from any location you are in.

Multimanagement: The multi-manager approach to a business is one of the important factors that affects the management of multiple branches. Since different managers have different skills and specialties in different areas, one manager can never manage all branches at the same time!

Frequent diner program: This useful POS software lets you assign points for each meal or item, allowing diners to accumulate points which they can later exchange for free dessert, discount or gift certificate. It can help boost your sales and your low-performing items.

For a growing restaurant, you may want to consider adding more restaurant POS equipment and software to enhance your business performance and increase your profit. It’s easy to add and change POS systems, install new software and replace old computer components. What’s important is you must know first the type of restaurant POS equipment or software your business needs before heading on to the nearest POS vendor in your area.

Further more, you may be able to receive free competitive price lists from from your local POS suppliers who will be happy to provide you any any POS systems your business needs. Just by simply requesting for a FREE POS system quote, you’ll immediately get connected with the most qualified POS sellers serving your area. So there’s no need to tire yourself by manually searching for reliable suppliers and POS systems.

Always rememeber to check the POS software or hardware first before buying it. You may also want to check if your POS software’s user interface is easy to learn and navigate, so your employee can serve customers faster and more accurate.

For more information or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry and your location see more information at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

Can My Business Grow With A POS System?

I know a lot of you may think “Do I really need a point of sale system?”. You may not mind relying on your cash register and sales ledger for your transactions because it’s affordable and reliable. But is it really the most efficient way to run your business?

While it’s true that POS requires an initial investment, it’s important to understand the vast benefits a POS can bring to your business. Regardless of what industry you are in, the goal is to gain 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:

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 your valuable time working on new techniques, promotions, and other initiatives to take your company to the next level.

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 running smoothly.

Streamline Your Operations - With a POS system, there’s little room for error. 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 level of customer service your retail business can offer.

Inventory Management - This is particularly important in food service industries where you need enough supply to serve all of your customers but don’t want them to go to waste if they’re not sold. With a POS, you’ll always be informed when you’re running low on stock and which items are best sellers so you can plan ahead.

Reducing Shrinkage – With a POS system, you can keep your employees honest all the time. With paper receipts and an old-fashioned cash register, it’ll be hard to handle temptations like pocketing a few dollars or giving out free meals and special discounts to friends. With a POS, your business is in good hands by providing exact records which traces your merchandise (and money) and where they 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. You will never 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. You can use price stickers and label each item, but this doesn’t prevent witty thieves from swapping their price stickers. 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 changes are needed to be done, your POS terminal can do all the changes at once!

Increasing Patronage - Get more customers in the door by limiting the time other customers wait in line. When customers don’t have to wait for wait staff to calculate checks, collect payment, and clear tables, you can serve more customers and increase your sales.

Get Accurate Reports - POS allows you to do more than you could with multiple ledgers and spreadsheets. You can record, track, sort, and organize data in any format and make revisions whenever necessary. Reporting is an important. By using it, you can track what is sold, see what items needs to be restocked and reordered, and help you plan for the next few months of business and beyond. You can use it as a reminder tool when supplies are running low.

Track Customers’ Data - You can also build customer loyalty by using POS systems. Consider this, every customer that enters your restaurant will be entered into your POS system when they order something. Keep tabs of the food they order and how often they visit your store. You can use this data to compile information for targeted sales and advertising campaigns. This inforamtion is also helpful to limit the poor selling merchandise you keep in stock and earmark funds for more popular items.

There are several critical things in restauratn POS systems purchase in any industry. Just be sure to meet with at least 3-4 qualified vendors before making this important decision. In any case, you can always request for a free POS system quote, where vendors will be able to meet your needs once you supply them the details of your POS needs. Provide them with the details of the information you wish to track and the features that are important to you. Always be aware when the software appears to MAKE you do things unexpectedly. Follow this simple procedure in order to find the right software that can 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!

Need more information or an online resource?

Go to 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.

Still relying on your business’ old-fashioned cash registers and hand-written books handed down to you by your father and his father before him? You do no longer need a manual business system, because today is a different world! New technologies have been develop for Point of Sale Systems to help every retail business grow bigger. So say goodbye to your tiring, time-consuming manual business system and say hello to the new POS systems that will help boost your profit and make your customers happier than before.

As any retail establishment owner would do, ensuring the safety of your profit is a tough task. You can easily loose money from simple customer’s change mistakes and from an abusive staff of yours that keeps helping themselves to a few extra dollars or giving away free meals!

If the above issues have already happened to you, well don’t let it happen again! Now would be the best time to consider having a POS system. With the features a POS can offer your business, you can prevent these issues from happening and may even be able to completely eliminate them:

• Long lines which prevent you from working with as many customers as possible
• Frequent customer complaints
• Limited staff
• Overstocking of poor performing items
• Shrinkage (lost or stolen inventory that eats into your profit margins)
• Wasting too much time going over the books
• Financial inaccuracies (overbilling, underbilling, thin profit margins)
• Poor data organization

For as long as money is involved, a quality POS system can improve your business’ efficiencies as well as take good care of your customers. So buying cheap, poor quality POS systems can lead to the downfall of your business. You’ll risk loosing more money because of its poor features.

A good and reliable POS vendor can tailor the appropriate POS solution for your needs, which can enhance your business’ performance and making more customers satisfied. So requesting for a free POS system quote would be a great idea, since expert POS vendors can provide exactly what your business needs, complete with the features that will make your business boost its sales, without spending more money.

Questions to consider

When you request for a free POS system quote, below are some of the things you might want to consider asking to a POS vendor. What’s great about this service is that when you submit your details, it will be matched to the most qualified POS vendors serving your area. And only they will be able to acquire your details which in return prepare the proper POS solution that fits your business needs and give you their offers. Below are some of the questions you might consider asking:

• Is the software user-friendly? Will I be able to make changes on my own?
• Is POS software compatible with my current business management applications?
• Can I have a try out of the POS system before purchasing it?
• Do I need extra POS terminals? What about POS cash registers?
• Can I use the same POS for other marketing strategies such as gift card systems?
• How robust are the reporting features?
• Will I be able to point out where my profit losses are coming from?
• Can a POS system be set up immediately?
• Does it require extensive staff training?
• What level of customer support should I consider?
• Is lender available if my equipment repairs can’t be made on-site?
• Are there POS all-in-one solutions available or do I have to buy everything ala carte?

More information and an online resource

If you wish to know more about restaurant POS system, please visit POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations for POS-For-estaurants.com with its 20 years and more of restaurant POS systems experience serving all types of restaurants in the U.S. with their automation needs

Restaurant POS Software

To be able to run your business to success, let’s go back to the basics: good location, good food, good service. But today, there’s an addition to these basics: a reliable restaurant software to run your POS systems.

Even though physical components like the monitors and computers are the most visible, the software is the core of your POS system. Doing a careful evaluation of restaurant POS software is key to getting a system that will greatly satisfy both your staff and customers.

Looking for the right restaurant software
First, it’s important to know what exactly you need the software to do. Your restaurant POS software is able to handle checks per customer or per table, track orders per server, move diners from the bar to a table, manage waiting lists and reservations, and many more.

Once you’re satisfied that a particular piece of restaurant software can meet your basic requirements, try it yourself to see how easy it is to use. Even though there would be a learning curve for your staff when you adopt a new POS system, and since a POS software is easy to learn and navigate it can save you time on staff training.

You may have a couple of your servers to accompany you in the evaluation of the software while giving it a test drive. They may try different kinds of inputs and changes to the system that may end up causing problems to the software so you’d know what to look out for.

• Security – you may need to create accounts for each employee for safety reasons. With this you can limit your employees’ access to some reports as well as the functions (such as comping meals) to managers, if desired.
• Flexibility – your servers are able to control checks to match your patrons’ whims: easily splitting checks and tracking special orders, for example.
• Reporting – a POS software can create detailed report which is a great advantage for restaurant owners. So you better make sure the software you choose gets the neccessary detailed information on your business transactions either by per server or over all sales from day to day or to annual.
• Multiple location support – if applicable, make sure that your POS system is able to track and record on multiple locations, including local differences in staffing and pricing.

Looking for the best 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. The POS software you decide to use will require hardware – the biggest hardware decision you’re going to to make is how many stations you need.

Ready to start contacting restaurant software vendors? Find more information at POS-For-Restaurants.com and get 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 many restaurants in the U.S.

Bar and Restaurant: POS software features

Product shrinkage or lack of inventory shouldn’t be that much problem to a Bar or restaurant owner. When you have the right bar POS software, you can say goodbye to these worries and focus more on your business and growing profits.

With a bar POS software, handling any customer transaction is just a cinch. Your POS can display information like the average bar tab you get every night, the number of open tabs, returns or invalid tabs, and debit card processing details. Using this software allows you to easily manage inventory, determine which top-selling items to keep in stock, and track the performance of new products.

Bar POS software features
The liquor inventory control is considered the most important feature a bar POS software have. 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 can have an idea how much money you can earn. With this feature, it helps keep your staff honest when serving liquor – since they know supplies are monitored, they’ll be less likely to give their friends free drinks.

This POS 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– Requires authorized staff to log in each time they use the software.
• Liquor control devices (LCDs) – This helps reduce shrinkage by tracking the exact amount of alcohol a staff pour on bottles or glasses.
• Recipe lookup – A sort of “cheat sheet” for bartenders where they can quickly look up for ingredients needed to prepare a certain drink.
• 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 or restaurant with its gift card capabilities that can bring in repeat business.
• Schedule promotions – This bar POS software feature automatically manages price changes on liquor, wine and beer under limited time promotions like “happy hour.”
• Barcode readers – Can quickly serve customers by easily scanning barcodes on beer and malt beverage bottles.
• Employee scheduling – Can help you determine the right number of employees 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.

How Many Restaurant POS Stations Will I Be Needing?

• Considering peak customer volume
  If you want to sufficiently handle large volume of customers, you need to plan for the number of POS stations based on peak business.
• Number of employees taking orders
  One station per 3-5 servers would be sufficient in a table service environment. You might want to have additional stations for handling high volume areas such as the bar and cashie stations. When switching to a POS system from a cash register many people tend to forget that their POS system will not only be used for cashing people out, but will now be used for order entry as well.
• The layout of your restaurant
  A good restaurant layout affects your employees service. So if you have a bar, assigning a separate station for your bar tender would be easier since he can serve customers from there quickly.
• How and where you plan to have customers pay for their meals
  If you plan to have customers pay at the front you should have one or two dedicated cashier stations to allow speedy transactions. If you want to have your servers carry their own banks, we suggest fewer servers per station.

What type of POS computer should I use for my restaurant?

• Desktop PC: the standard desktop type.
  • Least expensive computer option
  • Has onsite warranty for 3 years
  • Takes more space but can be hidden away beneath a counter
  • Has greater flexibility for addition of extra ports
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; in case of technical difficulties problems are isolated.
• Small form factor: smaller than desktops.
  • More stylish than the desktop
  • 3 Year Onsite Warranty Standard for this component
  • Saves more space
  • Fewer options for expandability
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; in case of technical problems problems are isolated.
• All-in-ones: combining touchscreen technology and computer.
  • More efficient because it requires fewer wires least space, even more stylish
  • Has 1-2 years warranty (Not onsite)
  • Comes standard with sufficient ports for almost any operation
  • CPU speed is generally slower than the other two options but sufficient for the Point of Sale needs.
  • Combined screen and computer

How many cash is ideal for my retail business?

• You can easily notice how many cash drawers your restaurant will need, unless your servers carry their own cash banks you should have a cash drawer at every station for ending transactions.

Debit card processing?

• Using your POS systems to process credit card transactions allows you to keep records of every transaction you process in one convenient location.
• You can reduce 3-4 seconds per transaction using with the advance of high speed internet.
• If high speed internet is not available we suggest using a standalone terminal for processing.

How many printers must a typical restaurant?

• One kitchen printer will probably be sufficient for many restaurants; however, if you have different sections in your kitchen which handle different dishes you may want a printer for each section.
• For example, you can have all your appetizers print on one printer and all your main dish printed on another.
• For kitchens and bars, it is highly recommended that you use impact (dot-matrix) printers instead of thermal printers. Because their loud printing alerts cooks and bartenders that an order is coming through, and since tickets printed on thermal printers becomes unreadable when exposed to heat.

Do I need more that one receipt printer?

• Since you’re going to have more than one station, you would likely need more than just one receipt printer.

Should I have a back office computer?

• A back office computer is good for allowing managers to run reports, access the system to make changes to menu, check inventory levels, or adjust employee time clock times, without disturbing servers and cashiers.
• It’s not quite necessary to have a back office computer for your restaurant, if you only have 2-3 stations.. It is however a good idea that you host your database on a back office computer when you have 4 or more stations so none of your stations will suffer the extra load of running your database.

More information is available at 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 and sizes throughout the U.S.

Restaurant POS Systems has many factors you must consider in order to run a successful business. Let our POS professionals teach you how you can increase your profits and get control of your business.

Having A Control Over Your Business

Having the right POS system will provide a new level of control over your operations, increasing profits, efficiency as well as fine-tuning your business model. The wrong system, however, is just wasting time and money, and giving yourself a huge frustration.

In a sense, a POS system is a glorified cash register. The basic POS system can see in any quick service restaurants, that consists of a computer, cash drawer, receipt printer, keyboard and/or a scanner. In addition to being more efficient than cash registers, POS systems are able to create detailed reports which can help you plan ahead for your business’ future.

A POS system saves money, provide productivity gains, and can lessens the amount of time you spend away from the primary focus of your business.

Save more money, gain more control over your business, and being more productive; sounds like an easy and achievable plan, right? Well here are some of the best ways a modern point of sale (POS) system can help your business.

Eliminate shrinkage

A computerized point of sale system can drastically cut down on shrinkage, the inventory missing from your store or restaurant due to theft, waste and employee misuse. And since your employees will know that inventory is carefully tracked, internal shrinkage will dwindle.

Accuracy

When it comes to pricing, you need to make sure that have the right price on every item you sold, a POS system can help ensure this. Your staff will never have to guess prices again, and you can change prices with just one tweak in the computer.

Getting margins

With a detailed sales report, you can focus more on the higher-margin items. By moving items within a retail location, or promoting poor-performing dishes in a restaurant, you can help boost sales of high-profit items.

Know where you stand

Using a POS system, you can instantly know how much money you have in your cash drawer, how much of that money is profit, as well as how many of a particular item you have sold today, yesterday, last week or even last month.

Better inventory management

Detailed sales reports make it much easier for you to keep the right stock on hand. Track your remaining inventory, spot sales trends, and use historical data to better forecast your needs. Your POS software can be set to alert you when when stocks run low so you can reorder for them. There are many store owners who are caught by surprises when they have this data, because they think that they know exactly what trends affect them.

Build a customer list

Collecting names and address of your regular customers may come in handy in the long run. You may use this list for targeted advertising or for announcing incentive programs.

Reducing paperwork

POS systems can dramatically reduce the time you have to spend doing inventory, sales figures, and other repetitive but important paperwork. The savings here: time and peace of mind.

More efficient transactions

In a retail settings, barcode scanners and other POS features make checkout much, much faster. Restaurants will find their order process greatly streamlined as orders are relayed automatically to the kitchen from the dining room. With either of the two, your customers get faster, more accurate service.

You have to keep in mind that these benefits requires a commitment to utilizing the POS system capabilities to their fullest. Without appropriate training and ongoing analysis, even the most sophisticated POS system will be no more useful than a basic cash register.

Retail needs vs. Hospitality needs

The POS market is divided into two segments with very different needs: restaurants, bars, and hotels and other retail operations and hospitality businesses.

Retail

Of the two above, retails are the ones who uses simpler POS. Their transactions are completed all at once, and there is often less variation in the types of products they sell. Some POS features retailers may specifically want include the ability to support kits (e.g. 3 for deals), returns and exchanges, and support for digital scales. Your POS system will have to support matrixes if you sell items that come in a variety of styles, like clothing or shoes. As an example, matrixes ables yout to create one inventory and price entry for a particular sweater, but can still track sales according to size and color of the sweater.

Hospitality

Restaurants and other hospitality businesses differ in requirements.

Efficiency is the main focus for casual restaurants. For sub shops and other retail-style restaurants, a POS system can greatly increase accuracy and cut down on time-per-transaction unlike with hastily-scrawled order tabs sent to the kitchen. And for quick-service style restaurants, a POS system would be required to meet success: a customers’ order is entered on the terminal at the front which sends the order and displays them on a monitor in the food preparation area where the order is assembled and delivered to the appropriate customer.

For table-service restaurants and fine dining, POS requirements are somewhat different. They need to know which waiter is handling which table, and being able to create and store open checks. The efficiency gains from better management can be impressive. If a restaurant with 20 tables and an average check of can increase turnover by one party per table, that would be an extra 0 on one busy night.

Return of Investment (ROI)

Migrating from your old system to a computers POS system isn’t that easy. There are several factors you need to consider and pitfalls to avoid. But the return of investment (ROI) can really make it worth the time and effort.

Need more information or an online resource?

Go to 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 typicall POS systems you may see on restaurants and fast food chains are touch screen monitors, programmable keyboards, or scanners and handheld devices. Cash registers can be baught with or without a built-in cash drawer, printers can be dot matrix or thermal, programmable keyboards can have covers for spill protection and scanners can be a CCD scanner or an autosending laser scanner.

Touch screen technology: With its flexible user interfaces and programming, many retail business owners prefer to use touch screens. With this type of POS hardware, an employee can easily set orders and cancel an order within a second. It can also reduce mistypes and accelerate ordering. Touch screens also uses less electricity and much easier to position on the counter table, but they are more prone to breakdowns.

Handheld devices: These are restaurant handheld devices like PDAs, commonly wireless, that transmits data back to its base station. You can use the newer version, which is the write-on handhelds that allows you to write information such as the orders and directly sends the oder to the kitchen! These types of handheld devices are perfect for your staff who interacts with your customers, when up-selling desserts and drinks roaming around table per table.

Keyboards: Most grocery stores prefer to use this type of POS systems, since they can program individual keys for specific item codes and prices. A standard keyboard consists of 101-key, which can be seen with any computer. Others are small and flat, which we commonly see in fast food chains. POS keyboards often has a built-in magnetic stripe readers for processing credit cards.

Scanners: This restaurant hardware reads bar codes and converts it before inputting it’s information to the POS computer. It speeds up sales transactions and accurately inputs a customer’s product or service details that is being purchased. Scanners can be connected through Y-connectors called wedges that make them function as an extension of the keyboard.

Volume of customers: When it comes to serving different volumes of customers, using this restaruant hardware can be very useful. If the line has several customers, make your staff use a CCD scanner or entry-level laser scanner. But if your counter line is full of customers, then autosensing laser scanners would be a better choice. This type of scanner turns on when an item is placed in front of it, easily scan the barcode, and then turn off again. But if your counter line is flooding with customers, then you’re staff could really use the help of the omnidirectional scanner, using its 15 or 20 lasers simultaneously, it scans a bar code from any angle!

Additional POS hardware to consider

Cash Drawer: Used to store cash, checks, gift certificates and other important papers. When looking to buy a cash drawer, look for a sturdy construction of at least 18-gauge steel, don’t just buy one because your local POS vendor tells you that it’s the latest or simply because it looks fancy. Go for the most reliable cash drawer since the usable life of cash drawers are measured, you also have to make surer that you can replace rollers, bearings, and other parts. A typical cash drawer opens only when it is signaled by the POS printer.

Point of Sale printers: An addition to your restaurant POS system is a receipt printer, every retail business needs one to complete a sales transaction. A POS printer is needed for printing a receipt and creating credit card slips. The dot matrix printers, also known as impact printers, are inexpensive and uses ink ribbon to print on regular paper. While thermal printers use heat and special heat-sensitive paper to generate receipts. It is slightly expensive than a dot matrix printer but faster and quieter when using. They are also more reliable because they have less moving parts.

Customer displays: Also called the pole display. This restaurant hardware lets your customer view their item and its price, it can also be used to support advertising. Before buying a customer display, make sure that you check for the right height and width, which will perfectly fit your counter table, and its compatibility with your POS software.

The Check readers: If you don’t have one, I suggest getting one now. This device helps you be preventing check fraud by verifying essential account information, saving you tons of profit.

Magnetic stripe readers (also known as magstripe reader): This piece of hardware is used to read credit cards. You may find some keyboards and touch screens has a built-in magnetic strip readers for convenience.

Fingerprint ID readers: This type of POS equipment can be used to limit which staff can access a POS terminal. Typically used by employees to log on to their designated stations.

Keep in mind when purchasing a restaurant POS system, hardawre or software, you have to make sure that you review their details first. It doesn’t matter how expensive or cheap a POS equipment is, keep in mind the environment where you’re going to use it. Regular cleaning keeps your keyboards and touch screens in top shape, to extend the useable life of your receipt printer, vacuuming and lubing would be the way and maintaining your workstation clean can help protect your POS stations from dust and spills. You can always request for a FREE POS system quote online where local suppliers will offer you competitive price lists of any restaurant hardware and software you need based on the the information you give them. So you would never have to waste money buying the wrong POS systems.

For more information on restaurant POS systems or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry in your location see more information at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

A Restaurant POS System (or Point of Service System) could be any POS terminal, hardware and software combined which is the the equivalent of an electronic cash register, used to process a transaction. A restaurant has many factors which makes the whole business function effectively. A restaurant POS terminal is used to accelerate sales transactions and secure the customers payment. Point of Sale means the transaction point, any location within a retail establishment where transaction occurs.

For a restaurant, there are lots of moving parts that’s involved for it’s performance. Having a restaurant POS Software can greatly help in managing staff attendance and performance, the inventory system, accounting and customers’ details, is a big help for any retail business owner improve his business’ performance. How? With features that provides powerful tools to help manage employee and customer data, a restaurant POS system increases both efficiency and profits.

Customer Satisfaction Increases Profit

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important factors you must be aware of, by meeting your customers’ expectations on your products or services, you’ll get a higher chance of customer return. The more customer returns you get, the higher your profit is! So your job, as the owner, is to make sure your employees are properly and accurately giving orders, provide assistance to customers and make an overall great performance all the time. Using a POS software, with touch screen technology, can greatly increase ordering accuracy and decrease ordering time by 50%.

Because your goal is to increase your profit, many retail POS vendors have developed systems that when combined can produce excellent results like the POS systems that enables you to integrate your accounting software such as QuickBooks and Peachtree. With a POS software like these, you can rest assured that all your financial data will be up to date, accurate and can even print sales report on any POS terminal just with the touch of a button!

Improving inventory management can be a hassle. Manual handling and updating of your inventory can be a lot of hassle, it’s both time consuming and costly. Install a proper POS software that can help accelerate inventory management, you will see and increase in efficiency with its advance management features, you can associate any information with the items as well, such as purchase date or date of expiry, you will never have to back to manual system ever again.

Difficulties with ordering system. Placing an order should have the right timing, order too late  and you will run out of an item, order too soon can cause a risk of the item going bad. Installing automated inventory management enables you to increase the efficiency of your products orders, set a special alert to notify you and your staff when you’re running low of items so you’d be able to re-order for them, as well as setting up notifications to alert you on nearing expiration dates. So if your restaurant still doesn’t have POS software for inventory management the time is now to do so.

Having Restaurant POS Solutions Fights Leakage

Having a good restaurant POS solution for your business can decrease shrinkage up to 10%. Since all data is digitally recorded, you can easily view reports, see every sales transaction made by your employees, and check if it’s accurate. By this, can ensure the safety of your profit and also ensure an easier way to investigate profit loss.

The information above is just the introduction of what a restaurant POS systems is and the advantages a good POS software can do for your business. I recommend you go online and do researchbefore purchasing any POS terminal as there are many comparison shopping sites that offer a wealth of information. You may also request for a free POS system quote where suppliers serving your area can send you their competitive price lists.

For more information or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry in your area help you go to POS-For-Restaurants.com