…and a few extra features for a successful 2020

The busiest time of the year for full-service restaurants is wrapping up, but the upcoming lull in business could be the perfect time to upgrade your POS system. Once we welcome in the New Year, it could be time for you to welcome a brand new system, or at least to incorporate essential POS features for restaurants, to make your restaurant more efficient and profitable in the coming year.

We’ve previously talked about what POS features are the most important for quick service restaurants and bars. Here are the essential POS features you should look for to keep your full-service restaurant in fighting shape.

Inventory Management

Whether your restaurant is more of a sit-down family place or an upscale fine dining establishment, you know that food costs can make or break you. Full-service restaurants may not have the high quantity of inventory to track like a QSR does, but chances are the items you do have in stock are higher quality and more expensive. The profit margin from restaurant food costs can be healthy, but only if inventory is properly controlled.

Invest in a system that tracks the inventory being used in real time and automatically reorders once you meet pre-assigned thresholds, AND also allows you to pinpoint what food items are most frequently being overstocked or wasted so you can begin finding solutions. Use the data given in inventory reports to determine if certain items should be eliminated entirely, scaled back to avoid spoilage, or thoughtfully reused like in the case of excess scraps. For every $1 that restaurants invest in food waste reducing programs, they earn back $7.

Restaurants throw out billions of pounds of food each year; it’s time to take control and be smarter with your inventory.

Intuitive Interfaces

You’ll want your systems to allow for easy menu changes such as adding new menu items or 86ing the special of the day (in case your inventory management wasn’t on point). You’ll want the option to split checks in a variety of ways, such as per diner or splitting an appetizer or a bottle of wine four ways, as well as splitting payment using multiple methods.

The ability to accept gift cards or use loyalty programs can be highly profitable for restaurants, so those options can be incredibly important when choosing a POS system. And it should go without saying that the user experience for servers should be simple, straightforward, and any training needed on the hardware should take up as little of your company’s time as possible.

Host Terminal

Full-service restaurants, especially sizeable ones, benefit greatly from having a touchscreen terminal at the host stand. This is ideal for accurately watching which tables are full, which are available, and which are turning. It’s also fantastic for taking and managing reservations as well handling to-go orders, all with far less human error than paper reservation logs or dry erase floor plans.

Of course, every restaurant POS system should also offer basics like the ability to track and manage labor costs, navigate taxes and other accounting necessities, and provide quick checkouts. And for those looking for something extra, ask a merchant services provider about giving your restaurant the ability to accept mobile wallets, store data on cloud-based backups, or integrate mobile POS systems or tabletop ordering capabilities.

Ready to take your full service restaurant into the future and need a partner to guide you there? Contact Holman Business Services today for the advice and tools your restaurant needs to keep up.

The owner of this website has made a committment to accessibility and inclusion, please report any problems that you encounter using the contact form on this website. This site uses the WP ADA Compliance Check plugin to enhance accessibility.