Benefits of Using a Mobile POS System in Restaurants

In today's digital age, reports have become an inseparable element of running a business. They provide an in-depth insight around how your business is performing and help you make informed decisions based on them.

POS reports are becoming increasingly popular in the restaurant business. A 2017 study suggested that close to 50% of restaurant owners checked their business reports daily. However, most business owners haven't yet realized the true potential of POS reports.

In this post, we'll talk about five essential POS reports every restaurant owner should analyze.

1. Sales Reports

Built-in POS reports are one of the essential features of a mobile POS system. These reports reflect the number of sales you've made, along with their value, and the profit they've generated.

New restaurants can create weekly or monthly sales reports and compare them to determine business performance and associated trends. Modern-day mobile POS software provides visuals-rich reports with graphs and pie charts to help you get better insights.

2. Labor or Employee Reports

Labor reports can help you analyze the performance and efficacy of your staff. You can ascertain which employees perform well and which ones are turning out to be a weak link. These reports also help you break down the costs of different employees and departments.

Some POS systems also enable you to enter and measure different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), like total sales made or orders completed. If a check in the kitchen is unnecessary, causing delays, labor reports can easily catch it, thereby helping you eliminate such resources.

In addition, labor reports can be beneficial in restaurants that include shift-based employees. A mobile POS system helps you track the work hours of each employee, along with overtimes and associated rewards.

3. Inventory Reports

Most restaurants overlook inventory management, especially those new to the business. They adopt a reactive approach and presume that everything's fine as long as sales outshine costs. This approach would work well for small restaurants, but as you scale up, this methodology can hurt your operations.

Inventory reports help you manage your costs. By pulling out inventory reports, you can keep track of the materials that you'll soon run out of, and the items that are available in excess. As a result, you'll not need to cut down menu items because you realized at the eleventh hour that a vital ingredient is missing.

4. Exception Reports

Discounts, cashback, and offers are crucial elements of running a restaurant business. Many restaurant owners allow their wait staff to grant a specific number of discounts per night. However, this process usually lacks proper supervision and oversight.

Some staff members even provide unapproved discounts in exchange for extra tips. As a result, the staff ends up giving large discounts to customers, which leads to loss of revenue.

Exception reports provide insight into every discount, refund, gift-card purchase, and all other benefits issued by your staff over a particular forecast period. These reports allow you to maintain superior quality customer service without compromising your well-earned profits.

5. Product mix and menu reports

Sales reports give a broad idea of your restaurant's overall sales, revenue, and profits. Though sales reports can help you determine the overall success or failure of your business, they can't demonstrate item-by-item information.

Product mix reports provide item-by-item information. They show you exactly which items are selling the most and which items aren't. This can help you optimize your staff and inventory accordingly.

For example, if omelets sell best for breakfast, you can reduce the preparation of other dishes and instruct your chefs to cook more omelets. These reports also provide insights into which items sell best on weekends and which ones on weekdays.

You can then compile all this information to create a sustainable and profitable strategy for your restaurant. You can also train your chefs and staff accordingly to enhance the efficiency of your restaurant business.

Wrapping Up

To conclude, no two restaurants are alike. If you have a small cafe with two employees, you might not need to analyze labor reports. Similarly, looking at menu reports might make no sense if there are only three items on your menu list.

So, understand the nature and requirements of your restaurant business, and use mobile POS system reports accordingly.

So, how do you use mobile POS software reports for your restaurant?