Xigaware

A good way to make more profits and successfully run your restaurant is by managing the controllable costs, such as food, labor and supplies. Although, controlling food would probably be the most difficult cost.

Simultaneously monitor portion sizes, prevent theft, watch waste and order efficiently should be done in order to manage food costs effectively.

An inventory software will help you identify specifically when your food costs are out of line. With an inventory software, typically you’ll save 1% to 2% of sales, and can save even more. And it is savings that adds directly to your bottom line profits.

Using a POS-based inventory control system, operators may well easily spot and solve food cost problems noticeable by just simply focusing on portion control. When employees know that the system is keeping track, it discourages both waste and theft.

A restaurant owner who’s been experiencing food cost problems learned that lesson after a week of using inventory control software.

In his restaurant, he was portion controlling, yield testing and performing physical inventory, but it wasn’t until he began using inventory software that he began to realize his inventory was out by exactly 2 pounds of pasta every week; coincidentally, the exact weight of a box. Knowing that, it was relatively easy to locate the source of the problem: one of the prep cooks was stashing a box of goodies every Friday night.

Your bottom line

Using an inventory control program, in a typical restaurant point of sale, the operator will need to set up the software by simply entering their recipes and product costs to the system. The system then tracks the ideal usage based on those recipes and the restaurant’s actual sales.

This software is also able to track product usage in situations where some orders is not in line with the standard recipe. The operator then can do a physical inventory and generate reports comparing that inventory with the calculated ideal usage in order to spot variances. The software can be set up to track as many items as the operator desires.

Generally in restaurants, their top 10 items 80 percent of their food cost problem. And you can schedule nightly counts of key items and weekly or even monthly counts of some other items.

Even an ounce of over-portioning 1 item per order can mean hundreds of dollars in a month for restaurants. If you eliminate over-portioning on 100 orders per day for 30 days on a .67 per pound of one item, could add up to more than 0.00 in savings or 00.00 in a year!

Better tracking and controls also helps an operator reduce the amount of stock they keep on hand, reducing waste and freeing up cash for other things. Losses due to carrying too much excess inventory can add up to a loss of between 2 percent and 5 percent on an average operator’s profit-and-loss statement.

We’ve assisted a client before who’s menu is fairly extensive and had lots of work for setting up, but by helping them program their system properly, we were able to drop their food cost by 2 to 4 percent – all of which went to their bottom-line profits.

So if you already have a restaurant POS system or are contemplating a purchase make sure you know how to and understand the additional profits that you can reap by learning and properly using the inventory module of the system.

The author of this article writes for POS-For-Restaurants.com, with over 20  years experience in restaurant point of sale systems, helping restaurant owners nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits..

Visit POS-Fof-Restaurants.com for more information on how our national network of restaurant point of sale experts can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!