How Many Restaurant POS Stations Will I Need?

• Peak volume of customers
  If you want to efficiently handle huge quantity of customers, you need to plan for the number of POS stations based on peak business.
• Considering the number of staff taking orders
  One station per 3-5 servers would be sufficient for a table service environment. You may want to add extra stations for handling high volume areas such as the bar and cashie stations. Switching from a cash register to a POS system, many people unintentionally 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 proper 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
  Having proper locations where customers can pay for their meals is also important, you don’t want to keep them waiting do you? For paying at the front, you should have 1 or 2 dedicated cashier stations quicker transactions.

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

• Desktop: standard desktop computers.
  • Least expensive computer option
  • With a gurantee of 3 years of onsite warranty
  • Takes more space but can be hidden away underneath a counter
  • Flexible enough for adding extra ports
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; if ever technical problems accur, it’ll be isolated.
• Small form factor (SFF): smaller than desktops.
  • More stylish than the desktop
  • Has 3 years standard onsite warranty
  • More Space Saving
  • Fewer options for expandability
  • Latest CPU speeds and memory
  • Screen and computer are separate; in case of technical difficulties problems are isolated.
• All-in-ones: the combination of touchscreen 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.
  • Screen and computer are combined

How many cash drawers?

• You may easily observe 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.

Should I consider having integrated credit cards?

• 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 kitchen/bar printers?

• One printer for your kitchen 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.
• As an example, appetizers can be printed on one printer and all your entrée dish on another printer.
• For kitchens and bars, it is highly recommended that you use impact 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.

How many receipt printers?

• It’s always a good idea for every station to have their own receipt printer.

Is a back office computer needed?

• A back office computer helps managers to run reports and access POS systems to change, remove or add important data without disturbing servers.
• A back office computer is not necessariliy required unless you have 4 or more stations. However, it’s a good idea that you host your database on a back office computer when you have 4 or more stations so that none of the stations has the additional load of running the 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.

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Restaurant Point of Sale Systems has many factors to consider in order to run a successful business. Let our experts show you how to take control of your business and increase your profits.

Taking Control of Your Business

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

In other words, a POS system is a glorified cash register. The basic POS system you’ll see in any establishment in the food industry, consisting of a computer, cash drawer, receipt printer, and an input device like a keyboard or scanner. However, in addition to being more efficient than cash registers, POS systems makes detailed reports which gives you all the information you will need to study your growth and make future plans for your business’ success.

POS systems can save you a great amount of money, increase your profits, and cut down the amount of time you spend on one business plan to the next.

Save more money, gain more control over your business, and being more productive; sounds like an excellent combination for your business, right? Well here are some of the best ways a modern POS system can help your business.

Eliminate shrinkage

A computerized POS system can drastically cut down on shrinkage, can be from a missing inventory to theft, waste and misuse of your staff. Because employees will know inventory is being carefully tracked, internal shrinkage will dwindle.

Accuracy

Whether you use barcode scanning or not, using a POS system can ensure that every item in your store or on your menu is sold for the correct price. Your staff will never have to guess prices again, and you can change prices with just one click of the mouse.

Getting margins

You can get better magins by having a detailed sales report, focusing on higher-margin items would be cinch. By moving items within a retail location, or promoting under-performing dishes in a restaurant, you can help boost sales of high-profit items.

Knowing your stats

With 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.

Manage inventory better

Knowing what stocks you need to keep on hand can easily be tracked with the helps of a detailed sales report. You can easily track your inventory, see what’s on stock, spot sales trends, and use historical data to better forecast your needs. A POS software can be used to alert you when it’s time to reorder for stocks that are running low. Because many store owners thinks that they know exactly what trends affects their business, they are mostly caught by a big surprise when they find out these data.

Build a customer list

Gather names and address of your best customers, you might never know when they’ll come in handy! You can use it for targeted advertising or incentive programs.

Reduce paperwork

Reducing the time you spend on doing inventory, sales figures, and other repetitive but important paperworks can be lessen if you use a POS system to help you out. It doesn’t only reduce the time but save more for you as well as give you a peace of mind.

Efficiency in transactions

In retail settings, you can make checkouts faster by using a barcode scanner and other POS features. And since POS systems streamlines your business, orders from the dining room is quick and accurately sent to the kitchen. In both cases, you’ll be making your customers happier with a faster and 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 proper training and analysis, even the most sophisticated POS system is nothing more than a regular cash register.

Retail needs vs. Hospitality needs

Since there are two segments in the POS market, they require different needs: restaurants, bars, and hotels and other retail operations and hospitality businesses.

Retail

Of the two groups, retailers have simpler POS needs. Retails can complete their transactions all at once and uses less variation for the items that they sell. Some POS features retailers may specifically want include the ability to support kits (3 for deals), support for digital scales and returns/exchanges. But if your business sells items in a variety of styles like clothes, then you will need a POS system that supports matrixes. As an example, matrixes gives you the ability 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 key focus for casual restaurants. For retail-style restaurants like sub shops, a POS system can greatly increase accuracy and cut down on time-per-transaction compared to hastily-scrawled order tabs being passed to the kitchen. For quick-service restaurants, POS systems are practically a requirement for living up to their name: orders entered on terminals in the front are automatically displayed on monitors in the food preparation area, ready to be quickly assembled and delivered to the customer.

For table-service restaurants and fine dining, POS requirements are somewhat different. Their needs includes the ability to create and store open checks, as parties order more over time, and to determine which waiter is handling which table. The efficiency gains from better management can be impressive. If your restaurant has 20 tables and has an average check of , it can increase turnover by one party per table, that would be an extra 0 on one busy night.

Return on Investment Worth the Trouble

Switching from your old system to a POS system can be difficult. There are many factors to consider and some pitfalls to avoid. However, the return of investment (ROI) can really make it worth your 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.

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A few simple tips for selecting Restaurant POS Software

Since technology keeps on growing, more and more restaurant and hospitality sector that are increasingly turning towards business management softwares to aid them with their needs, as well as to increase their efficiency.

It is crucial for any restaurant to select a restaurant POS software suite that is flexible and can grow with their business.

While not all business owners are comfortable with restaurant pos technology it can be a huge asset and vital to any hotel or restaurant wanting to trade immediately after installation, thus bringing in customers immediately. Always remember that a good POS software can save you money, time for training your staff, stock control, payroll as well as wages.

For the hospitality market sector, it is very competative and streamlining your business operations can mean the difference between failure or success. In this world, if you don’t keep pace with your competitors you could see yourself loosing your customer base through promotions and cheaper offers by smoothly run establishments operating management and restaurant software.

Restaurants are certainly no exception from this and having a good hospitality software suite for your restaurant or hotel is vital in being successful.

While there may be times when external factors can make a difference to your success, using the right hospitality software can significantly increase your chances of success and give you the edge over your competitors.

And if you are still searching for a software suite which is right for your business, make sure you look for a restaurant software suite that is robust, upgradeable, a great value for the price you payed for, and above all easy to use.

You also have to make sure that the hospitality software you purchase is adaptable to your needs. But if the software is inflexible and incapable of adapting or changing to meet your needs, it can cause more problems in the long run.

A retail POS business software should be easy to install and use, intuitive and does not require days of training; it should be fully modular, flexible and upgradeable to grow with your business. Additionally, you need to look for restaurant software that will run on your computer systems.

If you’re going to use multiple till then you’ll be needing a good back up system, a system that will replicate your master data file to another machine making sure you don’t loose data in the event of a system crash. You need to ensure that the restaurant POS you select will allow multiple hardware configuration, as well as payroll integration and data export to sage or quick-books. Most users will have at one time or another use Windows OS to run their computer, because many of the professional scalable POS and hospitality software solutions were programmed specifically [with windows in mind.

As a final consideration, your restaurant point of sale software should be fast and user-friendly, for the benefit of both you and your customers.

Mostly, restaurants are extremely busy especially during peak hours, so a POS system that workd quickly and doesn’t crashes easily would be the best choice!Since most good restaurants are always busy, especially during peak times, a POS system that will work quickly and not freeze or crash during constant use should be the one you purchase. A good stable piece of software may not be cheap, but it can really help your business run smoothly which gives you more time to concentrate on other areas of your business.

Support is one of the main priorities of any business, so you have to make sure you have the option of telephone support or virtual network connection support similar to yahoo and msn messenger this will be an optional extra with any good POS software provider and worth its weight in gold if your systems go down and you are unable to trade.

Always remember that software programmers knows far more than you. An overlooked point that many clients have regretted from my experience, make sure that whoever you purchase the software from can offer after- hours support should you need it, also a company in the same time zone is a very useful commodity.

With over 20 years experience in the industry of Point of Sale Systems, the author of this article is the Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com, an online information service to help restaurants receive competitive bids for hardware, software or a complete restaurant point of sale system.

Visit them at POS-For-Restaurants.com

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Not so long ago, controlling labor cost in the food service industry was done by just going with the flow. Having an effective labor control meant by being able to manage employees during a rush to keep the operation up and running, and send them home as quickly as possible when the rush is over.

To effectively make projections of future sales, restaurant manager keeps track of their business’ performance for the past couple of weeks and converted those numbers into an staff schedule. And when the day is done, the manager sits down on his desk calculating time cards for the day’s labor percentage where success or failure of those efforts is going to be determined.

However, those days are no longer with us because of restaurant point of sale systems that has taken over many of the functions a restaurant manager used to do manually.

With the minimum wage set to rise to .25 over the next few years, operators are looking for every tool they can find to keep labor costs under control.

Jim Phillips the general manager of a Pizza Inn restaurant, tracks down his daily labor record via the store’s Point of Sale System. He uses a restaurant POS system from Pixel Point.

“I check my labor cost every 45 minutes when I’m in the restaurant,” Phillips  said. “I can pull it up on the terminal, hit labor cost and it tells me where my labor stands, or if I want to I can go into my hourly stats and look at those,” says Phillips.

With a restaurant POS system, you can view forecasted sales, actual sales and a variance between the two. It can even show scheduled hours versus actual hours for added convenience.

Since the system can tell you everything you needed; the number of dine-ins and buffets, you can have more time making future plans. It can even give your supervisor, kitchen staff and assistant’s hours all in a breakdown.

An extra pair of eyes

Some POS reports show labor trends over time, and with this owners or district managers can track labor cost manager performance shift-to-shift, said the marketing manager of Speedline Solutions Jennifer Wiebe. This system also provide detailed reports on manual editing of time clock reports so you can easily spot potential abuse.

You can even use the detailed information provided by time clock reports for labor board reviews of attendance-related employee terminations.

And at the end of day, your POS system can generate payroll- and employee-information export files to integrate with above-store accounting systems or third-party payroll services.

The POS also can assist managers properly assign employee-shift by the forcasted sales report and by generating a schedule from them.

Managers can efficiently schedule to meet their labor targets using sales forecasting and their labor plans. The Pixel Point scheduling tool is linked with employee skills and availability that can speed up the scheduling process.”

Restrictions on hours and breaks for minor employees can be enforced through schedule- and time-clock alerts. The schedule can also include a built-in time clock that requires a manager’s for overriding late clock-ins or early clock-outs.

Mostly, operators sets their clock-in and clock-out times within 5 minutes before or after the actual time.

“Employees can’t clock in until 5 minutes before their scheduled shift or clock out late without a manager override. The system tells me if an employee is supposed to be off but he is still on the clock.”

This article’s author is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-FOR-Restaurants.com – a national organization of retail and restaurant POS systems dealers.

For more information see their website at POS-For-Restaurants.com

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Click here for a video that explains the risk of non-PCI compliance

PCI and Credit Card Security Background

Since magnetic strip cards were invented, both restaurateur and their customers have been enjoying the convenience of accepting and using credit and debit cards. However, given the skyrocketing cost and frequency of credit fraud, well established card brands such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB have taken preventive measures to safeguard their stakeholders.

The mag stripe on credit cards was invented by IBM in 1968 and became the industry standard. Since the track data is easy to read and duplicate on the mag stripe, the card brands, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council built a set of standards to secure cardholder data that begins with the directive: ‘Don’t store track data.’

The PCI Standards

There’s the three-pronged approach that the PCI Security Standards Council took for protecting consumers, merchants/restaurateurs and banks:

• PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) ‐ includes all entities that store, process, or transmit cardholder data (Merchants, restaurateurs, service providers, processors, etc.)

Deadline for Compliance: Month of January 2007 (deadlines are long passed)

What this Means – All restaurateurs (in spite of size) is required to complete and submit a PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire annually to their Acquiring Bank.

• Payment Application Data Security Standard or PA-DSS ‐ it covers all applications used to store, process, or transmit cardholder data as part of authorization or settlement. (Point-of-Sales (POS) application developers)

Deadlines for Compliance:

Oct. 1, 2008 ‐ Only the software that is compliant with the new payment application security standards must be used by agents, merchants and payment processors.

Oct. 1, 2009 ‐ Termination of any noncompliant payment applications that merchants might still be using in their environments will be required.

July 1, 2010 ‐ Mandatory use of only the payment applications that support the new standards.

What this Means – If, after the deadline, a merchant/restaurateur is not running a PA DSS-validated application, means that they automatically fail their PCI assessment and could lose their ability to accept credit cards.

• Pin Entry Devices (PED) Standard – this covers all PEDs and is aimed at ensuring that the cardholder’s PIN, and any sensitive information such as resident keys, are protected consistently at a PIN acceptance device.

Deadline for Compliance:

Jan. 1, 2004 ‐ To all newly purchased Point of Sale (POS) PIN Entry Devices, they must pass by a recognized laboratory of Visa and be approved by Visa.

July 1, 2010 ‐ Mandates that every POS PEDs must pass and get approved by PCI SSC from one of its recognized laboratories.

It Means ‐ Merchants/restaurateurs have two years to replace older, un-approved PEDs.

The Do’s With Payment Card Industry (PCI)

• Make routine vulnerability scans of your POS systems.

• Prepare a security awareness training for your staff.

• Make system access audits.

• System activity logs should be monitored.

• Separated employees should no longer have access privileges.

• Install software patches.

• Be serious when it comes to any threats, have an incident response plan.

PCI Don’ts

• Whole credit card numbers must not be stored or archived.

• Do not transmit credit card data unencrypted.

• With Payment Card Industry, it is not simply about proving you are compliant with the standards – it’s all about making you and your customers protected.

PCI’s Effect on Restaurateurs

Given consumers’ expectation of universal acceptance of using credit cards, restaurateurs’ validation that they are giving protection to their customers’ personal data is great for business:

Reputation / Image

In any competitive business – no restaurateur would want to be named as the store where a personal card data was stolen.

Protects Ability to Accept Credit / Debit Card Payments – by not complying and/or a breach can risk a restaurateur’s ability to accept credit/debit payments. In many cases, credit/debit payments account for 80% to 90% of transactions. Losing your store’s ability to accept credit/debit cards means reduced customers.

The Effects of State Privacy Laws

A breach that discloses personal credit card information in one of the 40+ States with privacy laws may give a double impact on a restaurateur. Being off-side with PCI will result in penalties and lawsuit costs. Being off-side with State Privacy Laws is a crime punishable by confinement with possibly more serious consequences.

Complying / Security Strategy

• Ensure your restaurant or store uses PA‐DSS or PABP validated POS systems

• Ensuring that you use approved PEDs

• Have regular security awareness training for your staff – particularly supervisors

• Doing a background check on all employees that has administrative access to your system is a must

• Have a ‘Confidentiality Agreement’ contract with your staff

• When it comes to your PCI Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), carefully and accurately complete the form and when you’re not sure with your answers, just ask

• If gaps in PCI compliance are identified, develop a realistic plan to straighten it out

• Maintain mature controls to sustain compliance

• Access controls

• Always have double factor for system and device management

• Properly store your strong passwords and secure passwords

• Keep monitoring system activities for possible attacks and record evidences

• Controlling your wireless access points

• Always maintain a secure configuration

• Segment networks

• Have an Incident Response Plan and test it to make sure that it’s always ready when needed

• Test and audit the cardholder environment like your business depended on it

It may be an overwhelming task the first time but when everything else is in place, an ongoing PCI compliance is not an expensive job. Besides, it’s a good practice for businesses to protect the sensitive data that your customers trust upon you.

Do You Have Any Questions?

For more information and advice on this topic you can quickly contact a Restaurant POS professional serving your area at www.POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Vice President of Customer Relations at
POS-For-Restaurants.com with over 20 years experience in the restaurant point of sale industry.

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Why can’t I just stick with paper records?

It takes a considerable amount of time to record every business transaction by hand. And it still doesn’t include the time to duplicate the information into a spreadsheet or database for further analysis! A POS system can keep track of all sales, returns, taxes, inventory, etc. so you’d be able to concentrate on other important plans for your business. While your POS system do all the crucial tasks, it saves time and increases productivity more than makes up for the expenditure.

I’m not that good with it comes to computers. Will I be able to use POS and its functionality?

You should be able to handle a POS system with no problems. A vendor can help you to set up the software to do the things that you want. And then be able to navigate a POS system’s menu easily. When your POS vendor sets you up, they will provide full training with you and your employees for how to use it. And in case of problems, a POS customer service professional is just a phone call away!

What equipment do I need to get set up?

POS customers need a phone connection, internet connection, and working electrical outlets. If you have these components, vendors can set you up with POS in a cinch! You don’t even need to own a computer since most vendors provide one as part of the entire system package.

Can POS help me prevent theft?

POS systems have multiple tools that can help you prevent this. There are various applications which can allow you to accurately track inventory items so you can estimate exactly how much profit you should realize for every sale and pinpoint problems with your margins. And if ever there are discrepancies, it will raise immediate red flags 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 input all the information you want AND check out the inventory… and those aren’t just the tasks you can do, there are lots more you can do with POS. POS terminal and software also allows tracking of sales performance, you can even generate reports, set up reminders for inventory that needs to be restocked, as well as plan for future sales campaigns. Use your collected customer data for targeting effective sales campaigns and fill your shelves with the items they purchase the most.

When do I need wireless?

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 go straight for a flat-screen LCD monitor, or start off with CRT monitors?

You can get more benefits using LCD monitors over to CTR monitors, and of course it also depends on the work environment. First of all, they look great on any counter tables, they take up less space, less electricity and they can last longer. CRT screens are fine for low volume sales and if you’re not sure that POS will fit your business. But with the additional benefits when it comes to flat screens, there will be little cost difference between the two.

Wich printer is better: a dot matrix printer or a thermal printer?

For most businesses, a thermal printer works best. There are less moving parts so it’s less likely to break down. If you work wireless, it’s the only option you’ve got. Even so, the dot-matric printer is a safer choice for hospitality kitchens since the heat from the ovens, grills, and fryers could warp thermal paper and ink.

What happens if my POS suddenly 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 (preferably offsite so your important files is protected), you ensure the system is always up and running when you need it the most. More importantly, by backing up data, you ensure you can easily restore all customer information, as well as your sales figures and reports you’ve saved prior to the crash.

How about customer support?

Well, customer support vary from vendor to vendor, so 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.

This is one of the reasons you should keep in contact with your POS vendor. Since customer support is likely one of your most pressing needs, look into the offerings of different vendors, take time evaluating each, and make a straight decision before purchasing.

What 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. The first is each location operates independently with its own terminal and software. You can then send reports over to the corporate offices at the end of the day or week.

For the second option, you can have all their POS terminals connected to a central server so that uploading and downloading of data is 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, it’s imperative to have a robust back up solution since all locations will be sharing one server – if it fails, every location could be inoperable.

Does my POS software needs license?

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.

Do I need to purchase a service contract?

It’s certainly worth the expense if you want to stay up and running at all times. Once your POS system is set up, you can now use it for day-to-day operations and analysis for future plans. If the computer breaks down or got hit by a disaster, you probably don’t want to keep it any longer.

Depending on the vendor, a maintenance contract can cost a few hundred bucks a year and provide you with peace of mind so you can concentrate on running and growing your business.

Need additional information or an online resource?

Go to POS-For-Restaurants.com if you want to receive multiple quotes for your Restaurant Point of Sale System.

The author of this article is the Customer Relations Vice-President at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types all over the U.S.

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POS Software Overview

Looking for the best Point of Sale Systems for your restaurant? Find them out here, compare and get ready to learn about online restaurant management softwares: for order tracking, payment processing, monitoring staff and more

Restaurant owners would do perfectly well a good restaurant POS system, but between the confusion of hardware and software, monthly contracts,programming setup, leasing equipment and peripherals, that simple old cash register relieves all the hassles.

But remember; that breath of fresh air can be costing a restaurant owner thousands more than the what costs them on a monthy POS system. Just imagine having one central computer system that tracks staff schedules and kitchen inventory, keeps track of orders and wait times, creates reservations and can even accept online orders.

Restaurant POS software and hardware

The software, whether it’s Aldelo, Aloha, FuturePOS or Micros, consists of the program you’re running and not your touch-screen monitor, hand held PDA devices, keyboards, mouse and printers. As with any expensive POS, there’s always a catch at the end so never close a deal on the spot. You may find several vendors who offers very low prices for their POS software, but intentionally neglect to inform you that it will only work with their super expensive computers.

Note that a company that really works hard to provide good quality programs does not need to make a business of vending computer components. Or worse, lease them at a very high rate. When closing a deal, you need to figure out how much it’ll cost you for each components. You may find it a lot easier paying for a monthly fee of for a computer but after a year, it’s likely paid off at $600 and the whose part is that the client will still continue to pay after another year since it’s a lease, so while technology changes the outdated equipment is still being charged as if it were new.

Online Restaurant Management

The ability to access the system from a remote computer is a great feature. Imagine this – enjoying a lovely breakfast in Palm Beach with your laptop sitting next to you and seeing the security camera. With a few keystrokes you can check your labor percentage, send out an email to your manager reminding him of your business’ anniversary party tonight.

You might want to do a few check ups on your server, staff log and see their performance for today. This feature is such a relief, now you can go back to being pampered.

Programming a Restaurant POS System

Many POS systems are specifically designed to be programmed by the end user, which can really be intimidating at first. Check to see if their company has a list of consultants or other help for programming to help you out. Many POS Software companies team up with the restaurant owner making sure that the software can satisfy their business needs.

It would be a wise decision to look for these companies that offers this kind of service for free as you get started with your business. Charging for a fee course after a year later really isn’t out of line but charging for initial training isn’t standard practice with every company.

The Best Point of Sale System for Restaurants

Always remember, every restaurant or bar has their own needs. A hot dog drive through will need less options than a steak house or pizzeria. A restaurant bar and grill requires different features than of a donut shop. Every restaurant has their own unique requirements. It’s much better to send away for every information packet. Does it have a warranty or guarantee? How about a trial period? Will the POS system work with your current credit card processor, or it it requires you to switch? Can you export sales data to your Quickbooks or other accounting software?

So before you head on to your local POS vendor and close a deal, better weigh in first those POS software and hardware options of yours! It can save a restaurant owner thousands of dollars, not to mention the stress and headache of ending up with the restaurant point of sale system that’s not worth all the expenses. Listen to a salesman’s 15 minute pitch and review each pitch carefully. And finally, consider listening to the advices and suggestions of other restaurant owners before deciding on which point of sale system you’re going with.

For more info about point of sale systems, go to: www.POS-For-Restaurants.com

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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.

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Introducing A New Payment Method That Could Make Credit Cards Obsolete

Contactless is a leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless chip technologies, have announced that they have made a 3-year agreement with First Data, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing services, of developing contactless payment stickers that will be marketed by First Data as GO-Tag products. On their agreement, INSIDE is the one to supply the MicroPass payment sticker prelams entirely to First Data-qualified card manufacturers for production.

This agreement can provide a strategic advantage to the core technology from INSIDE Contactless and the issuing and transaction processing power of First Data. First Data will be marketing and distributing GO-Tag products to financial institutions, major U.S. merchants, and other distribution channels in a variety of form factors.

First Data’s GO-Tag Solution represents a very important step into the future plastic cards and fobs, and offers a bridge to the future of mobile payments according to Barry McCarthy, general manager, Mobile Commerce and Point of Sale Solutions for First Data. “Our partnership with INSIDE Contactless enables us to offer consumers an opportunity to turn just about any personal item, from a mobile phone to an employee ID badge, into a payment device.”

It’s the versatility of the MicroPass platform to support a variety of contactless payment applications and form factors, including stickers, that highlights their agreement.

Consider updating your restaurant POS system to Contactless credit card acceptance in the near future as this technology becomes more common in the marketplace. And we all know that customer service is all about the speed and fast transaction to a restaurant point of sale terminal, the better the service is the better your customer experience will reflect on the value of your services.

The author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com with over 20 years experience helping restaurants nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits using restaurant POS systems.

To learn on how our national POS network of restaurant point of sale specialists can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times, visit POS-For-Restaurants.com.

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Increasing Profits

In our world today, even a single cent counts so by adding them to your bottom line is also a big help. Here are a few steps that will increase your profits, by boosting your sales, reducing debit card fees and expenses, and most of all block theft.

In the food service industry, if you’re running a restaurant point of sale system then this simple tips can greatly help you drive your business to success!

Checks

They are still widely used, especially among older customers. So if you’re still not accepting checks, starting soon would be a good idea. There’s equipment that will scan the check as quickly as a credit card, check out and measure them against a nationwide database of bad check writers, transfers the money to your account electronically, and guarantee you receive your funds within a few days. In addition, it costs lower than for credit cards and could add 10%-15% of your sales—maybe more if majority of your customers are seniors.

Accepting Credit Cards

Of course, you’re already accepting cards like Visa and MasterCard. What about Discover and American Express? Particularly, the latter accompanies larger transactions in general. You might have felt hesitated because of the fee, but reconsider—the difference might be a paltry one percent or so, and since American Express transactions are often larger than those of other cards, you’ll make it up in gross profit. Furthermore, if you’re known for accepting all forms of credit and debit cards, your customers will probably be more likely to visit again.

Researching

Most merchants think their fees are 1.69% plus an additional $.19 because that’s their qualified rate on a pricing program tier. But often fewer than 20 out of 100 transactions receives low qualified rate and all the rest downgrade and cost one, two, or even three percent. By researching for alternate programs that offer different interchange rates might just help you out in saving more.

Understandable Statements

You and your bookkeeper don’t have to scratch your heads over a complex credit card statement that just doesn’t add up. A few companies have made extraordinary efforts to simplify these reports. You should be able to reconcile your statement and rates in no more than 15 minutes.

Get Reports by Internet

Don’t wait for the post office to deliver a letter disputing a charge. Using internet reporting, you’ll exactly know what’s up within 24 hours, it allows you to aggressively defend against chargebacks. This type of quick action will increase your success rates and reduce your losses.

So there will be no more scratching of the head for both you and your bookkeeper over complex credit card statements.

Using Card Validation Value and Address Verification System. They are highly effective fraud screens proven to reduce losses, and when you use them correctly, you can achieve the lowest possible rate for discounts.

Another thing, you need to avoid hackers by being PCI compliant. Hackers can cause merchants huge fines, and drive them out of business. Take the time to read Visa’s report on noncompliant systems, so you’d always be alert.

Avoiding Huge Chargebacks

If you run an online or phone ordering business, it’s always a great idea to implement the “Verified by Visa” or “MasterCard Secure Code” plug-in on your web site. This can help eliminate cardholder nonauthorization chargebacks. The state of being legally obliged and responsible for these chargebacks is shifted away back to the issuing card bank, and you qualify for the lowest discount rate available. By this simple step, you could possibly eliminate up to 80% of all chargebacks and increase your profits.

With over 20 years of restaurant point of sale experience and helping businesses in the food-service industry nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits, the author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

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

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