Posts Tagged ‘Point of Service’

Spring cleaning for your computer! Just think about it – Can’t rememeber the last time you cleaned your PC? Deleted old files from your pc? If you can’t when, then maybe it’s time to clean!

No worries, a lot of people don’t have the time set aside to clean their computer, but they do find that time when their system slows down. Regularly cleaning your PC and it’s parts, especially since most are in a restaurant environment, can keep your system running smoothly and help protect you from unwanted problems. This can also get your restaurant Point of Sale system up and running perfectly as expected.

Follow this few simple tips for your spring cleaning:

1. Start with your mouse. No one ever suspects the little guy, but your mouse could hold all sorts of harmful bacteria that may cause illness. Use a small amount of cleaning solution on a lint free cloth to clean the mouse every now and then. If other people, using your PC, are getting sick because of it, then you need to clean your PC more often.

2. Next is your keyboard. Keyboards collect a lot of tiny dirt from you – little crumbs of food, dust from papers or folders scattered across the desk, and most of the times even from your unwashed hands on the keyboard. Cleaning the keyboard is not hard as it seems, first shut down your computer, remove the plugs and take your keyboard to a trash can. Turn it upside down, to prevent it from falling to the ground, and lightly shake it or use compressed air to remove any dirt under the keys.

After getting rid of the debris from around the keys, use cotton {swabs|buds} with a little cleaning solution like isopropyl alcohol to clean in between the keys. Next use a lint free cloth with a little bit of cleaning solution to wipe the tops of all the keys. Finish up by wiping the entire keyboard with a dry cloth.

3. Cleaning your computer. The actual computer component that your monitor, keyboard and mouse plug in to , also called the CPU. These units can astonishingly collect vast amount of dirt, especially if they are placed on the floor. Have you baffled after seeing what’s under your PC tower? If so, it’s definitely time for a cleaning.

Again, with the same cloth and cleaning solution you used for your mouse and keyboard, wipe down the outside vents and around the connections. You have to make sure you get as much dust as you can out of the vents. your PC is going to overheat.}

4. Dump the trash. How long has it been since you visited the recycle bin and emptied its content? The recycle bin is where all deleted files are dumped before they are permanently removed from your PCs hard drive. To empty the recycle bin is easy, all you need to do is right click on the “trashcan” icon, choose “yes” and it will permanently remove all files giving more free space for your hard drive.

5. Clear the cache. Another disk space hog can be temporary internet files that have never been deleted for ages! To simply delete temporary internet files within Microsoft Internet Explorer, open your browser, click on Tools -> Internet Options. At the Browsing History section, there’s a button labeled “Delete”. Click Delete and you will have a number of choices – Temporary Inter Files, Cookies, History, Form data and Passwords.

Down here is a brief description each choices under the Browsing History section:

Temporary Internet Files – Deleting this will remove all copies of the websites/webpages you’ve visited, images and media that are saved on your computer for {faster|quick} viewing.

Cookies – Deleting the cookies will remove the files stored on your PC by websites to save preferences such as login information.

History – Deleting the history will delete the list of websites you have visited.

Form Data – This will delete any saved information that you have typed into forms.

Password – This will delete any passwords that are automatically filled in when you log on to a website you’ve previously visited.

There is also a Delete All button that will clear all of the above.

your PC regularly, especially if it is placed in an environment, like the restaurant kitchen, where dirts and spills are common.}

The author of this article is the Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants. With over 20 years of restaurant POS solutions experience, POS-For-Restaurants helps you use your technology to be more efficient, more productive and more profitable.

More information on our website: POS-For-Restaurants.com

• POS or Point of Sale.

This is a system built for the restaurant and retail industry. With a computerized system, it allows business owners to track sales, the flow of cash, food inventory and helps simplify your bookkeeping enormously. Why it’s perfect for a restaurant: The high volume of cash and credit cards that pass through a restaurant each day make a POS system a necessary. Not only does a POS system track your sales, many POS programs also act as credit card processors. This can make the swiping of credit cards faster and safer for your customers as well as your staff. Servers are accountable for all their sales, and it is impossible to alter checks in the computer unless you have an access. This eliminates employee theft.

• The many benefits of using a restaurant POS system

One benefit of a POS system is that it simplifies communications between the kitchen and the wait staff. Orders are taken then sent through the computer directly to the kitchen printer. Another benefit of a restaurant POS programs is that it tracks everything from food usage, to the most popular menu items. Because your POS system can act as a time clock, it can also help prepare payroll. This can save you a good amount of money in your bookkeeping department. Along with the daily operations of running a restaurant, a POS system can organize profit and loss statement and also your sales tax.

• Any reasons to devalue a restaurant POS system?

Your POS systems is still a computer, subject to all technological problems. If it happens to crash and you don’t have a back up, then you risk losing all your business documents, not just sales, but profit and loss statements and also your payroll statements. Some important information that the IRS may need to check up some day. So, it’s very important to have a back up.

• Thinking about extended warranties?

Remember all the money you saved using POS system for recording all your financial transactions? You could end up spending it on set ups, upgrades and troubleshooting of your POS computers. POS systems doesn’t have the same life span as good old fashioned cash register. You will need to replace parts, update software and eventually need to replace it entirely with a new model. Today, new POS systems has limited warranties and tech support, but just like every other POS equipment, the problems always seem to starts after the warranty has run out. For this problem, you will also need to buy extra tech support.

• Looking for some of the most popular popular software providers?

Below are some of the great POS software providers.

• Aldelo
• Digital Dining
• POSitouch
• Radiant Systems
• Squirrel Systems

If you are planning a very small operation, such as bagel or sandwich shop, you may not need a POS system at first, especially if you aren’t going to take credit cards (and there are plenty of places that still don’t accept credit cards). However, if you are planning of expanding your business, then you may want to consider planning everything first before buying POS systems.

Need more info on POS systems or an online resource?

Go to http://www.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.

Studying the Types of Input Devices: Point of Sale(POS) Equipment 

Point of Sale (POS) Equipment: Keyboards and touch screens

One of the first choices you will have to make about your POS equipment is whether to go with a touch screen or a programmable keyboard. Most businesses choose touch screens. The only market where keyboards are more popular is grocery stores, because it can program individual keys for specific item codes and prices.

Touch screens are more intuitive to use than keyboards for many users. They also provide more flexibility in the user interface and programming. Most touch screens sold today are flat-screen LCDs unlike the traditional CRT monitors. While LCD touch screens are slightly more expensive (typically $600 – $1,000 instead of $400 – $500), they last longer, doesn’t use much electricity, and take up less space. They even look much better. With both CRT and LCD displays, avoid “overlay” touch screens that are added on to regular monitors – they are more prone to breakdowns and add an unnecessary complication to your system.

When it comes to keyboards, some has the standard 101-keys model similar to any computer. The flat-panel membrane keyboards are smaller and more POS-specific device which is you often see on fast food chains. Often, POS keyboards come with built-in magnetic stripe readers for processing debit cards. Programmable keyboards usually go for between $150 and $300.

No matter which you use, just make sure you consider the environment where it will be used. Both keyboards and touch screens are available with varying levels of spill and dust-proofing.

Bar code scanners
POS scanners reads bar codes and sends the information back to the computer. Typically, scanners connect to the system through Y-connectors called wedges that make them function as an extension of the keyboard. Bar code scanning has an improved accuracy and speed things up during checkout.

Low quality scanners are based on charge-coupled device (CCD) technology. They can be inexpensive, but usually have limitations – an item being scanned needs to be 1 to 3 inches from the scanner. In a typical retail setting, that should be fine.

Laser scanners uses a beam of light in order to read bar codes, they offer much better scanning ability since they are able to scan at long ranges. There are also “autosensing” laser scanners that turn themselves on automatically when an item is placed in front of them for scanning, and then turn off again. The omnidirectional scanners can send out 15 or 20 lasers simultaneously, making bar code scanning from any angle easy. The top of the line scanner is the embedded scanner, which are omnidirectional scanners that are positioned below a counter, as is common in supermarkets.

Choose a scanner based on your customer volume. If the counter line has only one or a couple of customers, the CCDs or entry-level laser scanners should. A fairly constant flow of customers might call for an autosensing model, and very high volume businesses should investigate omnidirectional or embedded scanners. Their prices may range from below 0 to 0 or more.

Handheld POS terminal
One of the latest and clever type of input device is the handheld, wireless terminal. For PDAs, which wirelessly transmits orders back to its base station. A great advantage this POS equipment can provide to a restaurant is that they increase the amount of time servers spend on the floor taking orders and interacting with customers, because it eliminates the need to go back to a terminal to enter orders.

Write-on handhelds: instead of trying to fit a touch-screen interface onto a tiny PDA screen, these devices allow servers to simply write the orders down. Handwriting recognition software parses the order then sends it on to the kitchen and bar as needed.

Handheld terminals are more expensive compared to traditional touch-screen order terminals. However, these devices can make up for their cost by allowing your servers to spend more time up-selling more desserts and drinks. If you are evaluating handheld terminals, make sure you ask about the “drop test” – these units are rated for toughness according to how much they can survive a fall. You can easily find out if your business is a candidate for handheld POS terminals by comparing POS equipment from multiple dealers to learn what products and services they offer.

For more info and free POS quotes or perhaps an online resource?

Check out 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.

A Guide to Restaurant Point of Sale Management Software

A growing number of available restaurant POS software that will help you lower costs, save time and drops profit to your bottom line!

Many people think that the restaurant business isn’t that much worthy of time and effort. In spite of this, numerous restaurant Point of Sale software programs have been developed to help you with nearly every aspect of running your business. And there’s more good news: most of this software fists the budget for smaller retail businesses that operate only a few quick-service restaurants or even a single location. The various software products currently available can help you:

1. Greatly increase profits|Double your profits|Increase your profits
2. Lower food costs
3. Streamline staff scheduling
4. Improve table and customer management
5. Improve reservations system
6. Control inventory
7. Design menus

Cost out your recipes

Providing accurate recipe cost to your customers can get your business on the fast track to success. With the right figures, it will be easy for you to identify your most profitable menu items as well as items that aren’t performing well. POS software programs eliminate human error in this vital area.

Tables and reservation management

Reservation software can help you reduce no-shows, take reservations from your Web site, identify VIPs and regulars, track customer preferences, capture customer contact information, and more. It can also help you maximize table management and improve your guest management.

Managing inventory

In order to minimize waste and to avoid running out of necessary ingredients, a restaurant owner needs need to have full control of his inventory management and keeping track of goods.

Recommended:

The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant Point of Sale software are available at POS-For-Restaurants.com

Ordering and purchasing

Look for software that streamlines the ordering and purchasing process, giving you more time to concentrate on revenue-generating activities.

Recommended:

The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant point of sale system are available at POS-For-Restaurants.com

Menu design

Making menu designs can help boost your customer volume by creating designs that would attack more visitors. But designing your own menu is hard and time consuming, especially if you do not have the necessary skills it requires. You will end up hiring a graphic designer and pay each time you need a new design. By purchasing a POS software that lets you create menu designs, it eliminates the need of hiring a professional designer! You can make your own menu designs depending on your restaurant’s theme, holidays, highlighted menu, etc.

Proper staff scheduling

Every retail establishment owner knows that scheduling employees can be a real headache. When performed manually, the task is time-consuming and often results in mistakes, such as understaffing or overstaffing.

Recommended:

The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant Point of Sale software are available at POS-For-Restaurants.com

A few helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• When operating on more than one restaurant, it’s alway a good idea to test-drive your POS software first on one before implementing it to all.
• With your restaurant software programs’ powerful reporting features, use them to analyze your sales, your customers and your menu. Make changes based on what you learn.

Restaurant Point of Sale Systems: Innovation Can Help Enhance Profit – Do It NOW!

When it comes to sourcing out POS software, you’ll find that restaurant and hospitality operators have become much more tech proficient in recent years. 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 your planning for a big upgrade on your POS systems, here’s what you would be looking for in 2009.

It’s only been a while when hospitality operators used to be so excited to use their first ever restaurant POS system. Does anyone remember their first restaurant POS system? 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 miraculously, your beverage orders printed out at the bar while the food orders printed at the same time in the kitchen. Everyone wanted to try it out!

Since then, the world of restaurant POS systems have evolved to meet the needs of people. Today’s hospitality operators are becoming much more tech savvy than they’ve ever been, 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 swallowed up quickly if they don’t furnish what today’s hospitality operators are demanding. Here are the top features every restaurant & hospitality operator should be looking for once they’ve decided to invest in a new POS system in 2009.

Data Reports -

The top two issues every hospitality-based business wants to get a handle on are food cost, and labor costs. Always keep those things in check, and your chances of succeeding in such a competitive market are remarkably 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 state of the art 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. Time and attendance can be precisely monitored. Real time and instant access to data also allows managers to spot problems quickly and make snap decisions to address discrepancies in cash flow and adjust inventory levels. The POS system will pay for itself many times over if it can help you get a handle on these two issues alone.

Management and Integration of Back Office -

By linking all your POS terminals 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 any retail business efficiently and profitably. A modern POS system will allow you to do this quickly and easily, all from the back office. Integration and management of your back office should be the first thing on your list.

Management of Customer Relationship -

A successful promotion can go a long way in boosting profits. Making sure your coupon or gift card programs are working perfectly is a bit hard. If your POS system can quickly help you evaluate which promotions are working and which ones aren’t, 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 are most likely to work. Effective customer loyalty and points programs make your customers happy and keep them coming back. So, when it comes to Customer Relationship Management, let your POS system do most of the thinking for you.

Wireless Technology -

Wireless POS systems are perfect 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 use in a private suite). In traditional environments, like restaurants, there are many great benefits that wireless devices can provide, especially wireless hand held devices.

With wireless hand held units, your staff saves time taking orders with out having to line up to get access to the POS terminal, and therefore are much more productive. Since the order is sent instantly, at tables, servers are able to go quickly from one table to the next. Managers can lessen staffing levels by simply scheduling a few of his skilled employees, give them larger sections, and direct 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 cleaning tables. When serving staff are able to remain on the floor, the result is a superb customer service experience for your regular customers and greatly increase sales by up-selling and faster table turns. Also, wasted food decreases because taking orders directly at tables greatly reduces errors.

Another very useful feature of wireless hand held technology is that orders going into the kitchen are more evenly spaced, so you avoid overwhelming the kitchen with too many orders at once. This greatly increases the efficiency of kitchen staff and further decreases waste. Wireless hand held technology has been greatly polished though the years, with its increased battery life and ease of usage it improves staff performance. The time indeed has come for restaurants to embrace wireless POS technology.

Payment Security -

Payment security is crucial in today’s marketplace. With the incidence of fraud and identity theft reaching epidemic proportions, safeguarding the safety of your client’s credit card data is vital. You may visit PCI Security Standards Council, the open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection. Are you sure your POS system is secured and PCI compliant? If it isn’t, then you better act now before it’s too late.

The Technology of Self Service -

Self-service technology have been the talk of the town in recent years. Having moved beyond kiosks, self serve options give business owners in the food-service the ability to let customers process their own orders, which greately reduces waste. Touch screen POS terminals are now intuitive and easy to use, and offer add on/up sell items instantaneously, which boosts the average check totals. The traditional “Server” is replaced by food runners, or counter staff, who can also do quality checks. Payments can even be done by customers, for faster table turns and increased cover counts.

Self-service terminals may not be appealing for patrons who wants to experience fine dining, but it certainly is attractive for fast food chains or quick service restaurants. Remanco certainly didn’t offer all these features!

For Enterprise & Multi Unit -

For those who operate large and multi-venue operations, searching for the right POS system can still be easy. Because to logistics and a host of other obstructions, businesses with multiple locations were forced to seek alternatives in how they coordinated the collection of cash and data. With this kind of business, you may need enterprise wide systems that has features such as client recognition capabilities, hospitality and retail sales, as well as quick and easy debit and credit options and many more. It may also require a system that has the ability to get around cabling and network issues, as well as precious data in case of a system failure. And if your company falls into this category, an enterprise POS solution that is reliable and flexible is just the right thing.

With all the things said above, many might think that it would be difficult to find a POS system that offers all of the above and more. One POS system, however, consistently stands out and not in group with the POS industry. The state of the art POS system, the modern and flexible Toronto based Volante POS Systems. Volante has seamlessly embraced all the above features and more. It’s fully PCI compliant too! Volante first boasted its superiority in 1993, and is cross platform compatible, meaning it will run on 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, as a retail business owner you should feel prepared when looking for a new POS system to replace your old one. If the POS software you’re looking at doesn’t offer the features your business really needs, move on. In today’s economic times, you really can’t afford not to.

Seeking more information or for an online resource?

Kindly 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.

Guide when looking for the best restaurant POS software solution

• If you’re handling a full-service dining it requires a reliable restaurant management POS software. A software like this virtually runs your restaurant. Servers takes all the orders and input them in a software program, then the kitchen staff sees the orders and prepares them; diners are done eating and, servers can cash them out; sales numbers and inventory levels are accounted for and your managers can do their projections and ordering properly.

  These activities revolve around having the right software. The pricing and costs of restaurant software ranges dramatically, depending on how extensive your needs are. These programs can help you and your managers run your operation more efficiently by improving front of house relations, scheduling your employees properly and managing costs. Your restaurant management system should include:

• POS restaurant software: Used for front of house applications and has a wide collection of functions.
• Software for restaurant scheduling: Your managers will need to ensure that shifts are covered and allocate hours to all full-time and part-time employees.
• Restaurant back office software: A software specially designed to help restaurant owners manage back office task more easily and effectively.

Steps to Take

The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant point of sale system, visit POS-For-Restaurants.com

Simplify front of house operations with restaurant POS software

Your servers will need to get guests’ orders into the computer as quickly as they could, as well as properly check them out when they’re ready to leave. You can improve this area by installing multiple POS terminals in convenient locations around your dining room. Just make sure the POS software you’re going to use has a complete menu and order input capabilities as well as have a function to close checks with cash or credit options. You’ll probably spend at least 0 for a quality POS system, but you can find a few software programs for around $300.

I recommend: Get comparative quotes from qualified vendors at POS-For-Restaurants.com

Make use of restaurant software for scheduling employees

Scheduling is hard for the service industry. The fact is many people that hold restaurant jobs only work part-time and that the turnover rate is high, you’ll have many factors to work around when scheduling your staff. Using a good scheduling POS software program will help you establish your needs and schedule employees efficiently. You can find web-based software for a monthly fee (usually ranging from $15 – $75) or traditional software programs that ranges between $30 to $300.

Consider having a back office food service software

The back office software is not to be forgotten. Your managers will need to specify food costs, sales forecasts and inventory levels on a daily basis to ensure that your restaurant is operating efficiently. Equipping them with the right POS software is the first step in making sure your restaurant is profitable. You may expect to spend up to 0, depending on how many programs come in the software package. You may be able to cut down on costs by buying a software package that only includes programs you truly need.

I recommend: Receive comparative quotes only from qualified POS vendors at POS-For-Restaurants.com

Tips & Tactics

A simple advice for making the most of this Guide

• If you use touchscreen computers, you’ll need different software than if you use a keyboard and/or mouse with your terminals. Touchscreen systems are large investments, so if you don’t have the money yet, stick with basic restaurant computer systems that uses standard software. In advance, you may also request for a free POS system quote on any type of restaurant POS software, hardware and system needs. Your request shall be matched only with the most qualified POS experts serving your area, who will meet your needs.

What Are The Advantages I Can Get From My POS System?

I know a lot of you may think “Is a POS system really effective?”. 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 huge benefits a POS can bring to your business. Regardless of what industry you are in, the goal is to have more sales and generate more revenue. POS can be your stepping stone for achieving your goals – and a whole lot more. Here’s a sampling of what POS systems can do for your particular business:

Concentrate on your business - POS systems allow companies to concentrate on growing the business. Since POS systems can take of your transactions, scheduling and inventory, you can have more time strategically planning on new techniques, promotions, and other initiatives to improve your business.

Improved Functionality - POS systems are more than just sophisticated cash registers. They can also hold reservations, take special orders, easily communicates with other locations, and provide guest beeper systems to maintain the flow of your business.

Streamline Your Operations - There’s little room for error with a POS system. Every information is entered and recorded accurately so the lines of communication are always clearly outlined. It can speed up the ordering process with improved accuracy which in return improves your productivity and customer service level.

Inventory Management - One of the most important task in food service industries is to check whether your supplies, perishable goods, are still in good condition before you serve it to your customers and be able to stock enough supplies without letting them to go to waste when soldunsold. With POS systems, you know what’s in stock, what you’re running low on, and what your best sellers are so you can plan ahead.

Reducing Shrinkage – Having a POS system can help you keep your employees honest. With paper receipts and an old-fashioned cash register, the temptation will always be there to pocket a few bucks or give friends a free meal or two. With a POS, your business is in good hands by providing an accurate account of where your merchandise (and money) are going.

Reducing Errors – If you’re in the food service industry, you no longer need to decipher cramped hand-written orders from busy wait staff! POS allows you to easily input orders, including specifics, to decrease the chances that it will come out wrong. By this, you can keep your customers happy by not having to serve them the wrong orders, re-cook orders and waste food. So you will no longer 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. Placing price stickers on items can make it too easy for thieves to swap labels. Using a POS, all items is bar coded and tracker so you can always know and input an item’s right price. And if you need to make changes, you can do all the changes at once using your POS termial!

Increase Customers That Patronize Your Restaurant - Serving quickly and accurately your customers waiting in line can help keep customers coming in your door. When customers don’t have to wait for wait staff to calculate checks, collect payment, and clear tables, your staff can servce more customers and increase profit.

Getting Accurate Reports - With POS, you can do more than what you could with multiple ledgers and spreadsheets. You can easily make record of sales, track, sort, organize data as well as make revisions whenever necessary. Reporting is an important. It allows you to track what is sold, see what is needed to be restocked and reordered, and help you plan for the next few months of business and beyond. It can also be a helpful reminder tool when you’re running low on supplies.

Track Customers’ Data - Build your customer loyalty and let the POS be your guide. Every customer you will ever greet through your doors will be entered into the system when they order something. Make tabs of meals they order and how often they visit your location. Then use this data to compile information for targeted sales and advertising campaigns. By this, you can identify and limit poor selling merchandise in stock and assign funds for the best sellers.

There are critical things to consider for your POS system purchase in any industry. Make sure to meet with at least 3-4 qualified POS vendors before making this important decision. In any case, request for a free POS system quote, where vendors will be able to help you meet your your needs once you’ve given them enough info about your POS needs. Provide them with the details of the information you wish to track and the features that can help you ease your job. Always be aware when the POS 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 happy!

For more information or an online resource:

Check out 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.

Restaurant Software

Running a successful restaurant used to be about the basics: good food, good service and the right location. But today, there’s an addition to these basics: in order to run your POS system, you need a restaurant software you can rely on.

Though the physical components are more visible, your POS software is the heart that runs your POS systems. Doing a careful evaluation of restaurant POS software is key to getting a system that will 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. A restaurant POS software should be able to handle checks per diner or per table, track orders per server, move diners from the bar to a table, manage list of customers that are waiting as well as the reservations, and more.

Once you’ve found that restaurant software that can meet your needs, test it and see for your self how to use it. While there will always be a learning curve for your staff when you adopt a new POS system, choosing restaurant software that’s easy to use can reduce the learning curve to manageable levels.

You may learn more about ease of use by having one or two of your servers involved in the evaluation. They’ll be able to try out the kinds of oddball situations and changes that can cause problems with some software.

• Security – create login accounts for each employee. You should be able to limit access to sensitive data and functions (such as comping meals) to managers, if desired.
• Flexibility – waiters should be able to manipulate 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 the system is capable of tracking and reporting on multiple locations, including local differences in staffing and pricing.

Don’t forget your 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 software will use will dictate any special hardware requirements – the biggest hardware decision you’re going to to make is how many stations will you need.

Ready to start contacting restaurant software vendors? Find out more at POS-For-Restaurants.com and receive free unbiased quotes from the experts in point of sale systems serving your area.

The author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience meeting the automation needs of restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.

Bar/Restaurant: POS software features

Bar and restaurant owners shouldn’t have to to worry too much about product shrinkage or lack of inventory. If you have the right bar POS software, then there’s no need for worries like these, instead you can focus more on running the business and growing profits.

With the right bar POS software, taking care of any customer transaction is just a cinch. It can also display information such as the average bar tab in a given night, the number of open tabs, returns or invalid tabs, as well as credit 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 of a bar POS software. It can track all the liquor, wine, and beer in stock as well as inform you if you’re running low on a resource. It can even track how much liquor goes into each glass, so you can have an idea how much money you can earn. It also helps keep bartender honest – 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):

• Login secured– Requires authorized staff each time the software is used.
• Liquor control devices (LCDs) – Track the exact amount of alcohol the bartender pour from bottles to reduce shrinkage.
• Recipe lookup – Provides a “cheat sheet” reference for bartenders who need to look up the ingredients to certain mixed drinks.
• Data import and export – Downloads reports into your word processing or spreadsheet software for your personal bookkeeping efforts.
• Email list maintenance – Keeps customers informed on new product releases, and special events at your establishment. It can also build up customer loyalty thus it increase your profit.
• Gift card management – Adds gift card capabilities to your bar POS software that can support your brand and bring in repeat business.
• Schedule promotions – Automatically manages price changes for limited time promotions like “happy hour.”
• Barcode readers – Speeds up customer serving by easily scanning barcodes of beer and malt beverage bottles.
• Employee scheduling – This features helps determine the exact number of employees neeeded for certain shifts based on your sales history.
• Customer management tools – Help manage open bar tabs, check split requests, and gratuities.
• Food service integration – Processes food and drink orders on one 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.

There are a lot more things a Point of Sale system can do for your business other than automating your transactions. Let our POS professionals teach you how you can take control of your business, be more efficient and increase your profits without having to spend a great amount of money on POS systems.

Taking Control of Your Business

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

In other terms, a POS system is a glorified cash register. The most basic POS system that consists of a computer, a cash drawer, receipt printer, and an input device such as a keyboard or scanner. In addition to being more efficient than the traditional cash registers, POS systems are able to create detailed reports which gives you all the information you will need to study and make future plans for your business’ success.

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

Saving more money, getting more control over your business, and be more productive; sounds like an excellent combination for your business, right? Well here are some of the best ways a modern point of sale (POS) system can help you out.

Reducing shrinkage

A computerized POS system can drastically cut down on shrinkage, the inventory that disappears from your store or restaurant due to theft, waste and employee misuse. Because employees will know that you’re carefully tracking inventory, internal shrinkage will diminish.

Accuracy

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

Getting margins

Detailed sales reports can help you focus on 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

You can easily know which of your items have been sold today, yesterday, last week last month, and so on, with the help of a POS systems. It can even tell how much money is in the cash drawer and how much of that money is profit.

Better inventory management

Detailed sales reports make it much easier for you to keep the right stock on hand. You can easily track your inventory, see what’s on stock, spot sales trends, and use historical data to better forecast your needs. The software can alert you to reorder when stocks run low. Many store owners who think they know exactly what trends affect them find a couple of surprises once they have this data.

Build a customer list

You can collect the names and addresses of your regular customers as part of standard transactions. Then use the list for targeted advertising or incentive programs.

Reduce 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.

Efficiency in transactions

For retail, barcode scanners and other POS features make checkout much, much faster. And since processes are greatly streamlined, orders from the dining room is quick and accurately relayed to the kitchen. With either of the two, your customers can get a much 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, any sophisticated POS system will be just another cash register with no special functionality.

Retail 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 these two segments, retails are the ones who needs simpler POS. Retails can complete their transactions all at once and they even use less variation for the items that they sell. Because there are some POS features retailers that specifically want to include the ability to support kits (e.g. 3 for deals), returns and exchanges, and support for digital scales. If you run a business that sells items in a variety of styles, a POS system that supports matrixes would satisfy your needs. 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

Business have different requirements depending on the establishment, like in restaurants and other hospitality businesses.

Efficiency is the main 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. And for quick-service style 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 of the kitchen, ready to be quickly assembled and delivered to the customer.

For fine dining restaurants, point of sale requires a bit different. They need to know which staff 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 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 all the effort you put into it.

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.