Do you need a restaurant POS system? Important facts to know and consider

July 27, 2009 - PRLog -- Do you need a restaurant POS system? Important facts to know and consider

Tired of dealing with undecipherable hand-written orders? Would you like to know for sure how much of each specific food item to to order tomorrow or next week - instead of just going by a best guess? Then you've taken the first step to see increased productivity and profits.

A point of sale (POS) system can give you a new level of control over your restaurant operations, helping you increase efficiency, boost profits, and fine-tune inventory management. Switching from a simple cash register and paper orders to a restaurant POS system can be hard, but the return on investment without a doubt is worth your time and effort.

Restaurant POS - Buying Tips
•Always prepare for the worst. As with any computer system, backups are important. Talk to your vendor about automated backup schedules.
•Clean all. Preventative maintenance is important to ensure that you will get maximum usefulness of your equipment.
•If you can't stand the heat... When choosing printers, remember that the heat in the kitchen can be enough to ruin thermal paper. Impact technology is a better option.
•Find the right dealer. Restaurants have very specific POS needs. POS-For-Restaurants can help you find an experienced POS specialist who is experienced dealing with restaurants like yours.
What is a restaurant POS system?
To review in-depth service offerings from multiple restaurant POS providers, use BuyerZone's free vendor comparison tool.

A basic POS system is a glorified cash register, but with additional tools and features that help you run your restaurant in the most efficient manner. The typical restaurant POS station consists of a computer and cash drawer, a receipt printer, and a touch-screen monitor. Almost all restaurants have such electronic POS registers, with additional attached accessories depending on the needs of your restaurant.

For retail-style restaurants like sub shops, POS systems often include printers in the food preparation area, eliminating the errors that can happen when hastily-scrawled orders are passed back to the kitchen. For quick-service restaurants, POS systems are practically a requirement for living up to their name: orders taken on terminals in the front are displayed on monitors in the kitchen, ready to be quickly assembled and delivered to the customer.

Point of sale systems are all not created equal and differ in some respects. These systems need to be customized according to your menu and seating plans so they can accurately send orders to the kitchen and bar, track reservations and seating, and handle activity.

Fine dining POS systems typically include more stations: multiple server stations, a bar station, a hostess station, and printers in the kitchen than more basic POS systems. They also have more flexibility - including creating and storing open checks, let servers send priority orders to the kitchen to start the next course, as well as track which server is serving which customers.

Restaurant POS benefits
POS systems can greatly reduce the amount of time your staff spends in the kitchen and speed up the order process. The efficiency gains can offer a payback within 12 months. If a restaurant with 20 tables and an average check of $45 can increase turnover by one party per table, that is an extra $900 on a busy night. Additional savings come from reduced shrinkage: servers can't provide complimentary food to friends without entering them in the system.

In addition to the direct cost savings, restaurant POS systems offer detailed reports that can help you make more informed business decisions. Sales reports help you better predict volume and schedule employees appropriately. Inventory reports help you order the right ingredients week after week, cutting down on waste. And order reports let you see which items are most popular, which items generate the most profit, and which items you should probably drop from your menu

For more information on the web go to http://www.POS-For-Restaurants.com

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