Restaurant Point of Sale Systems

One of the most important items a restaurant owner must have to successfully run a business is a way to accurately record transactions, as well as keep track of their food inventory. The best way to accomplish this task is to have a reliable point of sale system in place.

What is a point of sale system?

A point of sale system is a computer of specialized terminal that are combined with other products to record sales, transactions, and process non-cash purchases. The more sophisticated point of sale systems are usually connected online with a main central computer. These types of systems can instantaneously record and check credit card balances as well as record all purchases made by your customer in order to keep accurate account of your inventory. With a point of sale system you will no longer need to make inventory checks again. The system will automatically subtract from your list any recorded purchases, then warn you if you when it is time to reorder.

Why are they Important for Restaurants?

When running a restaurant you will need to always know how much food you have in storage. With a large inventory, sometimes it can be unfeasible to manually keep track of every piece of food you have on the premises. With a point of sale system you will be able record everything and the system will keep track of when the food items spoil or get consumed and need to be reordered.

Restaurant owners, especially those with expensive restaurants also need to have a way to process credit card payments. Very few people will be carrying large amounts of cash to pay for an expensive meal. Without a way to process these types of payment the restaurant will be limiting the amount of business they will be able to access. With the current trend of frequent use of credit/debit cards, you will not stay in business long if your business is incapable of processing credit card transactions.

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Restaurant 86 Item Countdown Feature - A Point of Sale Solution To An Old Problem

The History of the 86 Feature

The term, "86" started so many years ago that its origin has long since faded into the memories of all but a few restaurateurs. Suffice it to say, if you "86" an item you are out and you need to stop taking orders immediately.

A lot of table service restaurants use a board located near the kitchen to write items that have been 86st for the day. Servers are expected to actually read this board and remember the items that are not available. Some restaurateurs yell out the items as they run out. Problem is, the restaurant sounds more like an old style fast food restaurant with employees yelling at each other.

Yelling is not the only problem with trying to track items in this way. Like, who has time to write the items down? Also, do you really expect the wait staff to remember how many of each item is left? And then when the count gets down to 1 item left you know that 2 servers are going to sell that last item.

The Need for the 86 Countdown Feature

You need a fast and accurate method of letting the wait staff know the exact number of items left and then stop servers from ordering the item after the last one is sold. This needs to be displayed at each station every time the server goes to the terminal. It needs to be visual, eye catching and instantly updated each time an item is sold.

The Solution for the 86 Countdown Feature

Some restaurant point of sale systems come standard with an "86 Item Countdown" feature that displays actual counts, deducts from the count when an item is sold and then prevents sales of the item once it is sold out. All management has to do is set the count for the items to be tracked and the system will do the rest.

Every item being tracked will have the number of items left displayed on their menu button. Each time an item is sold from any terminal in the system the number available will decrement and update on every terminal. Once an item is sold out the item will no longer allow the item to be sold.

Some systems will even allow for an substitution menu to pop up for items that have been sold out.

The Benefit To You

Better communication to your wait staff means better service to your customers. Your wait staff will now be able to approach your customer with confidence about the quantity of items remaining and be able to quickly shift customers to other items when your daily specials are all sold out.

Customers will benefit from knowing before they order if an item is available. No one wants to order an item and have the server return to the table and be told that they can't have what they want. By using an 86 Item Countdown feature this problem will be reduced.

Something Extra For You

How about getting more than just a countdown of daily specials? How about using this feature in a bar to inventory bottled beer? Yes, you could use this same feature to inventory and count down bottle beers.

Other uses for this feature would be baked breads in a bakery/sandwich shop, pre-made salads in a fast food restaurant and tickets to a special event.

Use your imagination and you will be well pleased with the many other uses that are possible with this easy to use feature.

However, not all restaurant point of sale systems have this feature. Please make sure to ask to verify that this feature is available on the software you are considering.

Jerry D. Wilson is Director of Internet Sales for DirecTouch Restaurant Point of Sale. With over 25 years of hospitality point of sale experience, he has written several articles explaining different aspects of hospitality point of sale software. You can visit DirecTouch Do It Yourself Restaurant Point of Sale or DirectRetail Do It Yourself Retail Point of Sale for more information

Retail POS Software

There are a number of channels of distribution available to the producer that may be employed by persons or companies to bring products to the market. Consumer goods may be distributed through channels. The channels used are producer-consumer, and there is no middleman involved. Sales are made from house to house or by direct mail. Point of sale software provides the best benefits that programming technology and client/server databases have to offer to retailers. It is designed with a high degree of proficiency that allows the user to access data and ask questions about the database.

Secondly, producer-retailer-consumer are when goods are purchased directly from manufacturers or retail stores opened by manufacturers. Thirdly, producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer is the traditional and most economically used channel. There is also producer-agent-retailer-consumer channel, whereby producers use manufactures agents and brokers to reach the retail market. Finally, the producer-agent-wholesaler-retailer-consumer channel uses the services of agents by smaller retailers who purchase from wholesalers and sell to small stores.

A large number of channels of distribution are available to the manufacturer to bring products to the consumer. Efficient distribution at the least cost and at the desired volume of sale can be secured only after experience, study and analysis.

A retailer does retailing by selling to consumers. In the distributional hierarchy, retailers are below the level of distributors or wholesalers. Sometimes, retailers are termed dealers or authorized representatives. The retailer often operates in a smaller territory or at a specific location and earns less commission compared to higher levels in the channel.

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