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

Tips For Point Of Sale Marketing

How can a good point of sale product help your business? As a business owner, I know that my goal every day is to sell to my customers. I have also learned that a good point of sale product can help me with that. The point of sale, if you aren’t sure, is wherever your customer goes in order to pay for items or services. The point of sale could be on the internet, in a retail location, or sitting across from one another at a lunch table. You will find that you can get a lot of mileage out of point of sale products if you use them correctly. There are a few ideas that you should at least consider.

If you own a retail or physical location for your business, it is likely that you use a cash register, cash drawer, and printer receipt at your point of sale. If you do, you might as well make them into point of sale marketing materials. For one thing, if you place certain items you are hoping to move quickly near the cash register, customers can use change or extra money to purchase those items as a spontaneous purchase. You may find that this works best as a point of sale products if you mark them as on sale, clearance, or marked down.

For the best results on cash register point of sale products, you should also dress them up a bit. Use merchandisers like toppers or attractive dispensers. With something like that with the merchandise, it will draw a customer’s eye even if they wouldn’t have normally considered the product. A good point of sale product is one that will at least get the customer’s attention, and at most will encourage them to buy more from you.

Another tip for point of sale is to use the receipt. Use your marketing dollars to get your customers return coupons. A way to do that is to print such a coupon on the back of each customer’s receipt. The coupon should be for something on their next visit to your location. Such a coupon can encourage the return of customers in a short amount of time.

There is probably no better place to market your business than at the point of sale. There is where you can lock in return business and can make a final impression. Take the time to look at point of sale products and how they can help you to expand the success of your business. You may be surprised at how far you can stretch your marketing dollar at the point of sale.

If you would like to read more of my articles on point of sale information, please feel free to visit my website on marketing

The Top 10 Reasons You Need a Point of Sale System

10. You have employees.

If you have employees you are open to theft, sweet-hearting and careless mistakes. You need a point of sale system to manage your employees, enforce your policies and insure that your money gets to you.

9. Pricing and Math Errors.

It is still amazing how many restaurants still use a calculator and hand written tickets. According to studies done by various institutions you are open to math and pricing mistakes totaling in excess of 1% of your annual volume. In a restaurant doing as little as $1,300 per day that would add up to $4,700 per year. (Less than the price of our 2-terminal Sweet Deal Package) To eliminate pricing and math errors you need a point of sale system.

8. Time In Attendance.

Employee payroll is one of the most overlooked and most easily managed portions of your profit and loss statement. If you have 12 employees and each of them clocks in 5 minutes early a day, that equates to 1 hour per day of extra payroll. Even with minimum wage plus benefits this could add up to $6 - $8 per day or over $2,900 per year. This figure doesn’t take into account the total man-hours it takes to compute time cards and then report on the hours worked for each employee. This is time that you could be spending elsewhere. If you have a few as 5 employees you need a point of sale system.

7. Reducing Theft.

This is the original reason for the invention of the cash register back in the late 1800’s. Even when most of the businesses were family owned and run there was a need for a cash register to reduce theft. In today’s world of hiring employees to help staff and manage your store there is even greater need for this type of control. For years we have known about the tendencies of people with regard to theft. 10% of the people wouldn’t steal if giving the opportunity. 10 % of the people are going to steal no matter what safeguards are in place. 80% of the people will steal if given the opportunity. Point of sale systems are put in place to guard against the 80% and make it more difficult for them to steal from you.

6. Speed of Service.

There is only 1 thing we can think of that will drive customers away faster than bad food and that is slow service. When a customer places their order their own internal clock is running in overdrive. No matter how long they took to look over the menu and to place their order, once they have given your server or cashier their order their hunger clock is speeding along faster than a fan on high! You need a fast, reliable way to get orders into your system. This should mean a terminal that is fast, easy to understand and quick to respond to the touch of the server, cashier or bar tender. The system should also distribute the order properly to the kitchen prep station or bar. Your point of sale system should also measure your speed of service and report on how you are doing. Reducing the time it takes to get your customer’s their food is critical and can even make up for less quality. For proof I give you some of the major fast food chains. Is their popularity based upon the best tasting, best dressed and best served burger or speed of service? If you want to speed up your customer service you need a point of sale system.

5. Enhanced Reporting.

What is the use of having a computer and not taking advantage of the power? If all you need is to have a total amount of cash in the drawer that sometimes matches to the amount of sales shown you probably don’t need a point of sale system. However, if you want more detail and information to help manage your operation and make it more profitable then you need a point of sale system. It used to be that having a good product was enough to get you by. Now it takes a lot more information in order to compete with all the other restaurants in your market that are all looking for the same customer you have seated in your restaurant. You need to understand the buying habits of your customers. What are they ordering? When are they ordering it? What is your most profitable item? How many of it did you sell? What items on your menu are not selling? If you cannot answer all of these questions with total confidence in your answers then you need a point of sale system. If you hesitate to correctly answer (without guessing) any of these questions you need a point of sale system.

4. Exporting of Data to Other Systems.

Even most small businesses today have some form of electronic accounting in place either in their operation or through an accounting service. In addition, most businesses have an electronic payroll service or software that creates payroll. Point of sale systems capture critical data for you and then export this data in formats that automatically put this information into accounting and payroll packages, eliminating hours of tedious manual input that often leads to mistakes and human error. If you have an electronic accounting or payroll service/software or even if you want to track your sales in Excel, you need a point of sale system.

3. Integrated Credit Cards.

If you are not currently taking credit cards as a form of payment you need to start today. Never mind the fees. The loss of business that you are suffering in today’s plastic minded economy will more than compensate for the fees charged. If you are currently taking credit cards through a stand-alone terminal you could be being charged exorbitant fees for the terminal when you could be processing through your point of sale system. In some cases, the elimination of the terminal rental will pay for the credit card interface in less than a year. With integrated credit card processing you are assured that the amount of the sale will match the amount charged on the credit card, eliminating the need to go back and match individual sales when the credit card batch does not match credit card sales. When high-speed Internet connections are used to process credit cards we receive approvals in less than 2 seconds. No longer is slower speed of service an excuse not to take credit cards. If you want to quickly, accurately and smoothly process credit cards you need a point of sale system.

2. Competitive Marketing.

a. Frequent Diner Modules. Who are your customers? What do they buy? How often do they visit? Of your frequent visitors, who hasn’t been in to see you during the past month? Of your frequent visitors, who has a special day coming up this month? These are questions that you should have the answer to. All the major chains and all of your competitors are after the people who come to your restaurant. They want to take them for themselves. How are you going to compete with the billions of dollars being spent to draw your customer away? By marketing your operation and your menu. Your point of sale system should be able to manage your customer base, keep up with their buying habits, how often they visit, when was their last visit and what special occasions they have coming up. Your point of sale system then should be able to sort these into groups that should be sent mailers, coupons, invitations to special events or simply told that they are appreciated and asked to visit you again. If you have competition you need a point of sale system.

b. Gift cards have become the norm for so many businesses today. An entire industry has been formed around the old concept of giving a paper gift certificate. Today, you will find gift cards at most major checkout lines. A point of sale system should be able to sell, redeem and control balances for your own gift card program. No longer do you need a book of certificates that are kept in the safe. Today, all you need is a stack of blank plastic cards with your colorful logo on them. These cards carry no balance and have no cash value until sold and a balance placed on account. As an owner you should keep a few of these cards with you. Each of these cards might have a small balance on them for you to hand out to pull customers to your restaurant or to give in case of a poor experience to help bring someone back. Think of these cards as your personal marketing tool. When the customer looks in their purse or wallet and sees your logo they will be reminded to come visit you. If you use gift certificates or gift cards you need a point of sale system.

1. You Don’t Need Any More ‘Partners’.

Sure you need gift cards. Yes you need to better understand your customer’s buying habits. You absolutely need to have credit cards integrated with your point of sale system. You need enhanced reporting and export of these reports to electronic accounting and payroll services. You need to eliminate errors, reduce mistakes and keep track of your payroll. But more than any of these you don’t need any more partners. Especially the ones that take their portion of the profits before you get yours. We are talking about the servers, waitresses, bartenders and cashiers who:

a. Undercharge customers in order to enhance their own tips. Show a $5 tab and a $50 tip. (Yes, I have seen this!)

b. Deliberately void or delete an item after it has been paid for.

c. Stuff coupons into the cash drawer in exchange for cash.

d. Don’t charge customers for soft beverages to enhance their tips.

e. Ring up a lower priced item (well brand) and serve a higher priced item (premium brand)

f. Give discounts to their friends.

g. In a buffet line, ring up a buffet and a tea. Reprint this ticket 10 times and sell and collect for themselves these reprinted receipts instead of ringing up new customers.

If you want to stay in business, you need a point of sale system.

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 the benefits of touch screen and retail point of sale software. Please visit http://www.directouchpos.com or http://www.directretailpos.com for more information.

Used Cash Registers

 There are a large number of used cash registers available for sale on the Internet. Used cash registers are a good way for a business to save money. A register that is suitable for the scale and type of business needs to be well researched and picked carefully.

Companies that sell used cash registers usually do a thorough check of the machine. After that the printer is given a rebuild and fresh printer rolls are loaded. Loose connections and loose circuits are examined and fixed. The machine is dismantled, cleaned out, and then reassembled. During this time, every effort to make the machine look as new as possible will be made. The basic requirements are then reprogrammed into the register. An instruction manual comes with the register to help once it arrives at its destination.

There are many businesses that cater to second-hand reconditioned cash registers, offering repairs, regular servicing and troubleshooting. Some dealers are completely dedicated to selling used cash tills exclusively. The average life of a cash register is 15 years, but it can be extended much more. Most people upgrade their machines every 5 years, which means many used registers available have plenty of life left in them.

Usually when clients purchase new machines, the original dealers buy back the old ones and resell them after servicing. If buying a register for the first time, it is a good idea to start with a used machine and then as needs become clearer upgrade to a new one. That is a good way to discover your cash register needs, and not get stuck with one that lacks the required functionality.

The main thing to check for in a used machine is the speed and accuracy. There should also be a secure money tray and a battery backup, in case the machine loses power. Keeping these things in mind, it is often a good idea to purchase used cash registers.



Cash Registers provides detailed information on Cash Registers, Cash Registers for Sale, Electronic Cash Registers, Used Cash Registers and more. Cash Registers is affliated with Business Letter Forms

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.

POS Software provides detailed information on POS Software, Free POS Software, Retail POS Software, POS Restaurant Software and more. POS Software is affiliated with Bar Code Printing Software