3 Ways to Save Money with your New Point of Sale System

3 Ways to Save Money With Your New Point of Sale System

February 11, 2014

As we all know, life is stressful. According to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, the top 5 most stressful events in a person’s life are death of a spouse, death of a child, moving, starting a new job, marriage and severe illness. These are all very legitimate stress-drivers. But if Holmes or Rahe were ever to own a restaurant, I would bet that they would agree that one of the most stressful experiences an owner will experience is an install or update of a POS system.

From my experience with hundreds of installs, I know how stressful it is! There are few aspects of the process that aren’t stressful: it’s time consuming, you have to learn a new product, there are strange (yet friendly) people in your restaurant for many hours installing the system, and most stressful of all, it can be incredibly expensive! As much as you don’t want to hear it, as you progress down the path of restaurant ownership, the initial POS install may seem less and less stressful in comparison.

To keep your sanity, remember that your POS system is there to help you. Ultimately, the system will make your life easier. Here are three things to keep in mind to make sure your new POS system is working to make the stressful install worth it.

3 Ways to Save Money with your New Point of Sale System

Track high cost items. Start looking at sales trends for high cost items. By doing a critical inventory count of your high cost items and comparing this to your item sales trend report from your POS, you can ensure all inventory is accounted for. Items like fine wines and expensive cuts of meat can easily be tracked to help reduce employee theft. This type of monitoring can uncover a number of inconsistencies that would otherwise cost your business big money.
Staff accordingly. Look at your sales trend and match labor to the sales volume. A common error made by managers is staffing too many employees when traffic is slow. By looking at a trended hourly sales report, you will be able to see how many people are needed in each area of the restaurant. Look for the times in between the busy periods – before you open, as lunch starts to slow down, just before dinner and after dinner – that you can lighten your staff load to save some money. At a minimum wage rate of $9.00/hour, every 15 minutes represents $1.50. By cutting 15 minutes out of a day with a staff of 60, you can save up to $135 per day. This would result in an annual savings of almost $50,000! While you may not be able to cut each employee’s time by that much, using your POS data wisely will ultimately result in big savings.
Make the right decisions. Once you’ve grown familiar with your POS system and have a year’s worth of data to analyze, be sure to look at the trending reports for the last year of sales. Too often restaurants get caught up in the day-to-day operations and fail to look at the bigger picture. Identify critical days and schedule deliveries and labor accordingly. Look at days like holidays, major sporting events and any local events to identify how to react. For example, if Superbowl Sunday is typically a big day, be sure to get big deliveries the day before the Big Game. Likewise, if the Fourth of July is slow, schedule staff off in advance and don’t overstock food. After all, the two greatest costs within the restaurant are food and labor. Both need to be considered and your POS system will help you make the right decision at the right time.

So after all the dust has settled and your new POS system is in place, take a deep breath. All that stress and anxiety will quickly pay off. By utilizing all of the features of your POS system, you will find your business operating smoothly and efficiently.