5 POS Reports That Make Restaurant Management Easier

Running a restaurant is difficult at the best of times. After the past couple of years, restaurant owners and managers are under more pressure than ever to perform well. Your point of sale system can make restaurant management easier if you know which data to pull. The question is, what is your POS technology capable of?

We’ll discuss the 5 POS reports that make restaurant management easier, show you how they work, and explain why they matter. That way, you can keep your customers happy and keep your restaurant on track.

Why Restaurant Reporting Matters

Some restaurants are hesitant to change what works while others are open to change and new possibilities. It’s often the restaurants who evolve with current technology that end up succeeding. There are two main categories of restaurant POS systems:

1. Outdated POS Systems:

When restaurant point of sale systems are old and outdated, it’s not uncommon to see consistent lagging and technology freezing up on servers and management, causing huge delays and constant synchronization issues. Some restaurants are really stuck in the past and don’t even have independent POS systems. They might only have a checkout cash register, rely on the old pen and paper ordering method, and calculate meal receipts by hand.

Restaurant reporting is virtually nonexistent because the technology doesn’t offer real-time customer data and trends.

2. New & Updated POS Systems:

With new and updated point of sale systems in restaurants, lagging and freezing are often a problem of the past. Delays usually don’t happen unless the retail devices need to be updated or the system needs repair work. Instead of manually offering services, everything is expedited, customer service is more accurate and timely, and the checkout process is much faster. The result is happier, more loyal customers, a faster service output, and efficiency that holds up to other competitors in the restaurant industry.

Restaurant reporting with newer POS devices offers more consumer insights, data for future improvements, and scales with your restaurant rather than against it.

Related Content: 5 Ways to Future-Proof Your Retail Technology and Business

Does Your Restaurant Need Better POS Reporting?

Signs that your restaurant might need a technology upgrade for better reporting and scalability include:

• Tight margins
• Labor shortages
• Rising food costs
• Multi-location changes and visibility
• Data-driven decisions

Related Content: Why Modernizing the Shopping Experience Matters

Benefits of POS Reporting in Restaurants

With updated point of sale systems and real-time reporting, data becomes a valuable and crucial part of your business.

The advantages of POS reporting in restaurants include:

• Reduced waste and better inventory tracking
• Lower labor costs and more efficient sales practices
• Improved customer experience with real-time data
• Easier trend identification and pattern predictions
• More well-informed business decisions

A better POS setup in restaurants is key for improving customer satisfaction. It helps keep inventory in check, seamlessly merges multiple locations, and makes management easier.

Related Content: Enhanced Efficiency and Customer Experience with Next-Gen POS Systems

POS Reports for Easier Restaurant Management

With the right retail technology setup, POS reporting in restaurants makes managing easier and improves the customer experience as a whole. Here are a few of the point of sale reports that could help your restaurant run more efficiently—and gain higher profits.

1. Sales Report

Depending on what your point of sale system provides, you may be able to track restaurant sales by:

• Day and time period
• Server or section
• Number of guests
• Table turn time
• And more

Analyzing sales from different angles helps obtain additional insight, identify trends, and make decisions that work with your customers’ needs.

POS sales reporting works in your favor because you can identify:

• Menu profitability and labor costs
• Peak restaurant times and the busiest days of the week
• How many servers, managers, and bartenders are needed
• Average consumer spending to see where growth can happen
• Gross sales, taxes, discounts used, cash tips, and more

With this information on hand, you can make business decisions that benefit both your business and the consumer.

2. Inventory Report

Every server or restaurant owner has experienced inventory problems at one point or another.

Your customer excitedly orders their favorite drink or a new menu item, only for the server to send through the ticket and realize that inventory is out. With your head hanging low, you have to ruin that said customer’s day (at least, that’s what it feels like) and destroy their excitement. You look uninformed, the customer is disappointed, and it’s a problem that could have been easily avoided from the get-go.

Point of sale inventory reporting helps solve the inventory issue that restaurants often run into. You can’t sell food if you’re out of ingredients. If you know what inventory you have from the start, you won’t run the risk of customers getting excited and later let down. You can inform them right away so they don’t get their hopes up, reduce the extra step of having to run back and have them reorder a second (or third or fourth) time, and expedite the process from the beginning.

One of the best ways to use your POS system and synchronized reporting is to track sales of specific menu items, especially those that are popular or contain harder-to-find ingredients. That way, you can 86 an item immediately when you find out you’re out of inventory, and ensure you’re not wasting your servers’ or customers’ time.

3. Menu & Product Mix (PMIX) Report

The menu and product mix (PMIX) point of sales report shows which menu offerings are selling and which are not. This can help streamline the menu and determine which items to promote or discount.

The PMIX reporting tool tracks the exact quantities and revenues of specific items on a restaurant menu sold over specific periods of time to help optimize inventory, adapt the menu with efficient, high-selling items, and eliminate food and drink waste throughout your restaurant.

If you’re constantly spending money on certain inventory items that never get sold, this report gives you the data so you can remove it without feeling guilty. Noticing which inventory items are used often and in multiple dishes and drinks ensures you can keep those items and get the highest value and profits for what you have in stock.

4. Labor Report

Comparing labor and sales POS reports will help you find the right staffing levels and identify the high-performing staff members.

This offers multiple advantages, including:

• Tracking labor cost percentages
• Measuring sales per labor hour (SPLH)
• Noting consistent overtime to schedule better
• Comparing planned labor versus actual time clocked
• Adjusting labor based on peak or slow periods

Point of sale labor reports help you efficiently manage labor costs and profitability to better balance the amount of servers and management compared to the number of customers at any given time. It helps so you’re not overworking some employees and underworking others. It can also give you a better visual and real stats to back up your restaurant’s performance.

5. Exceptions Report

The discounts and exceptions POS reports help you determine any challenges you’re currently experiencing in your restaurant and whether loyalty programs are positively or negatively affecting your business. These reports will help determine whether coupons, gift cards, and loyalty programs are positively or negatively affecting your bottom line, and whether there is an untapped opportunity.

They analyze the number of refunds, voids, and discounts staff members are giving to help identify issues, provide additional training as needed, and point out whether the current system is working.

Some of the most advantageous ways to use these reports include:

• Determining whether loyalty programs and coupons are profitable
• Monitoring voids and deleted items to pinpoint problems or theft
• Tracking high-volume refunds by specific employees
• Noting frequent price overrides on unauthorized items
• Checking that coupons and discounts are being used appropriately
• Highlighting failed transactions, connection errors, and terminal problems

Overall, the discounts and exceptions reports can help restaurants determine if anything outside of the ordinary is happening or see if discounts are creating value, so problems can be fixed right away rather than down the line when long-term issues arise.

Ready to Enhance Your Restaurant POS Reporting?

Does your point of sale system provide the data and analysis you need to streamline and optimize your restaurant? Could an upgraded POS system make running your business easier? With a wide variety of new and refurbished POS hardware and equipment, Retail Tech can help.

RTI offers all-in-one services, including installation and staging, retail point of sale system repairs, ongoing maintenance, and more. If you need help choosing a hybrid POS solution, contact our POS systems specialists for help finding the perfect point of sale solution. We’ll help you source the right point of sale solution for your retail store, restaurant, or small business.

This is an updated blog post that was originally published in 2018.