It might seem that the keys to running a successful restaurant are food quality and service. And while these are of course central to any restaurant, if they are a sole focus, they may not guarantee success.
Combining a great menu and service with an efficient back-office operation could be the difference between making a profit and closing up shop. Appropriately tracking and controlling prime costs while creating operational efficiency are all key drivers to profitability. While a passion for food and creating a great atmosphere is a great place to start when opening a restaurant, long-term success is also tied to tracking data points and using that information to make data-driven decisions to optimize labor spend, reduce food costs and increase revenue.
A restaurant management system that allows easy tracking of such data points helps to reduce food and labor costs and can help take a restaurant from “in-the-red” to profitability.
The bottom line is that a restaurant can have the greatest cheeseburger, tacos or fried chicken, but it won’t matter if they’re not tracking sales, food costs and labor costs on a daily basis to ensure they’re making a profit. And with 90% of restaurant businesses not maintaining an updated financial budget for each store, the failure rate of new restaurants is not surprising. Restaurant-specific software can help restaurant businesses not only operate more efficiently but thrive and grow.
What to analyze, and how
Restaurant businesses should use technology to track their actual costs vs. their theoretical costs or use suggestive ordering to purchase inventory at the right level, which helps reduce waste. In addition to providing data, technology should help curb things like labor costs with tools that might prevent staff from clocking in too early.
Technology should be put in place to help restaurants reduce costs. A couple of ways to accomplish this is to utilize technology to track their actual costs vs. their theoretical cost, or use tools like suggestive ordering to purchase inventory and reduce waste. In another example, technology can help curb labor costs with tools that prevent staff from clocking in too early and also alert management to overtime risks.
Beyond collecting and analyzing data, a robust, cloud-based restaurant management software should produce easy-to-read reports showing metrics such as daily sales (by shift), FOH and BOH labor, overtime, and variance to goals. This allows managers to reduce their time on reporting and turn their focus to things like their menu and creating a great customer experience."
Restaurant-specific software helps restaurant businesses operate more efficiently and automates many tasks, reducing hours of administrative burdens. Restaurant365’s cloud-based, restaurant accounting and back-office software:
- Integrates seamlessly with the top POS systems, food and beverage vendors, payroll providers and banks as an integral part of the platform
- Provides real-time reporting of key data, giving all stakeholders access to the same data simultaneously
- Enables operators to maintain control over the financial health of their restaurant business
- Saves operators significant time by automating processes such as bank reconciliation and accounts payable
- Streamlines communication, promotes employee engagement and reduces labor costs with advanced scheduling
- Provides end-to-end inventory management, including actual vs. theoretical food cost comparison and menu engineering
- Simplifies your staff scheduling, allowing you to control labor and engage with your employees
- Allows operators to record and access all data in one place
Operating a restaurant business can be a daunting challenge. Most operators are rightly focused on customer experience, service and food quality. Yet, running an efficient operation and keeping track of sales and prime costs is crucial to success. These challenges compound when there are multiple locations to manage.
Restaurant365 can help streamline these processes and generate invaluable reports that can help operators make data-driven decisions to help them operate their restaurants efficiently and grow their businesses.
Operators don’t have to run their restaurants in the dark. Cloud-based, restaurant-specific technology not only makes tracking data easy and convenient, but it also frees up operators to focus on the parts of running a restaurant they enjoy most. Learn more about Restaurant365 software today at https://www.restaurant365.com.
This post is sponsored by Restaurant365