Look Beyond Your POS System to Manage Your Restaurant Numbers
Yes, your POS system offers some reporting, but not enough. There is only one thing that is more important than knowing your restaurant numbers: managing your restaurant numbers.
Even better than that is to teach your management to actively manage your restaurant numbers using systems.
The tools in your POS system can tell you what your labor is at any given time, but they don’t tell you what your labor is going to be at the end of the night. This prevents you from being proactive in achieving the results you have set in your budget for maximum profitability. It also doesn’t allow you to budget your schedule for maximum profitability.
Systems in conjunction with your POS system, such as a labor system, provide accountability, daily evidence that your management has their eye on the ball. Allowing your management team to fall asleep at the wheel can cost you thousands.
I bring this up because so many restaurant owners say to me that they don’t need labor systems because their POS system provides everything they need.
I wholeheartedly disagree.
Your POS system doesn’t target your profitability or know what your labor should be based on prime cost targets.
Take this for example: Several years ago I took over a restaurant and discovered the POS system was incorrectly calculating labor percentages. It was a programming error that had been wrong for years, since it had been installed.
Without my labor systems, I would have never known this. It took Restaurant Systems Pro software to discover it.
In other words, don’t blindly trust your POS system.
As we like to say around here, “anything measured improves.” Diligently begin tracking anything you would like to improve. It provides accountability and keeps you and your management on track.
Simply set targets with a budget and put systems in place to meet your loftiest goals and achieve the success you have always dreamed of!
If you’d like to learn more about how to use labor systems in your restaurant, request a free demo of our restaurant management software, Restaurant Systems Pro.
For more examples of systems you can use to lower labor cost in your restaurant, download our free report, How to Get a Handle on Restaurant Labor Cost. You can also view tips to lower labor cost in your restaurant on this YouTube channel playlist.
