What is Restaurant Management Software?

Introduction

Restaurant management software enables restaurant managers and owners to run their establishment end to end. You can use it to track inventory, orders, payroll, and analytics. The solution can also be leveraged to monitor staff effectiveness, ease new hires’ onboarding process, and compare best practices at several locations.

Restaurant management software has a crossover with POS (point of sale) system, and the former can include POS functions. The platform helps run both back and front of house operations and offers back-office support. It is designed particularly for the foodservice and restaurant sectors.

Features of Restaurant Management Software

Order Management

Food sales and order management are vital processes for restaurants. An integrated ticket printer or digital tickets can enable the kitchen to manage orders as they come in. If your restaurant also delivers orders, it’s important to organize it properly so that food is sent to the right place. Some solutions alert waiters about delayed orders so they can inform the customers.

Menu Creation

The platform can maintain recipes and ingredient lists for menu items. After the finalization of menu items, you can add them easily to the POS function to make it simpler for waiters to place customer orders.

Inventory Management

Inventory control is essential for restaurants as they need to have enough stock of the needed ingredients to serve customers. Food can become stale quickly so it’s important to order the exact amount. Cooks and chefs can use the inventory management feature to track all available ingredients, their expiry dates, and what orders need to be given in the near future. The system will automatically update the inventory after an item is bought.

Though standalone restaurant inventory tools are available, having this feature built into a restaurant management system makes it simpler for the kitchen to communicate with the front and back offices, and vice versa.

Credit Card Processing

Restaurant management solutions come equipped with credit card processing feature to make things smoother for both servers and guests. You don’t have to buy a separate credit card processing tool and can thus save money.

Benefits of Restaurant Management Software

Sales Tracking

Restaurants typically attract a high volume of cash and credit card transactions. Restaurant management software enables you to track all sales data easily and keep tabs on the items sold. You can use this data to make educated business decisions. 

Boosts Customer Relationships

The platform empowers you to improve customer satisfaction and experience by allowing you to easily modify the menu and reduce the waiting time. You can offer multiple payment options to diners such as card, check, cash, etc. Thus, you can provide faster and better service to boost guest satisfaction.

Employee Happiness

The restaurant management system allows you to easily change or swap employee shifts as needed. Staff can work the shift they want by swapping it with suitable co-workers. This feature ensures your restaurant is always adequately staffed without crossing the workforce budget.

Automatic Analysis

A restaurant management tool can automate report production and generate insightful reports on the effectiveness of your marketing plans like discounts, loyalty programs, etc. You can use the insights and data to devise efficient strategies to get new clients and boost relationships with existing ones.

Improved Productivity

A restaurant management application helps to manage time-consuming tasks like table distribution and price lookups. Your employees can use the saved time to focus on enhancing the customer experience and boosting business growth.

Minimizes Errors

Handwriting orders can result in mistakes if the writing is not clearly readable. With restaurant software, your waiters can take orders on a screen which can help the cooks and chefs to prepare the orders more accurately without making errors.