What is restaurant management software? What does it automate?
Restaurant management software connects the jobs a restaurant repeats by hand every day. The POS is its centre, but automation does not stop at orders: stock, reservations, staff and bookkeeping feed on the same data.
What gets automated?
One order, many jobs: the same data goes everywhere.
- Kitchen: the order reaches its station the moment it is saved; no tickets carried by hand.
- Payments and end of day: cash and card are totalled separately and the expected cash is ready for the count.
- Stock: each item's recipe comes off stock and low levels raise an alert.
- Reservations: deposits are applied to the bill automatically.
- Campaigns: a time-based discount applies itself when the time comes.
- Bookkeeping: end-of-day sales post to the cash and bank accounts.
The real gain
Time is the most visible gain, but the real one is accuracy: when a number is never retyped, neither is a mistake. Sales at the till, deductions in stock and income in the books come from the same record.
The same job, two ways.
Where to start?
- Orders and kitchen first: floor plan, menu, stations and a printer or kitchen display.
- Then payments and end of day: payment types, void and comp permissions, the daily report.
- Then stock: start with the recipes of your best sellers.
- Finally bookkeeping and reservations: accounts, suppliers, deposits.
You do not have to set it all up in a day. Orders and the kitchen work on day one; stock and bookkeeping settle in within a few weeks.
What to watch for
- Are the modules one system or separate programs? Between separate programs, data is still carried by hand.
- Permissions: automation speeds things up; who voided or comped what must still be on record.
- Data and privacy: how are guest and staff data protected, and for how long are they kept?
In ari adisyon, orders, the kitchen, payments, stock, reservations and bookkeeping run in one system. Try it for free and start with your own menu.