Most restaurants today understand the potential of restaurant management systems (RMS) and what they can achieve with them. For those who aren’t fully sold on the idea, RMS is designed to keep your restaurant functioning with effective management by tracking employees, inventory, and sales. Most restaurant management systems include integrated software and hardware components, like a cash register, receipt printer, and scanner depending on the nature of the restaurant.
With an RMS, you can holistically review the performance of your restaurant and make smart decisions. Evaluate your restaurant needs at a glance, and simplify how you operate your business. More importantly, you can integrate RMS with other applications and customize the system to better fit your needs. It serves as an effective tool to keep your inventory, point of sales, and staff in check, and accommodate them where need be.
Wait, RMS and POS systems aren’t the same?
A restaurant management system can be classified as a point of sale software; however, it offers more features than just tracking sales. Typically, it offers features that are unique to the food service industry, such as availability of staff according to their shift schedule, split billing, ingredient levels, kitchen displays, and more. Having an RMS can be a game-changer for restaurants to scale up their business and provide better services, along with availing more benefits.
So, How Can Having An Rms Benefit You?
An RMS offers many benefits to restaurant management and helps them run the restaurant more effectively. But on top of all that, it ensures customer satisfaction as sales and reviews of particular products can be independently viewed. With an RMS, restaurants can perform the following tasks with ease:
- Track the number of orders and sales per day/week/months.
- Extract real-time, accurate financial statements of the restaurant.
- Create exceptional staff schedules, measure time on site.
- Access data remotely and have a virtual backup via the cloud.
- Offer customer loyalty rewards with an in-build customer relationship management tool.
What Can an RMS Do for Your Business?
The restaurant management systems can perform various tasks for your business. However, while the exact tasks and features offered by the system depends on your selection, there are a handful of offerings most RMS offer:
- Simple Scheduling
Keep your staff in check and give them the option to pick out their schedule. With an RMS, you can get rid of the hassle of micromanaging your employee and let the system pick it out for you. This will help you meet compliance standards, prevent double shifts, and ensure staff availability.
- Make Accountability Easy and Save Time
Most restaurant managers often complain about how being on the same page with their staff is often difficult. With quarrels and disagreements about shift schedules and orders, an RMS system can eliminate the lack of connectivity. Most RMS automatically snap photos and upload them to the software which enforces accountability of order. RMS searches are easy and effective for managers and staff members alike.
- Effective Budgeting by Reducing Costs
It is common knowledge that the foodservice industry operates on thing profits margin, and with an RMS the profit margin can be maximized. You can cut down on unnecessary food costs and manage your inventory more effectively. Reduce food waste and food costs as you manage the expiration, availability, and perishable foods in your inventory.
- Supply Management Made Easy
RMS can be automatically configured to place orders for when you are running low on inventory. Based on previous data, you can also check what amount of inventory you should maintain per day/week. The accuracy will enable you to automate the process, and manage your supply chain more effectively. The RMS streamlines the process and makes it cost-effective.
What Do You Need to Consider Before Getting an RMS?
As evident, restaurant management systems offer many benefits to the restaurant and help in reducing bottlenecks. But before you decide to buy any RMS, reflect on your day-to-day processes and must fulfill your needs. Having an idea of your requirements will help you narrow down to picking an RMS that best fits your need, here’s what you should look for:
Type of RMS
There are various types of restaurant management systems available, and your selection would depend on which OS you’d be running your business. You can opt for All-in-one restaurant management solutions, Point-of-sale software, Online ordering software, and more.
Scalability
Additionally, you might have plans to expand your business and open new franchises. It is better to buy a restaurant management system that can grow alongside your business and can handle additional terminals, and devices. Look for an RMS with multibranch add-on features which can handle large staff.
Integration
Before deciding on an RMS, you would most likely have one software apps that you frequently use. In such cases, look for the ability to integrate the two to combine their features for better reporting. Most RMS can easily integrate with other parties and reduce time wastage and data replication.