Restaurant inventory management software is a vital component of your restaurant self-ordering system. You can keep up with expected customer demands through automation and ease of use. How many restaurants use inventory management software? Hundreds of thousands.
In this piece, we’ll explain how restaurant management systems will lead to automation, why this software is better for food inventory, and the features this type of software includes.
POS Systems Include Inventory Management Features
For all the fantastic features of EPOS systems, your inventory is perhaps the most critical feature. Quality POS systems from GRUBBRR include built-in food inventory management.
Self-Ordering Inventory
Do restaurant POS systems typically include inventory management features? One of the trickiest aspects of managing a restaurant relates to stock control. Stock control includes rotation of perishables and knowing when to order more.
Inventory management software for restaurants not only understands your stock levels, but can automatically reorder stock. In addition, you can link your EPOS and self-service systems directly into management software for keeping track.
Smart Food Costings
Expenses in the catering and hospitality sectors change all the time. Fortunately, your restaurant inventory management system can use costing modules to keep costs on track. Packages like MarketMan offer smart food threshold settings.
Should prices exceed this, the software will alert you so you can decide on adjustments like changing a recipe, increasing the dish price, or finding a new supplier with cheaper prices.
Custom Item Combinations
Not all EPOS systems are made equally. Most offer adequate functionality for ordering a set menu and stock is tracked based on orders. However, customers like choice, and you can offer them this luxury with some of the best restaurant inventory management software packages.
In addition, specific EPOS systems allow your customers to build combination orders. They can add or remove items to standard orders, which are tracked independently by inventory control.
Integrate Multiple Bars and Kitchen Inventories
Suppose your establishment is large. You may have a food and drink EPOS system on multiple floors or at different parts of the building. Quality inventory management software for restaurants allows you to integrate your entire stock control system into one.
Suppose food is ordered on a personal phone upstairs via a table QR code, and a drink is ordered at an EPOS downstairs. Both are deducted from your inventory using systems such as SKU numbers.
Bulk Inventory Upload Features
Stock replenishment is a crucial part of running a successful restaurant. Yet you could spend significant time ordering from different suppliers. A restaurant inventory management system like BlueCart lets you bulk order stock and upload the details to your internal controls.
Not only does this save you a massive amount of time, but it has been shown to reduce order errors by over 80%. Additionally, suppliers can connect directly with you using custom apps for ordering.
Restaurant inventory management is a part of any quality POS system. With the right EPOS, you can set max food costs, integrate multiple systems, and reorder supplier stock in bulk.
Restaurant Management Systems Will Lead to Automation
Like many commercial and industrial systems, restaurant management is becoming increasingly automated. Of course, there will always be the need for humans (unless you are considering opening a virtual restaurant) but automation streamlines.
Self-Service Payment Kiosks
Restaurant inventory management software can integrate directly with self-service payment kiosks. By monitoring user orders through devices like touch-screen interfaces, your kitchen can make meals to order.
At the same time, your inventory systems can keep track of stock deductions. Additionally, you can add upselling modules for prompting additions. Offering items on the upsell through self-serve can potentially increase revenue up to between 40% and 50%.
Virtual Restaurants
There’s an app for everything these days, and restaurant services are no different. Some of the best restaurant inventory management software can integrate into third-party systems such as Just Eat.
Using these systems, you can make food to order from assignments via external ordering apps. All you need to do is receive an order, complete it and then send it for delivery straight to a customer’s door.
Secure Customer Data Storage
You should always aim to verify sensitive data such as credit and debit card information rather than store it. However, you might need to keep some details such as names and addresses on secure systems for promotional or loyalty scheme purposes.
Traditional methods like pen and paper files are clearly flawed and easily accessible. However, digital storage with restaurant inventory management software typically offers security through means like encrypted data.
Reduce Human Error
There’s no end to human ingenuity and intelligence. Yet even the best-trained employees are prone to making mistakes. Automated systems, however, can repeatedly process specific tasks much faster and more accurately than anyone in your restaurant.
The kind of tasks a computerized system can perform varies by software and hardware. However, they range from simple digital ordering systems to AI-assisted robotic food preparation in virtual restaurants.
Secure Payments
Your restaurant inventory management system is directly linked to your EPOS. Because of this, they can communicate alerts about all kinds of information.
Accepting payments from customers requires security, especially when using credit and debit cards or virtual currencies like Bitcoin. Your payment processor will handle the security of your system. Yet you are responsible for choosing the service you use.
Why Restaurant Software Will Better Manage Food Inventory
You can use software to improve your business in various ways. One thing software is excellent for is tracking data. At the end of the day, inventory is nothing more than real-world data in another form.
User-Friendly Interfaces
In order to manage or manipulate data from an end-user perspective, your restaurant inventory management software requires a user-friendly interface. Many of the best EPOS systems are universally similar, with minor bespoke adjustments for your specific requirements. Packages like ToastPOS and Clover are becoming standardized in terms of features.
Front of House to Kitchen Communication
Orders coming through from servers and EPOS systems to the kitchen are facilitated by your restaurant food inventory management system. A perfectly synced system can help POS employees inform customers of what’s available.
Yet, they let the kitchen know specific orders. Using a digital strategy with printed media means orders come through clean and fast.
Improved Customer Service
Inventory management software for restaurants is designed to make life easier for you as a business. However, there is also a customer perspective. For instance, suppose you run out of a popular soda drink like Coca-Cola.
There is the potential for customers to be irritated if they can’t order it. Yet automated systems can detect you have run out of stock and proceed to remove a specific item as a choice from a digital menu. This avoids confusion and an incident.
Sales Tracking
As with any other type of business, you must track sales, you must track sales for accurate reporting and financial management. On paper or using outdated devices, this is challenging and tedious.
Yet many of the best restaurant inventory management software packages offer integrated sales tracking components. These can link directly to external apps and software for accurate record keeping, such as Quickbooks. These can help with taxes, deductions, and payroll management.
Integrated Data Analytics
Data analytics is crucial in all types of businesses. For example, data analysis can be invaluable for commercial ventures such as the restaurant industry. You can use the information gathered from multiple data points to collate data sets for various purposes. These include tracking marketing strategies, gauging the success of promotions, and trialing new food or drink.
Summary
Inventory management software for restaurants has revolutionized the food industry. From small cafés and local sports bars to multinational fast-food chains and Michelin-starred restaurants, EPOS systems are a huge help. They can even help you open a restaurant with no money!
A good system like GRUBBRR’s will help improve customer service by streamlining service. But will also help you master inventory, track sales, and manage expenses. To learn more, visit www.grubbrr.com.
