How to Spot Money Saving Opportunities Through Restaurant Accounting Tools

The restaurant business is one of the simplest business concepts there is. Make food for people. If you are in the restaurant business, you probably got here because you love making great food and feeding people. For such a straight forward concept, restaurants are some of the most complicated and difficult businesses to operate. Operating hours can be over a hundred a week and that doesn’t include the opening and closing work during off hours.

People who own or operate restaurants usually do so, because of a passion for food and people, not to get rich. In an industry where dollars rapidly disappear through over staffing and bad inventory, you need all the help you can get. Fortunately, technology is getting better all the time and so are the tools available to assist restaurant Owners and Managers. Let’s look at how to spot money saving opportunities through restaurant accounting tools.

Automation Nation

As technology has developed rapidly over the years, businesses have strived to save money and become more efficient by automating as much as they can. Not restaurants though. Many restaurant Owners and Operators have been Old School and are still Old School. They do things the way they’ve done things because it has worked. It may be working, but there are savings in doing things more efficiently.

There is a new guard rising in the restaurant world and they are embracing more technological advancements to help them save time and money. One of those innovations is automated accounts payable. This restaurant accounting tool links to your vendors and pays them on their schedule or yours. This saves the time of going through invoices and keeping track of what is due when.

Inventory Management

We’re always talking about managing restaurant inventory. It’s a difficult time-consuming task which offers lots of opportunity for improvement. The thing about restaurant inventory, is much of it can go bad. Traditional businesses are not affected by this. It’s a big deal in the restaurant industry. If an accounting tool can help you manage your inventory, so that you have less loss, that would be wonderful. The good news is there are such accounting tools out there. You have to be careful because there are a lot of accounting tools which aren’t designed for the pace or style of restaurant inventory. Using the wrong tools can cost you money. What are the right tools? They are designed specifically for restaurants and they are simple to use.

Real Time Information

A lot of business 101 is common sense. The best business decisions are based on the best information. Many of the old guard Restaurateurs have developed an eye for things. A sixth sense that tells them Tuesday’s special isn’t working or they are losing money on the lunch menu. However, most restaurant Owners and Managers use reports to determine what’s working and to make decisions. In the past all of these reports were a collection of old information. Certainly, it is valuable to know how you did last, week, last month, last summer. This will continue to be helpful information.

With today’s accounting tools you can know how you are doing right now. You can know exactly how you do on Thursdays for happy hour. You can get reports on which dishes are selling most and least, and when. The information available in real time is unlimited and with this information you can make better decisions regarding the menu, inventory and staffing which will save you money.

Combined Software

Todays restaurant accounting tools can combine services and software. Instead of paying for separate POS, payroll, inventory and marketing systems. You can have them all integrated into one. This means less money spent buying different operation software and services. Less hassle as programs don’t bump heads with each other. The integral payroll and book keeping services alone offer a great money saving opportunity.

Keeping it Simple

Accounting and bookkeeping mistakes are costly for restaurants. Having a simple, easy to use accounting system reduces mistakes and saves money. The majority of accounting and bookkeeping mistakes are the results of incorrect entries. While human error is still possible, it is greatly reduced when the accounting tools are integrated with POS and inventory. The less entries a person has to make, the less possibility for error.

It is an exciting time now that restaurants are starting to benefit more from technology. Technological innovations like restaurant accounting tools save money and time.