Best Restaurant Management Software for Your Business

The everyday operations of a restaurant are automated using restaurant management software. It is usually designed to help users manage their food service businesses effectively. Typically, this software comes with different modules for behind-the-door operations: 

• Guest or Order Management 
• Kitchen Management 
• Table Bookings 
• Accounts and Supplier Information 
• Customer Contact Management, etc. 

In addition to these, the software automates inventory management and guest scheduling as well. It connects with POS technologies to control order and billing procedures. Some vendors also include modules to cover customer-related operations here. 

This software is created to assist users in running their restaurant businesses. Users can simplify complicated restaurant operations while managing the food preparation and sales components of the business through this integrated system. This solution is intended to enhance the staff members' daily lives and encourage them to concentrate more on improving the visitor’s experience with the restaurant. 

As mentioned above, the restaurant management systems streamline every part of running a restaurant, right from ordering the food to invoicing and bookkeeping. Several POS systems for restaurants are growing in terms of features and handling capabilities. However, their objective is not to be a unified solution. Given their strength, these systems are affordable, improve your staff’s output, and even boost your restaurant’s adherence to food safety rules. 

Restaurant management software is a go-to solution for everyone seeking a comprehensive system to manage their restaurant with versatile functionalities. The system adapts its features to suit the user’s demands, so it can only accommodate the requirements of a restaurant business.

Before getting into the features and benefits of the restaurant management software, let’s understand what makes this system. Have a look: 

Point of Sale 

The core of the restaurant management system is its point of sale (POS) feature. When the customer's orders are entered, their information is automatically added to your restaurant database. Moreover, POS handles the major operational tasks like ticketing, billing, printing, and KOT. Since you can now analyse your consumer data, you can use it to understand what works for your restaurant to make it better. 

Also, you can feed your marketing campaigns with the same information. Most of it, including your emails, SMS marketing, advertisements, and social media is mostly automatic. Several surveys suggest that repeat customers bring in 75% of the money at the restaurants. Want to achieve this feat? You’ll need your POS for it. 

When talking about modern-day POS systems, you can benefit from them in the following ways: 

• Track your data 
• Flexible and easy usage 
• Secure data management 
• Inventory turnover and management 

Orders 

Being aware of events at your restaurant/hotel, both offline and online is always a great idea. You get orders from your order platform along with online food delivery platforms like Uber Eats, Swiggy, and Zomato. Your dashboard will now show all the essential information about orders and status messages, greatly simplifying your administration process. In short, the order management module benefits in the following way: 

• Holistic information on the orders (both online and offline) 
• Notifications updating the orders’ current status 
• Handing crucial client calls on a single dashboard 

Finances and Accounts 

When using the restaurant management software, you should be able to track sales and earnings, calculate the cost of goods sold (COGS), and manage your taxes. A crucial point here to understand is that there isn't a single solution that works for everyone. Each business has its unique set of requirements. Generally, restaurant chains integrate their systems with good accounting software. However, these systems can handle the finances and account for your restaurant quite well, based on the vendor you choose. 

Marketing 

You’ll need to engage your customers with several ways to glue them to your restaurant and repeat their visits. For this, the restaurant management system comes with a significant marketing wing that allocates the following: 

1. Loyalty Management 

You’ll need a system that enables you to reward devoted clients with greater deals. Good loyalty programs usually encourage new consumers to become devoted supporters of your business, provided they are properly advertised. Based on their "degree of loyalty," you can segment the customers into different categories. You may look at the attributes like the total number of orders, average order value, frequency of visits, etc., to make these assessments.  

2. CRM 

Customers visiting a restaurant are kept informed about its latest updates through SMS and email. The restaurant management system usually automates this entire process whenever a customer gets registered for the first time. If you want to further segregate your visitors for these outreach campaigns, you can add categories like age, ordered food, cuisine preferences, etc., to the database. 

Apart from these techniques, some restaurant management software vendors also provide app marketing features to boost profits. 

Table Reservation 

This aspect works only for the dine-in operations of the restaurant. Using good software, you can seamlessly handle all of your table reservations and take reservations from your website likewise. You can keep a close check on the current wait time and your guest list. An additional benefit here is being informed when devoted consumers are on their way to you. By doing this, you can increase their sense of awe. 

Restaurants are a complex chain involving several operations. Business owners are more inclined towards advanced modules from the restaurant management software to improve their customer retention and achieve commercial success. At the moment, you can find the following common versions of this software for effective business management. 

1. Point of Sale 

The most popular small platforms related to this wing are point-of-sale (POS) systems. They concentrate on maximizing sales and enhancing the dining experience to the fullest. These systems offer a core POS software module and enable seamless interfaces with third parties for additional features like financial tools, inventory management, payroll packages, and other essential business systems, making the small restaurant management POS systems exceptional. 

2. Front of House 

All of the numerous systems that a hotel or restaurant visitor could directly witness or engage with are included in the front-of-house restaurant system. This software's major goal is to provide every customer visiting the restaurant with a comprehensive and excellent experience. Restaurant management software usually accommodates a variety of needs. Likewise, the majority of front-of-house online restaurant software systems come with dedicated modules for table management, point of sale, and guest reservations. 

3. Back of House 

The back-of-house restaurant software is meant to handle an entire lot of manufacturing and retail operations like labor estimates, raw material needs, etc. These back-of-house small restaurant management software manage personnel, scheduling, ordering, and inventory to increase output and productivity. 

4. End to End 

Several online systems come available that offer comprehensive end-to-end services. The CRM modules, table and order management, customer loyalty, taxes, compliance, and inventory control functions of this restaurant management software are all handled by a powerful restaurant automation system. In most cases, the restaurant management software lets you mix and match certain features and different modules as needed for your business, greatly personalizing the entire system. 

There is no set definition for how different systems are categorized in restaurant management software. So, irrespective of the size, the majority of business models of this kind consider different features, integrations, pricing, and after-sales support from the vendors

You can find different restaurant management systems as mentioned above. They mostly defer based on the features that come with them. However, there are some common functionalities that you can expect from every software variety of this kind. Have a look: 

1. Finances 

It's crucial to keep track of every transaction at a restaurant. Apart from making it easy to balance income and expenses, it also greatly facilitates any potential customer conflicts. Owners and managers can easily make better judgments in the future by seeing how much money is spent on necessities like food purchases, the cost of particular components in recipes, and which items on the menu are becoming more popular than others. 

This can also assist a kitchen in calculating the financial loss due to food wastage and making necessary modifications. In general, it's a good thing if you are aware of how sales are doing and potential cost savings. 

2. Orders 

The majority of any restaurant's business mostly revolves around order handling and food sales. If things don't go according to plan, the entire restaurant chain might be in trouble. The kitchen can be organized and stay on top of orders if digital tickets or an integrated ticket printer takes charge. 

Staying organized becomes more crucial when the restaurant also offers delivery services, as the food has to reach the destination on time. You can find several platforms that notify users through notifications and alerts whenever an order runs behind schedule. 

3. Inventory 

Controlling the inventory should be the main priority for a restaurant. Serving consumers is impossible without sufficient quantities of the necessary materials. Food is expensive and does not last forever, which is what makes it crucial to order the exact quantity. Chefs and cooks need to keep track of things like the following: 

• All ingredients that are on hand 
• Expiry dates of the ingredients 
• Items to be ordered soon 

All of this is possible with the help of inventory management tools of the restaurant management software. There is a smart mechanism that immediately updates the inventory if a fixed quantity of anything, like different sauces, is available when purchased. 

Restaurant inventory software is also available specifically. But it becomes simpler for the kitchens to connect with the back office and front of the house, and vice versa, when this feature comes in-built with the restaurant management software. 

4. Menu Creation 

While there are undoubtedly several factors outside the purview of software that go into producing a menu, restaurant management software assists in streamlining the whole process. The list of ingredients and different recipes for menu items can be maintained using specific modules included in some restaurant management software. Once the menu is properly set, you can simply add the same to the POS system, which makes it much simpler for the restaurant staff to take the orders. 

5. Employee Management 

Numerous people work at restaurants in different shifts. Restaurants usually build onboarding schedules for new hires who need training and arrange their employees' shifts using staff management services. 

This ensures that restaurants are never understaffed and that staff members are not overworked. To avoid understaffing or overstaffing, certain restaurant management software from reputed vendors even indicate which days or nights are busy and which are slower. 

6. Loyalty 

For every restaurant, getting and keeping customers is a crucial problem. Gift cards, frequent diner cards, and email newsletters are just a few examples of loyalty management services that are included in many restaurant management systems. 

These platforms house all or most of them usually, making it simple for customers to redeem their cards or keep track of collected points. As a result, customers don't have to keep track of these cards, and you don't have to spend a lot of time making sure your client receives the discount. 

7. Takeaway and Delivery 

Providing online meal ordering services is better since customers adore having that choice. several vendors at the moment are providing different tools that give restaurant management software the ability to develop an online ordering gateway. 

When attempting to find out how to establish a website and minimize vendor costs, a restaurant management system can assist keep everything in one place and save time and money. Additionally, since those orders come straight from this system, there is less chance that they will be misplaced or ignored in favor of in-house customers. 

8. Credit Card Processes 

This feature is usually common in POS restaurant systems, but you might come across this in most software of this kind. As in, you can find a built-in credit card processing feature in most restaurant management systems too. 

Credit card processing coming as a part of your software greatly simplifies the payment procedure for both customers and staff because the majority of diners usually prefer card payments. Additionally, it may no longer be necessary to pay additional fees for this to any credit card processing firm. There is no need to spend more money out of pocket when the service comes included with the software. 

9. Analytics and Reports 

Restaurants operate with relatively slim profit margins, which makes it extremely important for owners to always be aware of everything that is going on. Due to the fact that restaurant management systems practically touch every part of a restaurant, they can gather information from every wing and create analytics that gives a holistic picture of how things are going there. 

Restaurant owners and managers can decide where they are doing well and where improvement is needed based on this data and research. The fundamental capabilities inside restaurant management software are often sufficient for busy restaurateurs not coming from a data science background, even though these data analytics solutions present comprehensive information. 

The ideal approach for restaurant operators to have a clear image of their business, reduce prime expenses, and manage profitability is to deploy an all-in-one solution, in which all of the restaurant's data is catered in a single central application and is created to function smoothly together. 

The following are some of the several benefits of implementing a comprehensive solution to run your restaurant business. 

1. Cost Reduction 

If you need to track what comes in and what leaves, restaurants typically occasionally turn into money pits. To keep the financial side of your business under control, you can appoint a full-time accountant, but complicate things when you have a better option! You can handle every part of your financial administration using different modules and features from the restaurant management system. Through this system, you can: 

• Check food stock 
• Handle staff time cards 
• Collect payments from customers 

A fully integrated and properly functioning restaurant management system will allow you to quickly track the money entering and leaving your company. The system ensures that your money doesn't go somewhere it shouldn't while enabling you to keep the tight budget that is essential to any restaurant's success. 

A balance sheet audit can also reveal whether you are missing any income possibilities, such as ways to upsell to clients or increase your food and beverage sales. After that, you can fasten your moves to improve your restaurant's profitability. 

2. Easy Scheduling 

Restaurants are usually quite crowded. You can't afford to squander any time with several things at stake. Monitoring the staff’s schedule thoroughly is therefore critical to ensure that everything is finished on time. Manually generating timetables, however, is time-consuming and error-prone. You can simply sort the staff for each day of the week in accordance with your demands using a restaurant management system. 

You can make sure that everyone has a chance at completing all the required jobs, whether it's ordering food or pouring drinks, by setting up separate shifts for your personnel. The restaurant management software will also help you figure out scheduling problems, if any, and fix them before at the earliest, ensuring that your whole staff is engaged to the maximum extent possible. 

3. Discount System 

Who wouldn’t want a great discount? Customers enjoy discounts, but it's always a daunting task to deliver them. A good discount program requires considerable thought and work to develop, and much more work to put into practice. However, the restaurant management software can create customized and flexible discount programs for you. 

If a client visits your restaurant after a particular number of days, you can present them with a special discount as a thank you for being a regular customer. Or, you can customize automatic emails to alert your devoted diners of their unique offer. If you want to go a step ahead, the restaurant management software also routinely keeps track of your customers' prior purchases and suggests cheaper meal options while maintaining profit and customer happiness. 

4. Waiting Time 

Diners would hate it if the wait time is quite long. The longer they’ve to wait, the more would be their irritation. It’s a loss either way since a consumer who is dissatisfied with the meal or the service wouldn’t want to come back again. As a result, you must address these circumstances right away. One way to achieve this is by developing precise waitlists. However, manually generating waitlists is a laborious task, and is subject to a lot of hassle. 

Specialized restaurant management software systems save time, energy, and money. You can add visitors to the waitlist with a single click and even notify them of the anticipated wait time. Restaurant owners can simply manage and allocate tables to servers with one more button click when the tables are free. This will guarantee a short wait time and prevent you from disappointing clients. 

5. Security 

Today's treasure is data. But safeguarding your data from security lapses, cyber-attacks, etc., is a difficult endeavor. You must take all reasonable precautions to keep the data safe while making it accessible to your company. The restaurant management software does just that to help in this situation. 

You can conveniently store, manage, and access all of your company's information online with the best restaurant management software tools. Additionally, with a private cloud-based RMS system, your company data is always safe and secure and is only just a click away from you. 

6. Staff Management 

One person alone cannot run a restaurant. To run the activities smoothly, several factors must be taken into account. Restaurant owners need competent workers to ensure effective operations. Manual staff training, however, is often laborious and mostly reduces the restaurant’s profitability. 

Putting in place the restaurant management software assists you in hastening the training process by giving your staff daily on-the-job training paired with periodic assessments. These evaluations will determine whether or not your staff is meeting the necessary performance criteria. If there are any infractions, you can help them get back on track, ensuring that everyone has a good time working at your restaurant. 

In most cases, the average pricing for the restaurant management software depends greatly on the complexity of the system's capabilities and the number of locations you need to manage with it. The cost will also fluctuate if any of the following aspects are involved: 

• If you need integrated tools like tablets or cash registers 
• Software with perpetual or subscription license 

A perpetual license allows you to use the software perpetually after paying a one-time, significant charge. The initial charges are usually high, but subsequent expenditures are lower. With subscription licensing, you make smaller, ongoing monthly or yearly payments. 

When compared to a perpetual license, the initial expenses for subscription licensing are low, but the ongoing fees are greater. However, each license option's costs eventually balance out, on average. 

Negotiate with the chosen vendors and understand their pricing structure to properly budget for the system and make the most of it. 

Looking at the diverse features and benefits of restaurant management software, anyone would want to give it a try. But how do you find the right vendor? Don’t worry! Here are some tips you can consider to find the best restaurant management software vendor to run your restaurant business effectively. 

1. System 

You need to choose the right sort of this software. For instance, your company could use a basic point-of-sale restaurant software instead of a full suite in the Indian market because the restaurant management system relies entirely on your budget and module needs. To select the best fit for your restaurant, the software used has to accommodate your business requirements while providing different systems for extensive operations. 

2. Scalability

Ensure that your restaurant management software is extremely scalable when you want to grow or diversify your business activities on a greater scale in the future. The majority of these packages come with built-in analytics, integrated HR tools, and multi-branch add-ons that can manage a growing staff base in addition to functional needs. The majority of vendors offer different plans for the same promise of scalability and let you add on modules to upgrade the software’s functionality. 

3. Deployment 

You can find both on-premise and cloud-based systems for restaurant management software. Cloud-based systems usually come with monthly plans. Both systems have their set of pros and cons, and most businesses choose one or the other depending on their budget. One of the best examples of a restaurant management system is a cloud-based restaurant since it provides total remote access to business operations. 

4. Offline Tools 

It is crucial to select remotely accessible and portable restaurant management software systems in the current digital era. These solutions are ideal for saving time and energy and preventing misunderstandings because they are instantly connected to the restaurant kitchen and cashier. Restaurant management software can have errors in some instances, leading to some issues. In that case, these remote technologies maintain menu pricing with incredible flexibility and adaptability. 

5. Remote Access 

Most restaurant software runs in the cloud and so is always accessible. The fact that these restaurant software applications cease operating if the internet goes down, is unplugged, or has connectivity issues is a significant drawback since it slows down business operations.

So, it is crucial to include an offline mode in your restaurant software for your team members to continue working even when there is no connectivity to the internet. Once the connection is restored, the system will automatically sync the changes to ensure that the cloud-backed data is kept secure. 

Several vendors are available in the market, and restaurant software in India has advanced significantly. So, before making an investment in the best restaurant management software for your business, carefully consider all important factors. You can also include aspects like pricing, integrations with other business software, vendor reputation, customer services, etc. when making the choice.

As mentioned above, restaurant software in India is advancing pretty quickly. So, business owners might consider the following trends: 

Customer Service with AI Tools 

Restaurants have the ability to gather customer data, which can later be analyzed to determine consumer trends and cuisine preferences. In the upcoming years, it is anticipated that artificial intelligence (AI) and relevant tools will have a significant impact on the food business. 

It may help businesses gather information about their patrons, evaluate it, and create menus reflecting their tastes. Use the same to raise consumer expectations and experience, which will in turn boost sales and profitability. 

Payment Methods and Mobile Technology 

New technologies are displacing traditional payment systems through cash and debit/credit cards. Many diners and online food-ordering customers find it simple to utilize digital payment methods due to the rise in smartphone use. Several market analytics suggest that the volume of mobile payments has grown significantly over the years.