A MANAGEMENT SUCCESS FORMULA
It seems that new restaurant accounting software systems become available every month. These management information systems grow more sophisticated with every rendition. When designing restaurant bookkeeping systems software manufacturers compete with one another by adding features that provide restaurant managers with more refined and segmented information that invites even deeper analysis of revenues and expenses.
Without additional management training, this information bonanza could fast become too much of a good thing. What can I do when informed by my cash register…on my cell phone…while I’m at the movies…that 10% of females who ordered red meat in my restaurant today, did not use the restroom, finish their side dish, tip more than 15%, drive a car or respond to my coupon offer? What can I do? This is the fundamental management question that is silently asked by all restaurateurs when they read the daily reports generated by their new accounting software. “I guess if the computer tells me all of this, I’m supposed to know it,” they think. “But what am I supposed to do about it?” They then dutifully peruse all the reports generated by their restaurant software and promptly forget 99% of the information contained therein.
These new restaurant accounting systems provide a thorough analysis that can lead to effective action. Managers must be taught to absorb more sophisticated information that can enable them to take action to increase revenues or control expenses. This is a new challenge for the modern restaurant manager. The ability to absorb a torrent of real-time information and convert this information into corrective action is the new art of restaurant management. Modern restaurant consultants help guide management through the learning curve required to utilize these new restaurant accounting systems.
Let’s pause together over a typical restaurant management information system:
DAILY SALES REPORT INVENTORY CONTROL FOOD COST
- POS Interface Ordering and Receiving Prep Recipes
- Cash Management Physical Counts Menu Recipes
- Revenue Report Transfers Production
- Labor Cost Report Extensions Menu Item Sales
- G/L Integration Actual Usage Theoretical Cost
- Sales Journal Supplier Integration Theoretical Usage
- Detailed Auditing Mobile Device Option Variance Reporting
All of these reports originate from POS input. This is an amazing system that provides management information on a real-time basis. However, information that is not actionable is not only useless, it can be harmful. Managers often deceive themselves by thinking that simply getting information is management action. It is not.
In the modern information age, this is the management success formula:
COLLECT – ANALYZE – ACT
