A point of sale (POS) system collects data for business insights that pertain to sales, inventory, backorders, customer, and employee management. However, this data doesn’t mean much without a point of sale report. A POS report transforms raw data into insights that businesses use to make informed decisions. These decisions include staffing, understanding the sell through rate, restaurant marketing, and how to price a menu.
POS systems play a crucial role in restaurant operations. In fact, POS data contains crucial information, and with the right point of sale report, you can learn about your business’s performance and streamline your inventory process-from wholesale distribution to the sales floor.
With the insights, you can make accurate business decisions that will lead to restaurant success. This includes client purchase habits, restaurant seasonality, and restaurant marketing efforts.
So, what exactly is a point of sale report? This article goes over the POS report meaning and which reports your restaurant or hospitality business should utilize.
Point of Sale Report Definition
A point of sale report is the business data that your POS software collects and organizes to tell you about your sales, inventory, customers, and employee management. In the restaurant industry, businesses use POS systems and different POS system features to gather insights. These businesses include restaurants, food trucks, bars, and catering companies
With a POS report, you can determine the best-selling menu items, inventory forecasting information, and your restaurant profit margin on certain dishes. In order to get access to the right reports for your establishment, you need to have the right restaurant POS integration.
Key Takeaway: Restaurant point of sale systems are a big investment, so it’s essential to make the most out of the features that it offers, including each point of sale report.
How Do POS Reports Work?
Information regarding your restaurant, such as sales numbers and inventory levels, goes through your POS system. This system keeps track of business transactions, menu prices, inventory, and more based on your POS features. This is what gives you a point of sale report.
The best restaurant POS systems don’t just collect and store business data, but they also make it available through easy-to-understand reports. Cloud-based POS systems allow you to access each POS report from anywhere through Wi-Fi-enabled devices. However, legacy POS systems are only available on-site through POS terminals.
POS reports help businesses make better and more informed decisions regarding everyday business processes. This includes how to enhance the customer experience, and increase revenues, sales, and personnel.
It’s possible to do this with a point of sale report because the reports will highlight areas that have potential. For example, sales and employee management reports will highlight slow periods of the day or week. This may be an opportunity for your restaurant to take advantage of a happy hour menu to bring in more customers.
6 POS Reports Your Restaurant Needs
There are different POS reports that each business needs. Each point of sale report will allow the restaurant manager to determine how successful sales are.
Here are six POS reports that your restaurant needs:
1. Inventory POS Report
Restaurants should have solid inventory control processes in place in order to ensure that they have enough products to meet their customers’ demands. Without enough inventory, you run the risk of losing customers and profits.
Your restaurant’s point of sale system should create inventory reports that include notices for:
- Low stock inventory
- In-stock inventory
- Food and inventory waste
- Purchase orders
With a restaurant and bar point of sale system, you have the ability to easily organize and update your inventory. Most POS systems will allow you to integrate inventory management software. As a result, you’ll be able to match stock volume to sales volume.
Such integrations will also make it possible to generate a point of sale report for your inventory. This includes your inventory amounts, values, and the items that require replenishment. In order to do this, you have to set up the reorder point for each item.
2. Restaurant Sales POS Report
Sales is a huge factor when it comes to opening a restaurant and making sure that it’s successful. A restaurant sales report provides insight into all transactions completed through the POS software during a given time period.
The sales report contains information regarding net sales, total guests, service types, payment methods, tips and gratuities, and average table turn time. With an overview of this information, you can dig deeper into specific categories. These include sales by each server, the items sold, and credit card types.
Your restaurant POS system should create reports that include:
- A sales overview
- Sales per customer report
- Sales per product report
The information from the restaurant sales report will allow you to take action to improve profit. You can determine underperforming products and get insight into what’s causing low sales.
3. Customer Relationship Management POS Report
A common POS system integration is with customer relationship management (CRM) software. This allows businesses to collect customer data including contact information, order history, and guest behavior.
Customer relationship management POS reports will help you identify the customers that spend the most money at your establishment or those that have visited the most. With this information, you can use your email marketing strategy to send targeted emails to thank them for their loyalty.
Other insights from CRM POS reports include the number of days since a customer’s last visit, average check size, and their most frequently ordered items. This allows you to learn about your guests and work on improving their experience.
4. Reward and Customer Loyalty POS Report
Having a restaurant loyalty program is crucial for long-term business, and it’s one of the key customer retention strategies available to hospitality businesses. You can generate a point of sale report based on your reward and customer loyalty program.
A reward and customer loyalty report will provide you with insight into your active gift cards and rewards. This includes information pertaining to the transactions associated with each card. You can get information on the last transaction data and the current balance.
With these insights, you can determine the effectiveness of your restaurant loyalty program. That way, you can make necessary changes and improvements.
5. Employee Performance POS Report
If you want to track employee performance then you’ll want to use detailed POS reports. These will allow you to control payroll expenses, make informed staffing decisions, and reduce labor cost when necessary. This is especially important during a restaurant labor shortage, which thousands of restaurant owners are continuing to experience in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
An employee performance point of sale report will help you keep track of each employee’s working hours. Once you know how many employees are working each shift, you can determine slow and busy times during the week. This information will allow you to plan ahead and avoid understaffing or overstaffing.
6. Real-Time POS Report
It’s common for a restaurant business owner to want to know what’s happening at their establishment in real time. With real-time analytics and reporting, you can get insight into the number of customers at your restaurant at any time.
This is also useful for reservation scheduling since you can see which tables are being used. Daily sales reports can also be updated in real time with the proper POS integrations. Even with a mobile point of sale system, you should be able to connect all devices to ensure proper report generation.
Frequently Asked Questions About a POS Report
Each restaurant will require a different point of sale report. However, there are a few that you may not want to skip out on. Checking these reports will allow you to stay on top of daily operations and performance.
Here are common questions and answers regarding POS reports:
Why Should I Generate Reports for the Transactions I Perform In a POS System?
Reports generated from a POS system will give you information regarding your business’s performance. This information includes a summary of your sales data, inventory tracking, current promotions, and potential growth opportunities.
With this information, you can make accurate and informed decisions regarding marketing tactics, seasonal menu releases, and promotions. By doing this, you can attract more customers and grow your business.
Most POS operating systems offer different features. That's why it's important to consider whether you want an Apple POS or Android POS system.
Can I Use a POS to Analyze Customer Data?
Yes, you can use a POS system to analyze customer data. In fact, your POS system can provide you with customer information such as their latest purchases and average transaction size. This information allows businesses to make data-driven decisions that can help them grow their business.
With POS customer data, businesses can determine their most profitable menu items. They can then capitalize on it to boost profits by incorporating it in marketing efforts or running promotions.
With a customer facing display, customers can enter their information such as their phone number and email to sign up for loyalty programs. This information can also be used for restaurant marketing efforts.
What Is the Meaning of Point of Sale?
A point of sale is where you process customer transactions and it can be done either in-person or online. Most businesses use a point of sale system with POS hardware and software that enable sales to be processed.