Maximise Your Restaurant’s Efficiency with POS Integration: 7 Benefits of Combining Point of Sales with F&B Management Software

Restaurant technology has come a long way. POS integration is essential. 

Although the point-of-sale system (POS) remains the technological heart of restaurants, numerous technologies run behind the scenes these days. 

These back-of-house software systems have become indispensable for modern restaurants because they enhance profitability and simplify work for restaurant managers and kitchen staff. 

Some technologies integrate with the restaurant’s POS, allowing data to be easily shared between front-of-house (FoH) and back-of-house (BoH) systems. 

The integrations, through API endpoints or otherwise, increase operational efficiency and significantly simplify day-to-day, as no more time is lost updating spreadsheets or apps. And thanks to automation the risk of human error when transferring the data is heavily reduced. 

Chief among these restaurant management systems is a F&B management platform such as Apicbase. This end-to-end solution uses data from your POS to provide insights into sales, food costs, menu engineering and inventory management. 

In other words, POS system integration breaks the data silos between revenue management and cost management. It unlocks previously unattainable insights on profitability and helps you to make better business decisions (with the data to back you up). 

If all that sounds too abstract, look at it this way: 

while your POS system helps to optimise sales, F&B management software helps to keep costs under control. Together, they ensure that your bottom line continues to grow.  

Let’s find out how.

What is POS system integration?

Let’s quickly recap the definition of a POS integration for your restaurant.

POS (Point of Sale) integration refers to integrating a restaurant’s point of sale system with other software and technologies used in the restaurant’s operations. 

This can include connecting the restaurant’s inventory management system, customer relationship management (CRM) system, payment processing system, and even online ordering systems to its POS.

The purpose of POS integration is to streamline and automate processes such as updating menus, tracking sales, and processing payments within the restaurant. This helps to reduce manual errors, improve efficiency, and provide real-time data for making informed decisions.

For instance, integrating a restaurant’s POS system with its inventory management system allows it to track ingredient levels and automatically generate purchase orders when stock runs low. This helps to ensure that the restaurant has the necessary ingredients at all times while avoiding overstocking and reducing waste.

Overall, POS integration can help restaurants: 

• operate more effectively, 
• improve customer experience, and 
• drive growth.

In short, POS system integration is a streamlined connection between your point-of-sale system and other restaurant software platforms. It enables restaurant tech platforms to pull data directly from your POS in real time and also feed information back to your POS. 

Which POS Data Does Apicbase Enrich With F&B Data?

The Apicbase restaurant management platform consists of modules, like Inventory Management, Menu Engineering, and Procurement Management. Combining several (or all) modules empowers you to save time, cut costs and improve menu quality.

Apicbase uses two types of data from your POS:

2. The second type is static information. Apicbase extracts the items and categories (like starters, main dishes, sides, desserts, etc.) from your POS. Once each item is priced and linked to your recipes and menus in Apicbase, the system uses the data to automate inventory management and generate performance insights by location. 

So, what if you run an operation with three restaurants and a ghost kitchen? 

Or what if you manage a multi-property foodservice enterprise?

How does a POS integration benefit you? 

There are 7 ways.

7 Benefits of Integrating Your POS System With Apicbase

Let’s explore the modules in Apicbase in greater detail. 

#1 Automated inventory management

The Restaurant Inventory Management Software of the Apicbase platform uses the sales data from your POS to automate your inventory management.

Example

You just sold a cheeseburger. Based on the recipe you set in the Menu Engineering module, Apicbase calculates how many ingredients were used to prepare that cheeseburger and depletes inventory accordingly. The same happens for every sale registered in your POS. 

What’s in it for you?

Your restaurant managers have access to real-time inventory data at every location, allowing them to minimise over- and underbuying, which massively reduces food waste and food costs. 

Automating inventory management also saves time. Daily stock counts are a thing of the past as Apicbase automatically updates stock levels after each sale is recorded in the till. 

Additionally, inventory dashboards offer deep insights into your F&B stock evolution over time. It ensures you never run out of supplies or carry more than needed.

You can even set minimum inventory levels for ingredients per location. The system will notify the kitchen staff when their stock is running low (or when they are ordering excessive amounts). 

#2 Menu engineering based on real-time insights

The Menu Engineering Software of the Apicbase platform is the cornerstone of your restaurant operations. It contains an overview of your ingredients, individual recipes, and menus. 

This is how it works: every menu item is linked to a recipe. Every recipe is linked to the ingredients it used. Ingredients are linked to their respective suppliers, package sizes, nutritional values, and allergen information. 

On a side note: thanks to the ingredient and (sub)recipe information, your development chefs can easily create menus. They can select what they need from a dropdown menu. Apicbase will immediately calculate the cost and nutritional values per serving or for an entire menu. Moreover, the software generates an accurate allergen list, accessible via QR. The automation saves your teams several hours per week. 

The menu engineering module syncs continuously with your POS, enabling real-time profit margin calculations per menu, category, and menu item. 

Additionally, Apicbase pulls in the number of times menu items were sold and plots their popularity against their profit margins in an easy-to-read sale mix graph. 

Example

Let’s use the same cheeseburger mentioned in #1 as an example. Apicbase retrieves the sales information from your point-of-sale (POS) system and calculates the cost of producing one cheeseburger based on the prices and amounts of the ingredients listed in the recipe. This calculation takes place for every sale recorded in your POS. This way, Apicbase can accurately determine the cost and profitability of each menu item.

What’s in it for you?

Recording recipe costs helps you manage product usage, yield, and waste, allowing you to maximise the efficiency of ingredient usage. It also gives you insights into menu profitability. If certain menu items’ profit margins should start to dip due to supplier price increases, you’ll notice immediately.  

The information generated by Apicbase regarding your menus serves as the foundation for maximizing the efficiency, growth, and return on investment (ROI) of your food and beverage resources.  

The combined insights allow you to engineer your menus to promote your most profitable menu items and maximise your bottom line. They also help you to determine whether specific items are over- or underpriced, or if portioning of the recipe is incorrect.

#3 Powerful reports 

Apicbase turns the data from the Menu Engineering Software and your POS receipts into powerful dashboards and reports (see Restaurant Analytics Software). 

Here, you get priceless insights into: 

• revenue, 
• food costs, 
• F&B inventory, and 
• purchasing.

Example

Let’s take a closer look at food cost analysis. Apicbase collects the revenue information from your point-of-sale system and uses the Menu Engineering module to generate a snapshot of your food costs. This enables the platform to swiftly determine the portion of your revenue that goes towards food inventory. You’ll receive an immediate calculation of your food cost percentage, which gives you an advantage over having to wait for the profit and loss statement from your accountant. 

You can take immediate action when your profit margins are at risk.  

However, that’s not the only benefit. Our platform leverages the data from your point-of-sale system to calculate your food cost at the item and category level. With this information, you can analyze your menu offerings, refine your recipes and menus, and increase your profit margins.

Wait there’s more.

Earlier, we mentioned that Apicbase automatically tracks your stock. In the Insights Hub, we offer even more capabilities. Here, you can view your inventory variance, which represents the discrepancy between what should be in stock and what is actually available. 

It provides a comprehensive understanding of the current (and historic) status of your inventory for each outlet, product category, menu item and ingredient.

What’s in it for you?

With a better understanding of your business data, you can identify poorly performing restaurants and unprofitable menu items. With that knowledge, you can improve the recipes and SOPs for procurement. This way, you will increase your restaurants’ profit margins.

#4 Smart ordering

At the end of a long workday, your team can simply check their tablet to find that Apicbase has already updated the stock levels and provided recommendations for purchase orders. After a brief review, they can instantly send a PO to suppliers with just a few taps. 

How? 

Apicbase calculates the ideal order quantities, based on your recipes and PAR (or minimum) inventory levels with the restaurant procurement software of the platform. It facilitates streamlined procurement management with the data from your POS sales receipts and the Inventory Management Software.

Example

For example, let’s go back to that cheeseburger from earlier. First, Apicbase retrieves the sales ticket from your till and automatically reduces the stock according to the ingredients used in the cheeseburger. Then, if you are low on cheese, the software adds the right amount to your cheese supplier’s next purchase order.

What’s in it for you?

The smart ordering module not only saves your restaurant teams time but also helps to prevent overstocking and inventory shortages that would otherwise increase your cost of goods sold (CoGS). This is how Apicbase helps to maintain your profit margins.

Your PAR levels change according to the day of the week, menu modifications, and other variables like weather or events. That’s why it’s wise to have a dynamic PAR. However, manually setting PAR levels for every menu item and restaurant would be time-consuming. Fortunately, Apicbase will soon be able to utilize its analysis of your sales and stock data to forecast what you need to order on an item basis for each establishment. Keep an eye out for updates on this upcoming feature.

#5 More agile teams

Integrating POS with Apicbase helps streamline the everyday operations of a restaurant and improve efficiency (a quite drastic improvement to be honest but perhaps we’re biased). It reduces tedious tasks like manual data entry and increases organisational agility across the board. 

Additionally, having access to real-time insights into restaurant performance can better inform decisions about menu items and staffing schedules.

The integration empowers your restaurant managers and other key players. It helps them take control of operations and make informed decisions that help them succeed and grow the bottom the line.

A major advantage for your teams is the time savings. 

By optimizing your operations, Apicbase saves you and your team valuable time that can be reinvested in other areas such as improving customer relationships, enhancing the guest experience, or providing training to your staff.

Having more time to focus on core tasks also makes your team more agile and better equipped to respond to changing customer and operational needs, which is essential for success in the competitive restaurant industry.

#6 Enhanced customer experience

One of the biggest perks of Apicbase’s POS integration in your restaurant is that you’ll get a deep understanding of your customer wants and needs. 

The data collected from POS integration will help you to understand your customer preferences better and create tailored offers that will keep them coming back for more. This helps to create a personalised customer experience that is sure to leave a lasting impression.

Apicbase lets you craft menus to suit the tastes of your customers. Plus, thanks to the automated inventory management system you’ll never run out of food. That means you don’t have to worry about disappointing guests – and negative customer reviews – when they want to order their favourite dish.

#7 Sustainable growth

Two major hurdles for restaurant expansion are the lack of actionable data and the fact that people make mistakes. 

1. I can be super short about actionable data: to grow your business, you need solid data on revenues and costs. Knowing in real-time how much money comes into the business, and how much cash leaves the company is core knowledge for any business, especially if a successful restaurant expansion is a goal.
2. The human factor, don’t get us wrong, contrary to what is claimed sometimes, people are at the heart of hospitality. But people make mistakes. We forget things and don’t always do what we’re expected to do.

Little mistakes can have big consequences.

They must be corrected, which takes time from your most experienced people, leaving them less time for the important tasks.

To avoid similar mistakes in the future often requires organising new training sessions or reworking the SOPs. Small mistakes also cost money. Giving too large portions, for example. It accumulates to an amount that can no longer be invested in growth.

Additionally, all these losses make the books look just a little less rosy for investors.

With a POS integration for your F&B management platform, you get the best of both worlds. On the one hand, you relieve your people from tedious administration, and on the other, you avoid the mistakes that inevitably happen when transferring data from one system to another. 

Integrating Tech Platforms With Your POS Opens a World of Possibilities For Your Restaurant Business

Point-of-sale integration is crucial for the profitability of your restaurant business. It provides real-time data on revenue and costs across locations, enabling your restaurant and operations managers to make informed decisions.

Integrating a POS system with an F&B management platform such as Apicbase is key to a data-driven business strategy. The integration streamlines inventory management, menu engineering, and smart ordering.

The Apicbase platform simplifies and even automates multiple back-of-house operations, empowering your employees. It also helps them regain time, enabling them to remain agile and focus on creating unique customer experiences.