Today’s Special: Technology Eases Financial Management Pain Points for Restaurateurs

What happens in the back office of your restaurant isn’t ever a customer concern—unless, of course, their meal is missing a key ingredient or the credit card system goes down. Your customers are focused on their dining experience, and they probably don’t think beyond what happens in the kitchen; the only thing on their minds is the roulade, the house white, and the soup of the day.

Little do your customers know that on the other side of the kitchen wall resides the business management office, which offers up a different kind of hustle and bustle: inventory control, payroll processing, quarterly reporting and more. Let’s take a look at the pain points encountered within—because they signal the need for transformation.

Yesterday’s Technology

Restaurants that are still using manual accounting systems based on paper ledgers and spreadsheets find it hard to keep up with the fast-paced financial world around them, even if their processes include the use of boxed accounting software. This antiquated approach relies on yesterday’s latest-and-greatest—which pales in comparison to today’s automated, digital, accessible-24/7 solutions.

The challenge this presents for restaurant owners is that when compared with competitors who do leverage today’s technology, they’re not able to make the best use of their data and resources:

• Keying the same transaction multiple times, into multiple systems, is time-consuming and can result in errors
• Data housed in disparate systems (paper or electronic) doesn’t automatically sync for analysis
• Operational and financial inefficiencies can lead to higher costs, delays, and even compliance risks

These roadblocks can be substantial for restaurant owners who have expansion plans. Most entry-level accounting software simply isn’t equipped to support increasing needs for inter-company transactions, real-time line item reporting across restaurants, or multi-user access. And without comprehensive insights into business drivers, owners don’t have adequate decision-support and can quickly lose competitive ground.

Tech-savvy Customers

We hate to suggest that customers are ever a pain point for a company, so let’s reframe this by saying that today’s digitally minded consumers are influencing change in the way restaurants approach their IT investments. Hospitality Technology’s 2017 Restaurant Technology Study found that for the first time in a decade, digital engagement displaced efficiency as the top strategic goal for IT investments. Indeed, improving digital customer engagement/loyalty is the top strategic goal cited by 61% of respondents. But that’s followed by improving business and customer analytics (39%), enhancing payment and data security (38%), and increasing employee productivity (27%).

With so much focus on the customer experience, restaurants are on the hook to deliver more than a delicious meal to the table (or front door). Efficiency still matters. That’s why restaurant IT environments that cater to both the customer and the office administrator are positioned to perform well into the future. It’s the best-in-class cloud-based solutions they can count on to support them at every angle.

Technology: On the Menu

Sage Intacct’s hospitality accounting software helps restaurateurs manage their financials for single or multiple locations. Thanks to automation technology, it’s easier than ever to keep up with evolving revenue recognition requirements, manage vendor payments, get real-time visibility into cash flow, and analyze operational and financial performance across a number of dimensions. Since the solution is cloud-based, it’s easily integrated with your existing systems—or those you’re planning to implement. As such, it’s scalable and can grow with you, whether that means expanding into new locations or introducing next-generation technology to delight employees and customers.

Get in contact with us to learn more.