How to manage Restaurant Business?

Restaurants are no doubt one of the most flourishing business segments in the last decade. With the increase in Per Capita income of the masses, the expenditure on food from restaurants have also increased. A large portion of people can now afford great and delicious food from outlets. With the boom in market with applications like Zomato and Swiggy, the restaurants have managed to excel in their business even in the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even a common man can make out that there’s always a lot of management involved in the restaurant business such as the back-end jobs of acquiring raw materials and front-end jobs like selling and invoicing. However, a true businessman finds out the smart ways to manage the jobs. That’s what makes a businessman different from the crowd. A businessman’s efficiency largely depends on the tools he/she uses to manage his/her business.

Lets dive in details of the business flow of restaurants to understand what are the basic requirements to run a successful food and beverage business.

Flow of money in the Restaurant Business:

Fixed Costs of a Restaurant

Rent/property costs: A restaurant, unless if it is a cloud kitchen has to pay some amount as rent for the establishment. If the place is on rent then the amount is paid in installments, else if the property is owned then there is a cost of procurement which has to be paid. The cost largely depends on the tier of city and the location.
Insurance: Insurances are vital component to a business. The premiums of these insurances are fixed and have to be paid in time.
Salaries: A restaurant usually has some fixed set of staff such as chefs, managers etc. These employees are usually agreed for a salary which constitutes a fixed expense for the business.

Variable Costs of a Restaurant

Hourly salaries: In peak seasons, extra hands are required for a better management of the restaurants. So staff might be hired on hourly basis. These costs vary accordingly with the load and the crowd in the restaurant.
Food: Fresh food items are the key to a great taste. These fresh items are to be procured by the restaurant so that they can be cooked into absolute delicacies with delicious taste. The cost of these raw items fluctuate largely depending on the season and availability.
Utilities: Just like a normal household requires. A restaurant also requires utilities such as electricity, gas, water supply.. Also the cost of items like packing material and decoration adds up. The cost of these utilities are quite variable but significant.
Advertising: Last but not the least. People will know you only if you create a face value in the market. Advertising is the most important aspect of any business, though it comes at a cost.

Creating Sales

The basic objective of a business is to earn more than it spends. We looked into the expenditure one has to make to run the business. Now, lets see how a restaurant business earns to keep the show running. The sales are performed mostly by two basic methods.

Dine-In Sales: In this mode the billing is done according to the tables in the restaurant. The customer walks into the restaurant, gets a table and then orders items according to the menu. Once the customer places the order, the kitchen department is notified what are the required dishes to be prepared. The cooked meal is served to the customer and at the end, billing is performed.
Over the Counter Orders/Take-aways: In this mode, the order is taken via an ordering counter. The ordering counter may not be physically present. For example, online orders from website or third party applications or over the call orders. The customer places the order by pre-paying and the order is passed on to the kitchen team. Finally, the dishes are packed and then shipped.

How can the Innoventry software Restaurant module help?

The management of various steps in the business requires concrete data and accounts of money. The digitalization of the business with the help of Innoventry can significantly help the business by an increase in efficiency. Every step in the business can be recorded in the software. As a business manager or owner, one does not need to open multiple files to get accounts, invoices, expenses, taxes and other details of the business.

The software has a wide domain of features to offer which are generic to all business models. These features include, ledger book management, commodity management, inventory keeping, billing, accounting, tax management, excel list import/export and various others. The details of the same can be found on the official website of Innoventry. You can access the website by clicking here.

However, in this article let’s discuss the special provisions provided in the restaurant segment of the software.

Table Layout: The software has options to configure number of tables according to the table layout in the restaurant. This feature helps in the billing of the dine-in mode. This is important as in the dine-in a customer orders items one after the other and not all at the beginning. Hence, it keeps a record of the ordered items for final billing and also the tables which are occupied and the ones which are vacant.
Kitchen Order Ticket Printing (K.O.T.): Kitchen Order Tickets are receipts printed in the kitchen printer which gives specific instructions to the chefs in the kitchen on what items are to be prepared. Now, the biller does not have to keep an extra man to convey the information or shout on top of his/her voice to inform the kitchen. In Innoventry, once the items are confirmed, a print is generated in the kitchen automatically. K.O.T. are sequential in nature, containing details like table number, the order, quantity of each dish, time of order and any specifications regarding the cooking of that particular dish. This pretty much fast tracks the process.
Inventory Management: Inventory management is of huge importance to a restaurant business. The items have to be utilized on priority basis. The business can keep a track of the purchased items like butter and oil which comes with expiry date. The user can input all the details of the purchases made and then can determine at the click of a button which item is expiring sooner than the other. This can largely reduce wastage and loss. Also, there is account for the consumption of the items, so there are no last moment rush to buy raw material as the manager is well informed.
Expense Management: All the expenses that we discussed earlier in the article must be maintained and accounted for. The salaries of the employees can be managed smoothly too. The software provides facilities where the user can create various expense type and input all the details which help in accounting and taxation.
Reports: The business manager can get an idea of the performance of the business at a glance by the wide range of reports which can be generated in the software. This includes stock report, sales report, GST report, accounting and financial reports and many others.
Promotion and Advertisement: With an inbuilt feature, the user can send promotional messages like festive offers and other offers just by the click of a button. This increases the in-flow of customers.

In todays era of competitive business, one has to be on his/her toes to gain the maximum out of the business. The key to success is definitely hard work, but with a smart approach. Innoventry provides that smart approach to the business.

Book a demo today to get the insights of the software.