Tighter wastage control

Rising supplier prices mean that any wastage is costing you more. If you’re not already doing so, make sure that all wastage is being recorded accurately.

Hospitality EPOS systems should allow you to record wastage and view wastage reports. Ideally, you’ll be able to see the cost of wastage both at the cost and retail price. You should have enough information to identify any patterns that correlate with high wastage, such as a particular staff member, product, or time of day.

You can also set up your own reason codes, breaking them down to be as granular as you like. This helps you identify any underlying issues so it’s easier to solve them. Adding a Kitchen Display Screen means chefs can record waste instantly, without having to write waste separately then re-enter it in the Back Office.

There will still be unreported wastage, things like spilt drinks or overpouring, and this is where your stock report comes in. Stock reports highlight variances between your projected and actual stock levels. Running them regularly allows you to keep tight control of any variances quickly, so they can be investigated. You can also run daily line checks, monitoring specific products to hone in on the cause of wastage. Embracing tech makes this more efficient – carry an iPad around and enter amounts into the system as you count, rather than writing on paper and then reentering them, and avoid a time-consuming duplication of work.

Track staff hours

With ever-increasing wages and NIC contributions, along with staff shortages, it’s more important than ever to optimise your staffing levels. 

With a  staff scheduling tool that’s integrated with your EPOS, you can use your sales data to build accurate rotas. You can pull sales data from comparable days or weeks, and view upcoming bookings for each day, and use this to sense-check your planned rota. This shows you where you’re over- or understaffed based on anticipated sales figures, so you can make sure your staff are working when you really need them and not adding to your costs when you don’t.

You can also view live wage/sales percentage on the EPOS, so you can see at a glance if your staffing levels need adjusting mid-shift.

Monitor your profitability

Regularly review your profit & loss (P&L) report so you understand all of your costs, and ultimately your business's bottom line. If your EPOS is linked to your accounting package and you’ve automated the submission of your supplier invoices (see our previous blog on automated bookkeeping), you should have a pretty up-to-date P&L in your accounting platform.

However, it's possible to get an even more up-to-date and accurate P&L for shorter time periods directly from your EPOS.

Our hospitality EPOS includes a P&L report that calculates your fixed costs, such as rent, based on the time period you are viewing, which can be as little as one day. This gives you a view of your profitability more quickly, and for much smaller windows than you can realistically get from your accounts.

Diversify your offering

For many venues, particularly rural or out-of-town places, the bread and butter trade of people calling in for a couple of pints, coffee and cake, a spot of lunch – it simply isn't sustainable any more. Even with better efficiency and tigher belts, margins are too tight or footfall is too low. The answer is to give people more reasons to come to your venue.

When we speak to our customers, we're often amazed at the creative ideas they've come up with to make their venue a destination and capture a wider audience. There are the tried and tested favourites like quizzes, live music, live sport and summer festivals. But some of the more niche ideas we've seen include:

• extending a country pub to add a biker cafe, that's become a major stopoff for motorcyclists as they tour the UK
• a Japanese restaurant that caters to different crowds with two very distinct dining rooms (one formal, one vinyl on the shelves and live DJ sets at weekends).
• a pub in an old cinema building hosting movie nights and creating a film club
• cafes becoming popup studios, serving drinks to people as they enjoy a painting class with a local artist
• a pub turning its disused field into a campsite (but deliberately not providing electric hookups so people would eat in the pub – smart).

The time has come to think outside the box. Events get bums on seats. And when the people those bums belong to sample your great food, drinks and atmosphere, they might just keep coming back for more, as regular customers.

Shop around

With prices rising, it’s advisable to shop around. Are there any suppliers offering introductory offers and rates you can take advantage of? Or can the same products be sourced from someone else for less? If your budgets are constantly stretched, it might be time to look beyond your tried and tested suppliers.

Our stock management system lets you register multiple suppliers for the same product. This gives you the flexibility to choose whichever supplier is offering the best prices when it’s time to order stock.

There is no silver bullet when it comes to combating inflation. It’s about constant vigilance across all your operations to see where you can plug leaks, tighten costs and increase productivity – without compromising on great service of course.