Do you know the cost of every menu item?

Let's face it, cost control is key to survival in the restaurant business. Whether you're making or losing money on a menu item may determine success or failure. You really need a system for knowing each day where your profit picture sits. Reacting a month or even a week to cost changes may be too late. You must have accurate cost figures on a daily basis to make reasonable decisions. That's a must from your accounting system.

Are vendor prices up, down or sideways?

How do you know when your cost for ingredients change? Do you get some kind of signal when a material cost changes? You need such a signal. Are you getting the best prices from your suppliers? That may be as simple as ordering in a slightly different quantity to get a volume discount. How would you know?

Ever run out of anything?

Inventory levels for a restaurant are critical. Run out at the wrong time and it costs you money. Missed sales are gone forever. Management of inventories is all but impossible in larger businesses without an automated perpetual inventory. Otherwise, your periodic inventories are out of date until you go look and then you may make mistakes. An automated inventory is a stress reducer and a time saver too.

Where do you make most of your profit?

Are you guessing? It may not be where you think. Track costs and sales by menu item and you'll know, but how can you accomplish that? Really only with the right accounting system can you possible keep on top of costs on a daily basis.

As boring as it is, the right restaurant accounting software can be a key to survival in the restaurant business. It's a shame it's true, but cost control is a must. The only way to have current, accurate information for making decisions is with some automation. Just the reduced stress that results from knowing where you are may pay for the right software.