Point of Sale: For a Cafe/Restaurant Business
Before the onset of a coffee shop/cafeteria/bar business, we have to be prepared with some essential infrastructure support for our enterprise just like floor plans & its ambiances, chef resources, cashier, catalogs, POS system, purchase resources, and moreover a solid business plan.
Every Business is getting harder by time. Competitive business survival needs to be fought for and the battle for customer favor is never-ending. Companies and customers expect better service, better products, better quality, and extremely better prices. If we fail to please our customers, we cannot foresee growth in business. Here Point Of Sale plays an important role for such type of businesses.
Let me share some points about this subject, Point Of Sale system (POS).
POS stands for point of sale. A point-of-sale (POS) transaction is what takes place between a merchant and a customer when a product or service is purchased, commonly using it to complete the transaction.
Merchants typically use a POS system to complete a sales transaction.
Eg:
- Retail POS
- Coffee Shop POS
- Restaurant/Bar POS
- Beauty Salon/ SPA POS etc.
Nowadays, we have several options on our plate as a POS system, However, you need to spend a little attention on the selections as you are looking for one of your basic needs. It should not be a fake promise for the entire business. If it is a single operation or local based POS system, You will be forced to purchase other apps to record and manage your other needs.
For eg, if your POS system is lacking good accounting applications, you will be racked. As a result, you and your business will have to spend the big pie of your valuable time (some considerably huge time) to get things back on track with manual reports of accounts, purchase, inventory, expenses, etc.
As a software architect, I would like to suggest to use an ERP system with the POS module. Where ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, which is the centralized software system for a business. It is not dependable whether it is small or medium-large. (dependant on the size of the business)
ERP ?
A single application for all your business operations and management. Major workflow apps like Purchase-Inventory-Sales-Accounting will be worked in a single platform with different access levels of users, which will give you integrated and correlated results.
Let me share my thoughts on the entire concept with Odoo, one of the best Open Source ERP in the world.
Odoo ERP With POS Module:
We are discussing POS module here and let's install other important apps like Purchase, Accounts, Inventory, etc. Odoo POS is fully compatible with all general gadgets, which will ease the order taking process.
Its extreme flexibility is another advantage, you can configure Odoo POS to meet your precise needs. Basic operations like products additions, price list changes, customer management are easily handled for every basic user.
Its compatibility with general hardware like Poll display, Custom monitor, Cash Drawer, Barcode, Card reader, etc is a point to be marked.
Example: Odoo POS will work with most USB Barcode Scanners, connected directly on your computer. Odoo POS can operate any EPSON compatible cash register. Cash registers can be opened manually with a key or remotely by Odoo POS. Odoo POS can print on any web-browser compatible printer. This includes most inkjet, laser, and thermal printers, connected by USB or via a network, or it can be connected through a POS box.
Let's Have A Comparison
The above data is provided by samplings & generalization of several POS systems.
Workflow Of Odoo POS:
The end user can decide the system theme & company logo as per their own view.
We could see that Point of Sale related applications like Sales, Accounting, Inventory are installed with the system. Simply, all are connected together.
Let’s go through the workflow:
- Products, Variances & Categories
- Floor Plans
- POS Counters & Cash Registers
Products can be categorized based on their nature. It is very essential for every cafeteria business for better understanding.
User can create the number of products and set the required data like Sale price, Category, it’s variants, etc.. Product form will provide a complete history of product movements and sales/purchase history.
Types Of Products:
1. Stockable Product: A Product for which user want to manage inventory into the system.
2. Consumable Product: A Product for which user don’t want to manage inventory into the system but it can be received from the supplier or delivered to the customer. it’s just like a stock for some time duration.
Examples:- Fruit, Milk, Food
3. Service Product: A product for which user want to manage their services, but the user can’t keep the stock of a service. This type of product will configure when your company is providing any type of services. Examples:- ManPower, a consulting service.
Views of Data:
There are some types of views in ERP to view the records or data.
- List View: At a time almost 80 lines or records (As in the above screenshot)
- Form View: Single Record detailed view. (As in the below screenshot)
- Calendar View: Month/Week/Day wise view
- Pivot View: Used for Reporting and analysis purposes
- Kanban View: Tiles wise view (As shown in the first screenshot of product view )
Floors can be designed from backend or POS view itself
General Workflow:
- Users can select the products table-wise.
- Manage new customer at a time by clicking the “+” button on the top mid-screen.
- Customer wise Price List.
- Global/Line By discount options.
- Table Bill transfer capability.
- Split Bill Feature.
- Kitchen Printer.
- Kitchen Note Feature.
Customers can remit the amount by direct cash or card payment. As we can see, Tip can be received here also.
It’s header note & footer note can be configured from the POS backend itself. After printing a ticket, POS user can get back into another customer by clicking “Next Order”
Various Types Of POS Sales Reports:
It is very important to forecast the products and food categories based on our sales. Odoo POS ERP system will provide dynamic reports and presentations based on POS sales. Tabular pivot reports, Line Chart, Pie diagram, Bar charts are available in the POS module, which can be directly exported into the XLS sheet. Moreover, managerial PDF reports can be generated from the POS sales report wizard.
Accounting Reports:
As we discussed earlier, We are dealing with the ERP system having Accounts Module. So the system will provide all the advanced accounts reports like
- Profit Loss Report
- Aging partner Balance Report
- Balance Sheet
- Invoice Report
- Trial balance
- General & Partner ledger etc
This is one of the major differences between any other POS system and ERP based POS system.
Purchase Goods:
- Easily manage suppliers, Request for Quote & Purchase orders using Purchase Application in Odoo ERP.
- It will emphasize your supply chain & inventory performance.
- It will provide accurate statistics on your suppliers’ performance through flexible reporting: delivery delays, negotiated discounts on prices, quantities purchased, Vendor bills, etc.
- Integrate purchases with analytic accounting to analyze your contracts’ profitability, which concludes, you can Analyze, Forecast and efficiently plan your orders.
If you are purchasing the goods or service for your internal needs, you can track its expenses by creating Purchase Receipt as below.
User Roles:
An enterprise may have a number of users with different job roles. Using Odoo ERP based POS, we can provide the required roles to our employees. It gives a systematic hierarchy setup.
For Eg:
POS User: POS employee to bill the customer.
POS Manager: POS sales analysis and forecasting
Purchase Manager: Purchase required goods for business.
Accountant: Manage accounting views of business.
Auditor: Super Privileged user over accounts.
Conclusion:
If you are looking for a proper system to do the entire operations of your venture, you can opt to move with a proven and worldwide accepted ERP system. The question doesn’t arise about the size of the company. The results are way more than what you think by integrating all levels of your operations. There are a lot of ERP systems available in the market. Since Odoo ERP is open-sourced and has less implementation and customization cost (compared to others), I would suggest moving with Odoo ERP which can save you from vendor-lock-in future.
If you want any help from Me, Feel free to contact through my Linkedin Handle
Thanks & Regards
