In a franchise business, be it an F&B venture or an enterprise from any other sector, it is vital to:
- • Track sales performance of each venue and throughout the brand outlets, and
- • Ascertain inventory levels across locations during inventory planning
However, franchise management can be challenging if the leaders or the employees of the brand need to manually consolidate reports from fragmented ERP systems in each outlet; this process is also error-prone.
On the other hand, centralised ERP systems consisting of multi-location POS systems solve issues caused by each outlet conducting its operations on different, non-integrated software systems.
Hence, restaurant ERPs are integral to success in restaurant chain management. Curious how?
In this blog, let’s examine the advantages of implementing an integrated ERP system to manage the operations of chain restaurants.
What are the capabilities of one of the best restaurant POS systems, and how does it improve the power of ERP software?
Motivations Behind Building Restaurant Franchises
To understand the use of restaurant ERP software with a multi-location POS system, it is important to consider why a certain section of restaurant owners choose to operate in a franchise model. We have explored the reasons behind investing in a franchise or multi-location restaurant business in the following two sections:
Self-owned Business Run Via Employees
As a restaurant chain operates across different venues, the business owner has the benefit of pooling resources when applicable and planning inventory smoothly. The menu, in most cases, remains the same throughout the outlets.
Business with Franchisees Onboard
In addition to the benefits discussed in the section above, a key advantage of building a franchise business, especially if the franchisor is a legacy or popular name in the F&B sector, is the potential for expansion with minimal investment. This is because, alongside the sheer scalability of royalty payments, the franchisee partners also take on a substantial portion of the setup cost in exchange for the brand value of the established venture.
The franchisee’s familiarity with the area of operations is another edge offered by the business model. Hence, the brand owner can make informed decisions around the expansion move. Further, franchisees investing in the business make suitable human resources more accessible while ensuring that the sole responsibility of employee management and the smooth running of the operations is not on the franchisor
Looking for comprehensive ERP software with one of the best restaurant POS systems?
Essential Features of a Holistic Restaurant ERP with a Multi-Location POS System: Explore Benefits of QPOS
For streamlining operations, restaurant franchise owners must consider these essential capabilities of the ERP present in the powerful restaurant management system by QPOS:
- Reporting
With the help of a multi-location POS system of a centralised restaurant ERP software, the leading decision-makers of a franchise can:
- Determine the overall profitability of each outlet as the multi-location POS system consolidates the sales figures across locations
- Conduct performance analysis of outlets against each other, and run gap analysis to roll out a strategy for boosting sales
- Discover key ingredients used in each location and the corresponding best-performing dish(es)
- Track inventory levels and restocking cycle of each location at any time to better plan replenishment and use of surplus stocks, particularly if the ingredient(s) are nearing spoilage/expiry
Additionally, QPOS has an in-built NLP (Natural Language Processing) AI chatbot, which helps franchisors customise reports or extract specific data points, including real-time information, from the enterprise database whenever they want with simple non-technical instructions. The restaurant management system also calculates the due royalty for the franchisor while allowing the franchisees to make their payments via the QPOS platform.
- Menu and Inventory Management
As mentioned in the section above, some of the best restaurant POS systems enable the intelligent reporting abilities of robust ERP software, thereby enabling inventory tracking across locations. Knowing the inventory levels aids in planning specials based on the ingredients. This step to mitigate spoilage is powered by the recipe management module of the restaurant ERP.
Similarly, procurement plans can be refined based on stock levels and the best-performing dishes on the menu that the reports reveal, thus preventing overstocking and stockouts. Also, business owners update the menus individually in each or several locations or perform bulk updates across locations, further improving the replenishment effort.
Given these menu and inventory control abilities of a centralised restaurant ERP, which is supported by a multi-location POS system, some business owners may be curious about tracking inventory with precision:
We have explored the inventory management prowess of QPOS in our blog titled: 5 Ways to Improve Inventory Accuracy with QPOS – The Restaurant & Food Outlet Edition. This blog also explores how QPOS helps in stock audits by cross-verifying inventory use, sales receipts, post-procurement inventory updates, and bills from vendors. Therefore, the restaurant ERP and its multi-location POS system also ensure franchisors can monitor theft-driven shrinkage and mismanagement of bills (accounting discrepancies) remotely.
Learn how QPOS ERP software, which has one of the best restaurant POS systems in the market, improves restaurant management efficiency. Unlock Advanced Features Today
- Loyalty Programs, Offers, and Promotions Management
Centralised restaurant ERPs such as the one by QPOS prove invaluable for driving a consistent brand experience. Customers can request discounts across outlets based on the loyalty points accumulated during previous visits, orders, or takeaways. In this way, the franchisor can foster trust amongst customers in the brand, thereby indirectly encouraging them to visit any restaurants in the franchise, depending on their convenience —no matter the location.
QPOS also simplifies launching offers and promotions across all or select locations, targeting the customers whose details were recorded by the multi-location POS system during checkout. At the same time, ERP can be integrated with third-party audience data providers to boost the reach of promotions and offers.
- Staff and Payroll Management
Being a robust ERP software, capable of smooth franchise management, QPOS ensure that the franchisor and the store owners (franchisees) can ensure:
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), i.e., the degree of access to modules given to stakeholders across the organisation (Admin, Manager, Cashier, Chef, Accountant, etc.) for upholding security by preventing unauthorised access and safeguarding workflow
- Smooth task delegation digitally, enhancing operational efficiency
- Simplified employee onboarding and offboarding, including the creation or deactivation of user accounts and login credentials
- Monitoring of user activities
In terms of payroll processing, the franchise’s management can effortlessly manage payouts via automated wage and tip calculation based on digital timesheets in the User Management module of QPOS. Using timesheets, the staff can clock their work hours, allowing their employer to track workforce productivity, including the ROI on employee expenditure across all or particular outlets, remotely.
Further, timesheets make it easy for business owners to manage shifts across multiple venues and optimise staff coverage during peak hours.
Drive customer and employee satisfaction across your restaurant chain with QPOS ERP software and its billing module, one of the best restaurant POS systems in the market. Leverage Today
- Vendor Management
QPOS streamlines supplier procurement across suppliers and outlets while ensuring compliance with contractual agreements, such as timely payment processing. The restaurant management system has a vendor database with details including contact information and the quality and pricing of their supplied items vis-a-vis their competitors, leading to a cost-optimised procurement process. Depending on the inventory status, the module also suggests purchase orders, matches deliveries against orders, and flags discrepancies.
Final Thoughts
From sales tracking to inventory management to employee and vendor management, QPOS is a one-stop solution for franchise management. Those on the lookout for a centralised restaurant ERP with multi-location POS to streamline their business can contact us today to initiate the transformation process.
