POS System Integrations For A More Efficient Bar & Restaurant
Software integrations add another layer of efficiency to your POS system that work for you. Leave the data to the robots and instead focus on serving up the best product and customer service possible!
Your POS system does a lot of leg work for your food and beverage business. Turns out, if integrated with other software, you can extend the functionality of your POS even further!
What Are Integrations, Exactly?
Software integrations connect your POS system with third-party applications through APIs in order for both systems to work together to streamline business data. In other words, it’s connecting your POS software with other software that specialize in certain areas of business. This makes your overall POS system more capable, efficient, and data-savvy.
There are a lot of software integrations out there depending on the business you’re growing. Below we break them down into 5 integration categories, and detail exactly how each type benefits your POS system and therefore your overall business.
1. Inventory Management Integrations
A primary goal of your hospitality business is to sell food and beverages, i.e. deplete your inventory. How your POS system handles inventory and how that data flows into other systems is what might save you the most time on a daily basis. With all of that data syncing together, you can identify major business insights that would otherwise require hours of manual data entry and analysis.
Day-to-day, you’re likely selling from both your physical establishment and from an online storefront. All of that sales information is tracked in your POS system, but then what? You need to know how many goods remain in your possession, and that depletion information needs to update in real-time across your systems for optimal accuracy. That’s where inventory management software comes into play.
Inventory management is a set-it-and-forget-it tool that helps you plan future production, know when to move products out of storage, and track existing goods. By automating this flow of data from your POS system, you maintain error-free inventory counts and COGS numbers, which are vital to making both sales and financial business decisions.
Arryved’s POS system integrates with the follow inventory management solutions:
Actually, Ekos goes beyond inventory management needs. As a business management software, Ekos helps streamline inventory, production, sales, and accounting for beverage makers. That way, business owners can spend more time focusing on growing their business!
BarTrack is used for beverage-specific inventory management, and it’s also a smart draft system. This integration helps craft businesses save time with synced data, maximize revenue, and improve product quality.
Just ask Grist Brewing! The Colorado brewery successfully reduced pour costs, ultimately saving $20k/month.
2. Accounting & Reporting Integrations
Food and beverage POS systems integrate with accounting and reporting software in order to contextualize your sales and therefore help make smarter business decisions.
For example, you’re looking back at reports from October and you see a substantial increase in sales, but you’re not sure why. You didn’t throw an event and the weather wasn’t great, which are typical reasons for a spike like this.
The best reporting integrations suggest possibilities for why you see higher sales, and can pinpoint what exactly made your establishment so happenin’ that month. You may realize those high sales were during the World Series, which is an easier conclusion to come to if you have robust accounting and reporting software on your side.
Other insights these software can glean to maximize efficiency for your POS system are:
- Labor costs and patterns: To optimize staffing schedules
- Daily task logbooks: To increase productivity and organization
- Purchasing forecast: To eliminate wasted ingredients
Arryved integrates with these accounting software:
3. Websites Built For E-Commerce
E-commerce is a billion dollar business and growing in the food and beverage industry. By 2024, 7% of all alcohol sales are projected to come from e-commerce, and 61% of consumers reported they ordered food delivery at least once a week in 2021, compared to 18% in 2019.
Luckily, if you’re not website-savvy, there is software out there to help with your e-commerce efforts. Selling online helps drive reach and traffic, which ultimately increases revenue.
Arryved offers businesses a fully-integrated ecommerce platform. Selling food, beverages, and merchandise in an online store is easy with smart technology that lets guests order on or off-premise to enjoy your goods onsite, for to-go, or for delivery. Our industry experts even help you set up shop and customize the store to your liking!It gets even better with Arryved’s POS system: Arryved acquired Craftpeak, craft beverage’s premier provider of advanced websites and ecommerce capabilities, in 2022. Now, with the help of Arryved’s Ecommerce Team (formally Craftpeak), the POS system is integrating online and on-premise storefronts to create the industry’s first omni-channel hospitality platform.
Craftpeak designs websites and beer finders for many craft producers. Here is an example of their design for Dry County Brewing Company, an Arryved customer. Image courtesy of Craftpeak.
4. Kitchen Display Systems
Kitchen display systems (KDS) help your kitchen crew rid themselves of paper tickets and receive orders from front of house staff in real-time, which ultimately maximizes efficiency and eliminates errors in the ordering queue.
Robust KDS software can also automatically prioritize orders and track the time it takes for ordered items to get out the door. These digital ordering solutions synced with your POS system keep front and back of house staff organized.
Fresh KDS pioneered the first cloud-based KDS, and focuses on driving speedy service, perfect order accuracy, and exceptional guest experiences. Plus, its SMS texting capabilities let businesses automate messages to let guests know their order is received, and when their food or drinks are ready.
Captain Lawrence Brewing Company’s restaurant style kitchen benefitted big time from the Arryved + Fresh KDS integration: With nearly 41% of sales coming from food alone, the high volume required an efficient approach to communicating between kitchen and front of house staff. The integration provided just that and then some for the New York brewpub.
5. Loyalty Programs
The popularity of loyalty programs in food and beverage businesses is gaining even more traction in the coming years due to guest demand. In fact, 1 in 3 customers report that restaurant loyalty programs influence their choice of where to dine out.
Some POS systems, like Arryved, come with a built-in rewards program. When fully-integrated with your POS, it’s easy to custom design your loyalty program and track rewards received and then redeemed in one place. Arryved’s program also features a straightforward sign-up at checkout on POS devices. Plus, branded gift cards are easy to load and sell!
All of the software integrations above add another layer of efficiency to your POS system. These systems should work for you, so you can leave the data to the robots and instead focus on serving up the best products and customer service possible!
Arryved saves food and beverage business owners time, money, and headaches with a comprehensive POS system that integrates with the software you value most. Request a free, personalized demo today!
Blog updated February 2023.