Alternative Technology for the Hospitality Sector

Technology is a growing part of the hospitality sector, helping restaurants, pubs and bars run more efficiently than ever before. You can benefit from managing the logistics of your company on your mobile device whilst in a different country or give your team access to take control. Working with many clients in the industry means I have had a chance to test and trial software that is helping to transform the way businesses are run. Here are just a few of my favourites.

Managing Stock = Vend

Inventory management can help to ensure you are utilising and operating your business in the most lucrative manner, which is why my favourite software for stock management is Vend. With this tool you can take stock orders, track any current and potential liabilities, close off the register and work out the cost of goods sold. Furthermore, Vend is the perfect solution if you have multiple outlets as you can manage you entire brand all in one place.

Managing Money = PayPal

PayPal is the perfect payment solution for anyone who operates a business in the hospitality sector. Not only is PayPal easy to use, allowing you to make and receive payments from any mobile device, you can use this payment tool to create invoice templates and track unpaid invoices, which can only lead to faster payments and better cashflow.

Managing POS = iZettle

iZettle is undoubtedly a hit for many of my pub and restaurant clients. This tool makes it easy for a small business to get organised with its intuitive product library, allowing you to collect and analyse patterns and trends of your consumers. What is more, iZettle makes sales simple with the POS iZettle reader allowing for cash, credit and contactless payments whilst giving your clients the preference to receive their receipt via text, email or in paper form.

Managing Employees = Deputy

Managing schedules can often be extremely time consuming and may add to your already large list of administrative burdens. For this reason, I believe Deputy is a tool for anyone working with a large or spread out team.  This software can do everything from automate timesheets and track the attendance of your team members to promoting effective communication practices, such as praising hard workers for work well done. Your team can also log in and track and change their timesheets from their personal account too.

Managing Expenditure = Receipt Bank

For many, accumulating receipts and documents in a bag or shoe box to send off to their accountant is very much a reality. However with Receipt Bank, manual data entry is completely eliminated and instead a picture of the receipt can be taken, which is uploaded straight to the software. This way, you can be rest assured you have all of the information you need in one place, whilst eliminating any possible mistakes caused by human error. Perfect!

Managing KPIs = CrunchBoards 

Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a must when managing the goals and aims of any business. CrunchBoards is great at helping you to do just this. The software give you access to a range of retail and food and drink KPIs so you can begin to ask yourself questions such as: “What is the average spend per customer?” or “How much revenue does each member of the sales team bring in on average?”. What is more, you can generate multiple finance scenarios with these KPIs, which can link to create advance forecasts, reports and plans that can be tracked easily.

Managing books = Xero

Ultimately, Xero has to be one of the most desirable cloud accounting packages on the market.  Xero acts as a one-stop-shop for all of your accountancy needs, managing everything from your cashflow to invoices and payments.  Xero can be accessed on the go, so you can always login anywhere and from anyplace – all you need is a Wi-Fi connection. Furthermore, Xero links easily to all of the above add-on software, enabling you to streamline your tools.

If you would like to find out more information on any of the above add-on software, or would like to request ‘three months free’ of Xero, please contact our cloud accounting expert, Amy Townsend, at amy@raffingers.co.uk