9 Extremely Necessary Features in Restaurant Billing Software
You have started reading this article only because either you are running a restaurant business as your startup or you are planning to start to taste the exciting journey of entrepreneurship with this idea. In the case, of running your restaurant business nowadays you need a restaurant billing software solution that can help you as your business companion. But the crucial part is, there are lots of billing solution software out there, where most of these are offering many common features you need.
As you decided to keep your business one step ahead of the rest of your competitors, and you are in a dilemma to select the best billing solution software, then this article will be proven as the ultimate guide to you. Just go through the points with a little patience, and decide about your desired restaurant billing software.
Key Sectors where Restaurant Billing Software can be used:
Different software is made to meet different purposes. Sometimes one software can serve different purposes. This type of software is one of them. As it has been made to serve the restaurants, so there is an option to use this for similar kinds of businesses. Such as-
- Cold storage inventory management
- Online Cafeteria
- Cloud Kitchen Management
- Online Bakery Solution
- Online Confectionaries and many more.
1. Easy Payment Gateway Solution
In terms of getting the highest possible orders from your customer network, to have easy and multiple payment gateway solutions are mandatory. Besides the popular payment options such as PayPal, VISA, debit card, the credit card you should have a cash on delivery option as well. Local payment gateways play another crucial role in this run as it increases the chances to get more orders.
But there is one more thing to be considered. Providing third party payment solutions to the customer is a sensitive process as the financial subject is involved in it. The payment solution provider and the billing solution software are to ensure the security from their booth ends for the customer network. So be sure that your billing solution is concerned about this issue before purchasing.
2. Cloud Synchronization
You know the database you are creating with your customer info for a long period is how important to thrive your business in the future. Cloud synchronization features will make you safe from losing your database by any accidental occurrences like technical errors. This feature of billing software offers you a real-time backup opportunity to cloud storage. Keep in mind to check this feature before purchasing which will get you rid of uploading the data manually to the cloud as well.
Read also: Best Software For Database Management
3. Managing Your Inventory
Inventory management is one of the crucial parts of the supply chain of a business. This feature allows the user to monitor the current stock and the sales data as well. As the whole environment of the software is online, so every sale made by your business will get updated to the software. This magical feature will automatically count how much product is left in your stock and show you in real-time, which will significantly help you to manage your budget, expenses, etc for your business.
There is another necessary thing to be focused on. The inventory management system should be developed in such a way that all the most important updates are visible on your home screen. It will help you to reorder your to-do list according to the priority.
4. Offline Operation
When it comes to the discussion of billing software, the first thing that comes to our mind- “the whole system must be functional only online”. But the reality is you can’t ignore the unavoidable circumstances where you may face the offline scenario. But in that case, the business should not be interrupted right?
Some restaurant POS software offers you to keep your business functional even if you fall in offline condition. The developers of the software include some special script into the coding that makes the software capable of running almost all the functionality while you are offline.
5. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Functionality
The relationship between the customer and the business is not for once. If you are determined to thrive your business and set it at the peak of success compared to your other competitors, then keeping the relationship alive is much more important who could be your returning customer and make your business as a brand to the consumer network.
To make this happen it’s impossible to meet one by one. There should be a convenient system where you can manage all the interactions made by your existing and past customers. The CRM functionality allows you to do that with great convenience and help you to interact with your potential customers as well to make them into leads.
6. Table Reservation Functionality
Going to the restaurant in person and reserve a table is going to be an old school process of table reservation. Almost all businesses in 2021 are switching their processes into digital as much as possible. If you care about your comfort of your customer, then there is no other convenient way except being digital. Fun fact is if you can convert a specific service for your customer network in which they are to come to your office in person to enjoy the service, on the other hand, if few of your competitors are doing the same in this case, then this can be the key to run your business in monopoly!
Table reservation service is one of these. Try to make sure the software that you are going to purchase has the functionality to book for a table with just one click from your customer’s end. This can significantly increase the booking rate for your restaurant. On the other hand, it will allow you to maintain the booking orders conveniently and help you keep yourself away from pen and paper as well.
7. Vendor Management Feature
The area of your restaurant business is not limited between you and your customer network. There exists a vendor network as well who are helping you constantly to grow your business from behind the scene. So, taking care of your vendor network and managing them efficiently you need a convenient vendor management system for sure.
A complete vendor management feature will allow you to monitor the overall activity of your vendors. With this feature, you can see which vendor should be contacted for which specific products. You can schedule them according to your convenience that will give extra momentum to your time management.
Read also: Features of Salon Management Software
8. Upselling Opportunity
We know this feature is not considered as the first priority in the case of purchasing billing software for a restaurant. But we can’t help including and giving a brief about this particular feature as it is super important. Now a new question is stuck in your head – “What is upselling?”
Let’s guess a situation. Suppose you are hungry and eagerly want to order a pizza from a restaurant website. As soon as you will confirm a pizza in your checklist, another advertisement popup will show up on the screen. In the advertisement, you will notice a fancy pic of tomato ketchup that makes your mouth watered and increases your hungriness. Guess what? Will you order the ketchup as well? If yes, then the ketchup is the upselling product.
In the case of thriving your business, selecting the upselling products, and setting with the right product as an upsell is super important. Hooking up selling product can make a customer order from 10$ to 100$. So, keep in mind your billing solution provides the option to slot your upselling product as per your convenience and proper segmentation as well.
9. App Integration Feature
Statista states that almost 3 billion people all over the world are using smartphones. The number of desktop users is getting reduced and on the other hand, the number of smartphone users is booming. As a result, the popularity of smartphone apps is increasing at the same rate. As you are a smart person and came across this article to prosper, then our other valuable suggestion to you will be to be conscious of the app integration feature before purchasing the billing software.
There should be a dedicated segment where you can monitor the traffic coming from your smartphone app after integrating it with your billing software. Have a crosscheck on this before purchasing and be sure that the integration feature is secured for the user as well.
End of The Discussion
We know very well; the discussion about these 6 features did not cover all the functionality that your restaurant billing software should have. But let’s read the title again, we included the word “extremely” in the sentence. Yes! You got our suggestion, and that is, you can buy a billing software with a lot of functionality you need for your restaurant business. But in this entire discussion, we tried to cover the 6 features, without what your total money will be in vain that you spent to purchase. So keep the checklist first to ensure first which Restaurant Management Software is providing these six features. Eventually, good billing software keeps the ability to add extra momentum to your business.