Restaurant Intelligence & Analytics Defined: Basic Reporting

Katalyst Restaurant Intelligence & Analytics Defined: Basic Reporting

Restaurant Intelligence: The Gateway to Restaurant Analytics

Welcome back to our series on Katalyst Intelligence and Analytics. In this second installment, we delve into Level One: Restaurant Intelligence (RI) - Basic Reporting.

As outlined in our initial post, Level 1 Restaurant Intelligence - Basic Reporting is designed to inform restaurateurs about past events through various reports, such as:

• Sales Reports: Detailed sales by category, revenue center, tax, payment tender, etc.
• Product Mix Reports: Information on menu items sold.
• Comps, Promotions, Discounts & Voids Reports.
• Labor Reports: Rates of pay, hours worked by employee, by department.
• And many more!

These basic reports are essential for any restaurant Point of Sale system, primarily serving to report on what has already happened.

Restaurant Intelligence - Basic Reporting turns vast amounts of data into clear, understandable insights, allowing merchants to compare data over different periods. This comparison includes specific menu item sales, traffic by times of day, traffic per location, and many other metrics.

Why Basic Reporting Matters

Basic reporting derived from your restaurant's POS helps you understand past performance, which is crucial for making informed decisions. Here’s how:

1. Expenditures: Identify areas of high costs or inefficiencies, such as low sales, high inventory shrinkage, or lower per-person check averages.
2. Revenue: Detect dips in revenue, whether by day, shift, check averages, or sales category shifts.
3. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Gain insights into various aspects of restaurant operations. Some examples include:some text
   • Revenue Per Average Seat Hour
   • Capacity Per Revenue Center
   • Revenue Per Guest, Seat, or Table
   • Average Seat Occupancy
   • Guests Per Table
   • Turnover per Revenue Center
   • Payroll KPIs: Weekly labor cost, covers per department labor hour, labor cost per total cover, and more.

Practical Example

Consider the Guests Per Table KPI. Suppose a restaurant has the following table configuration:

• 2 eight-tops
• 4 six-tops
• 8 four-tops
• 4 two-tops

The report shows average guests per table as follows:

• Sunday: 2.65
• Monday: 2.15
• Tuesday: 2.09
• Wednesday: 2.43
• Thursday: 2.94
• Friday: 3.11
• Saturday: 3.93

With this data, the merchant can optimize table configurations to better match customer patterns, increasing revenue and improving the dining experience.

Addressing Modern Challenges

Today’s restaurateurs face numerous challenges: increased competition, evolving consumer preferences, rising labor costs, complex supply chains, and intricate business operations. Basic reports help identify trends and growth opportunities while tracking key metrics.

Basic reporting is the foundation for more advanced analytics, helping you:

• Segment Your Customer Base: Understand preferences, needs, and purchasing behaviors to drive revenue and enhance the dining experience.
• Make Informed Decisions: Avoid costly spending on out-of-trend products and validate new products or services.
• Build a Solid Foundation: Historical data reporting sets the stage for advanced analytics. As the saying goes, “those who don’t study and learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Conclusion

Basic reporting on historical data provides a solid foundation for the next steps in the Restaurant Analytics journey. It is an essential building block for creating a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic restaurant industry. Leveraging a tech stack with an all-inclusive platform threading modules and features such as KDS, Online Ordering, etc. provides the insight necessary to stay ahead of the curve.

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