In 2010, we sent emails to all of our customers (using the email address we have on file) explaining that your POS system will need to be updated to be in compliance with PCI standards. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was created to ensure that information on their credit card accounts will be protected from fraud.

If you have not received this PCI update from Business Software Solutions, please give us a call as soon as possible to schedule an update.

Note:  Though you may have received PCI updates from your credit card merchant, if you have not received the update for your Business Plus Accounting software, you are not in compliance with PCI Standards.

An update is available for Restaurant Pro and Delivery Pro customers.  We have made changes to the layout of the Daily Sales and Tips Report/Server Sales and Tips Report.  This article will walk you through the new layout of the Daily Sales and Tips Report for Restaurant POS customers,  and the Server Sales and Tips Report for Restaurant Delivery POS customers.

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We have noticed that many states are changing their sales tax rates this summer.  The following will walk you through how to change the default sales tax rate in BPA:

For Restaurant/Delivery POS Customers

• Go to Business System -->Definitions-->Sales Tax Table
• In the section for Sales Tax, for Tax Code 1, enter the new tax rate
• Press Save and Exit when finished

For Retail POS Customers

• Go to Definitions-->Sales Tax Table
• In the section for Sales Tax, for Tax Code 1, enter the new tax rate
• Press Save and Exit when finished

There are many ways to setup coupons in the Business Plus Accounting POS software package. Using the Define Menu Items option in Manager Functions, coupons can be added to one of the tabs in your sales screen.  The following are examples of how to setup coupons:

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Restaurant Management University has created a video with tips to cut restaurant costs.  In particular, the video discusses these two steps:

1.  “Take a Deep Look at Your Inventory”

If you are currently not tracking your inventory, including on hand amounts and costs, you could be spending too much money.  If you are not currently tracking your restaurant inventory, you can use our Restaurant Inventory Management Guide to begin tracking your inventory.

BPA Restaurant Pro Inventory Management

(NOTE:  Retail and Hotel versions of this guide are coming soon)

2.  Track Labor

The second step to cutting costs is tracking labor.  With the BPA Restaurant Pro software, you can use the following reports to track labor costs and server efficiency:

• Daily Sales and Labor Report (Restaurant System—>Manager Functions—>Restaurant Reports)
• Sales by Product Type and Hour Report (Restaurant System—>Manager Functions—>Restaurant Reports)
• Server Efficiency Report (Restaurant System—>Manager Functions—>Restaurant Reports)
• Print Labor By Job Report (Restaurant System—>Server Clock In Clock Out)

To help with your End of Day functions, we’ve have created checklist templates for your employees and managers to use to ensure your business is properly closed at the end of the day.  The checklists are Microsoft Word documents…feel free to download and customize them for your business needs.

If you do not have software installed to edit the checklists, such as Microsoft Word, you can download Open Office for free at http://www.openoffice.org/

Restaurant POS Customers

Restaurant Employee Checklist

Restaurant Manager Checklist

Pizza/Delivery POS Customers

Pizza/Delivery Employee Checklist

Pizza/Delivery Manager Checklist

Retail POS Customers

Retail Employee Checklist

Retail Manager Checklist

Hotel Customers

Hotel Employee Checklist

Hotel Manager Checklist

Foodservice.com has an interesting article about how you can increase your restaurant’s net profit.  It would be a challenging goal to just try to increase net profit by 50%.  However, this article suggests that you can break down this larger goal into 3 smaller, easier goals: “(1) increase your number of customers by 10%; (2) increase the number of repeat customers by 10%; and (3) increase your Guest Check Average by 10%.”

Read more:

A Simple Way to Increase Your Restaurant’s Profitability

Do you have the Business Plus Accounting POS software package installed at multiple locations?  With our Online Gift Card processing add-on, you can sell a gift card at one location, and your customer can redeem that same gift card at another location. 

Give us a call at 801-336-3303 for more information.

The National Restaurant Association has a wonderful guide called the 8 Essential Elements of POS System Ownership.Their guide contains information to help you avoid problems in purchasing a POS system.  Below are the 8 elements mentioned in the guide and how Business Software Solutions stays within those guidelines.

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Employee cards are used by your employees to clock in and out of the time clock, and to log into sales screen to ring up sales (Restaurant Sales, POS Sales, or the Front Desk). The following are instructions to setup employee cards.  If you would like to purchase employee cards for your system, give our sales staff a call at 801-336-3303.

For Restaurant POS, Delivery POS, and Hotel customers

1. Go to Restaurant System—>Manager Functions—>Assign Employee Card Numbers

2. Press Yes on the next screen

3. Enter the Employee number of the person you want to assign a card to.  If you do not know the employee number, press the F8 key on your keyboard for a list of employees.

4. In the “Swipe Card” field, swipe the employee card.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 until all cards are assigned.

6. When you have distributed all of the cards to your employees, you will need to go to

Restaurant System—>Manager Functions—>Misc Definitions—>Manager.  Change the field “Log employees using” to “Employee Cards.”

For Retail Touch POS customer:

1. Go to Touch Screen POS—>POS Manager Functions—>Assign Employee Card Numbers

2. Press Yes on the next screen

3. Enter the Employee number of the person you want to assign a card to.  If you do not know the employee number, press the F8 key on your keyboard for a list of employees.

4. In the “Swipe Card” field, swipe the employee card.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 until all cards are assigned.

6. When you have distributed all of the cards to your employees, you will need to go to

Touch Screen POS—>POS Manager Functions—>Misc Definitions—>Manager.  Change the field “Log employees using” to “Employee Cards.”