Every POS includes reports: end-of-day close, sales by family, product ranking. For a small outlet they are usually enough. But there comes a point where they fall short, and that is when the Excel file starts to grow.
What POS reports do well
- The daily close of each till.
- The day’s sales by family or product.
- Quick look-ups of a specific check.
Where they fall short
- Comparing with last year on the same day of the week.
- Seeing several outlets at once, with the same criteria.
- Combining sales with other sources: budget, staffing, costs.
- Keeping a long history and querying it quickly.
- Sharing the same information with management and managers, each with their own view.
Signs that the time has come
- Someone spends hours every week exporting and pasting data into Excel.
- Every manager has their own version of the figures.
- You open a second or third outlet and want to compare them.
- Management’s questions take days to get an answer.
What changes with Power BI
Power BI connects to the POS data, refreshes it automatically and presents it in a dashboard everyone uses. The POS remains the payment system; Power BI takes care of the analysis.
In Keymets
If you would rather start from reports already designed for restaurants instead of building from scratch, Keymets F&B works with your POS data and has it ready every day. You can also read what Power BI for restaurants is.