Sometimes, restaurants can change faster than the point-of-sale (POS) software solutions that support it. But, if management keeps up with customization, such changes may not force a POS solution swap. Action Systems Restaurant Manager, which begins at $3, 500 per terminal, positions itself as a "complete restaurant Aloha pos help manual that can be easily tailored for use in any sort of food service establishment." All things considered, it's a fair statement given its feature strength and customization options. Those seriously interested in customization, however, can also look to Posera Maitre'D POS as well as Editors' Choice winner Square through their application programming interfaces (APIs).

Mat Youden is the owner of Canada-based Mexicali Rosa's, a chain of five Mexican restaurants (four full-serve, one quick-serve). When Youden's group started using Action Systems Restaurant Manager, he said that they "really needed the functionality in Restaurant Manager that the others didn't have." But, as other Aloha pos help manuals grew to support much of that functionality, Youden and his team didn't feel the need to endure the pain of changing. "At this point, I wouldn't change if it meant losing the service quality of the current reseller and vendor, " he said.

Action Systems Restaurant Manager "has an app that runs with the system, gives me real-time sales, real-time labor cost, real-time food cost, and lets me know if someone is running a lot of overtime, Youden said. "It also tells me if someone has removed something from the system, which could be a sign of theft. I can be on the road, get a ding, and it tells me someone has just removed $80 from the system. I can call immediately and find out what happened. It puts me a lot closer with my business."

This is impressive back-office alerting, but folks interested in this kind of functionality should also check out PAR Brink POS{/ZIFFARTICLE}}.

Two-Way Real-Time Remote Changes
Youden's favorite feature? The fact that those real-time remote changes work both ways. Not only can he see sales/labor/food cost changes as they happen but he said he can also change prices at all of the restaurants at once, on-the-go.