GoTab for Multi-Unit Restaurant Management

Five Management Tools for Multi-Unit Restaurants That Simplify Operations

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If you are managing several multi-location concepts or hospitality establishments, you understand how specific POS functionalities can greatly improve your operational effectiveness. This article will explore five essential GoTab features that simplify and enhance multi-unit restaurant management like never before. Each feature has its unique benefits, but when combined with an emphasis on operational efficiency and brand consistency, they can significantly boost your productivity and revenue potential. The aim is to create a system that allows you to provide consistently outstanding service while ensuring that back-of-house operations remain streamlined, organized, and accountable.

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“Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE)” 

In the early days of web publishing, COPE (create once, publish everywhere) was very popular. It seems simple today. Of course, you can use digital content across many channels. The approach makes your life so much easier. You don’t have to create new content for your website, social media, and printed materials. GoTab takes this simple paradigm and applies it to the point-of-sale (POS) platform. Think of your GoTab POS features as content you can use again and again in all your locations. 

Effortless Sharing, Duplication and Auditability

1. Products, Menus & Shared Rules
2. Discounts & Coupons
3. Loyalty Programs & Memberships
4. Gift Cards & Deposits
5. Invoicing, Franchise Fees, Profit Sharing, Cost Transferring

Products and Menus

GoTab offers a robust and comprehensive product catalog designed to streamline the management of various aspects associated with food and beverage offerings. This catalog serves as a centralized hub where users can efficiently manage menus, categories, modifiers, pricing structures, descriptions, tax rates, preparation durations, and a host of additional details related to each product.

This means that once a product is created and saved in the parent catalog, it can be easily shared across multiple locations, eliminating the need to duplicate efforts. For businesses with multiple units, this feature saves time and ensures consistency in offerings across all locations.

GoTab allows for the creation, organization and reuse of menus, making it easy for multi-unit concepts to showcase their culinary offerings centrally while allowing local control and the individual unit level.

Operators can also centrally manage pricing for each menu item while allowing individual units to set competitive rates while easily adjusting prices for their local market. Detailed descriptions can also be included for each product, giving customers insight into ingredients, preparation methods, and any relevant dietary information. This transparency helps managers  make informed choices and can lead to increased satisfaction and sales.

Tax rates can also be maintained in a central location while adjusting at the local level ensuring compliance with local tax regulations. GoTab supports both manual and automatic updates to keep parent and child locations in sync.

Discounts, Coupons and Rules

With GoTab, you can create discounts and coupons for specific groups. For example, you could give employees a 100% discount on purchases within a daily limit. You might also want to offer special deals to groups like teachers, active or retired military, or students when they visit. The discounts are applied automatically at checkout. The great thing about GoTab is that once you set up these discounts, you can use them at different locations based on local market conditions. Coupons are another feature you can create and re-use; for example, create a coupon offer at a parent location and set different  redemption dates, times, etc., at specific locations. 

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Loyalty Programs, Memberships & Subscriptions

GoTab offers ready-to-use features for establishing loyalty programs for patrons, which can be effortlessly applied across various locations. You have the option to allow guests to accumulate points across multiple units or single units only. Additionally, you can operate several loyalty programs at the same time, allowing you to maximize the incentives available to enhance revenue generation.

By utilizing GoTab for your membership or subscription service, you can ensure that your guests experience the VIP treatment they deserve, no matter which location they choose. Develop auto-renewing membership plans that can be used at any of your venues, fostering greater brand loyalty and motivating your most devoted supporters to generate recurring revenue.

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Gift Cards and Deposits

Setting up and selling gift cards and deposits that can be redeemed across multiple locations is an innovative solution that streamlines the customer experience while simplifying financial management for businesses. This system allows customers to purchase gift cards that hold a specific monetary value, which can be used at any participating location within a defined network.

One of the key advantages of this approach is the automatic handling of deferred revenue. When a gift card is sold, the funds are recorded as deferred revenue on the balance sheet until the card is redeemed. Traditionally, businesses would need to manually track these transactions and create journal entries to transfer the revenue to the appropriate location when the card is used. However, with this system, the remittance process is automated.

When a customer redeems their gift card at one of the locations, the system instantly recognizes where the card was used and automatically allocates the revenue to that specific location's financial records. This eliminates the need for manual tracking and reduces the chances of errors, making the accounting process much more efficient.

Moreover, this automated system provides businesses with real-time visibility into gift card sales and redemptions across multiple locations. Managers can easily monitor sales performance, understand customer preferences, and manage cash flow more effectively. This not only enhances operational efficiency but also improves customer satisfaction, as they can enjoy the convenience of using their gift cards at various locations without any hassle.

In summary, implementing a gift card and deposit system that is redeemable across multiple locations offers numerous benefits. It simplifies the financial tracking process by automating revenue remittance, reduces the administrative burden on staff, and provides valuable insights into customer behavior—all while enhancing the overall customer experience.

Invoicing, Franchise Fees, Profit Sharing, Cost Transferring

GoTab enables invoicing across multiple locations, allowing you to create both one-time and recurring invoices that can be scheduled based on specific dollar amounts or particular events. 

You can also enable profit sharing percentages to be remitted automatically from one location to another. 

If you’re overseeing several sites simultaneously, you'll require a comprehensive solution, and GoTab’s location group reporting provides just that. Available in your manager dashboard or download as an app (iOS or Android), the GoTab Manager App allows your executive team to access consolidated sales figures from single- or multi-unit franchisees, product mixes, and financial data, while also offering the option for side-by-side comparisons when necessary. You can filter by date ranges and timeframes, analyze applied discounts, track gift card and deposit redemptions, and assess which products were sold across all locations and zones.

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