An Asset Tag System is a Smart Investment for Restaurants

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The restaurant industry is competitive and extremely complex, so it’s easy to understand why an asset tag system is necessary for the long-term health of restaurants. Restaurants have numerous assets, and they're typically organized into two primary categories: short- and long-term. Short-term assets are those the restaurant expects to use or convert to cash within a year. 

Examples include cash on hand, money in the bank, accounts receivable, prepaid expenses, and inventory, including the cost of ingredients, food, beverages, and more. Long-term assets are those we generally classify as fixed assets. Those are items the restaurant does not expect to convert to cash within a year. Fixed assets allow the restaurant to conduct business and earn a profit. Examples include kitchen equipment and tools, IT equipment, sound systems, Point of Sale equipment, furnishings, uniforms, restaurant décor, and more. An asset tag system tracks tangible fixed assets. Each of those items is tagged with a unique barcode that allows for easy identification and lifecycle management. Managers can monitor items from their initial acquisition, maintenance or repair, and their eventual removal or sale.

The Reality of the Restaurant Business

Every dollar counts in this highly competitive business. How well a restaurant tracks and manages its fixed assets will have a direct effect on its bottom-line profits. Melissa Locker of Fast Company reports that more than 10,000 independent restaurants (restaurants that aren’t part of a chain) closed in 2017. The number of independent restaurants in the United States declined 3% in the fall of 2017 to 346,105 units, representing a decrease of 10,952 units from the same period the year prior.

An Ohio State University study, published in 2005, reported that 60% of failed restaurants close or change ownership within the first year of business, and 80% close within the first five years. Quite simply, this is a tough business, and numerous factors can contribute to a restaurant’s failure; such as, not having enough liquid cash to cover unexpected expenses, taking on a lease that’s too expensive, inconsistent service and/or food quality, or failure to train staff adequately. All of which leads to turnover, poor management, and shoddy asset and inventory tracking practices.

Asset & Inventory Tracking Affects the Bottom Line

Restaurants that rely on a manual asset tracking system are likely to overlook key maintenance dates for their equipment, lose assets, suffer higher rates of theft, and resort to guesswork on their asset and inventory needs, along with depreciation. Without an accurate picture of the fixed assets in their possession, they may be paying too much for insurance, or for ghost assets that aren’t in their inventory anymore. An asset tag system centralizes all of a restaurant’s fixed asset data in an easy-to-access location. Managers can set up custom notifications and alerts so they never miss key maintenance on their equipment. 

Additionally, they’ll be able to maximize the lifespan of those investments and avoid costly repairs or replacements. Theft and loss are much easier to avoid, and asset depreciation is not only simpler to track, but based on real-time, accurate values versus guesswork.

Asset Panda's mobile solution offers restaurants completely customized features and flexibility so they can track their assets any way they want.

By:

Courtney Roush

Courtney Roush is a freelance writer, editor, and communications strategist with 25 years of experience. Her favorite discipline is crisis communications – and it’s a highly relevant one in our present times.

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