POS/PMS Integration can fuel growth in margins

Companies in the hospitality industry can enjoy peace of mind with integration support for software modules and web services

The hospitality industry faces mainly daily challenges in that it needs to centrally manage a number of disparate systems and link the data gathered from all into a single point of contact.

While with many ERP systems, it can prove difficult finding location specific data there are systems available today which provide standard reports and analytics tailored around geographical data. According to Tiaan Grobbelaar, general manager at Epicor Scala, effective management and integration of your back office systems into say a Property Management System (PMS) or even a Point of Sale (POS) system, can add significantly to the bottom line of an organisation, as well as drastically improve internal efficiencies.

"Having the ability to share data and synchronise information such as recipes, sales, ledgers, menus etc across multiple sites gives you as a company the ability to provide a consistent and single view of your organisation. With the iScala POS/PMS integration module you will be able to integrate using legacy technologies including flat files and CSV or use web services and XML based integrations gaining from advanced automation of your business processes. If you deploy this solution you'll get more accurate and timely data without the cost.

Adds Grobbelaar: "The iScala POS/PMS integration solution can support almost any PMS and POS format. It can separately import the general ledger, city ledger and goods depletion records and has already been integrated into the most common POS and PMS systems including Opera, Fidelio, Maxial, Profit Manager and others."

Customers looking to export files from a PMS system to update the iScala General Ledger, will now be able to do so using the PMS Revenue Interface, which will support almost any revenue file structure including those with more than one amount per transaction and can re-allocate transactions such as VAT or service charges to the correct accounts using iScala Automatic Allocation (part of iScala Financials).

The PMS Invoice Interface uses the city ledger export from the PMS to update the Sales Ledger/Accounts Receivable. To support the international complexity of sales related taxes iScala can receive and process up to three taxable amounts, tax basis and tax codes for each invoice record. Your POS desks are your eyes into what is sold or consumed by your guests. By integrating POS data into iScala you can automatically update inventory records with details of what has been consumed and your sales statistics with details of items sold. Using POS Update to Material management, it can track each POS separately so that you can later analyse what items are being sold from what department using iScala BI or any other analysis tools.

"One of the most challenging aspects of being in the hospitality industry is having the ability to manage your profit margins across multiple locations. With our POS Sales and Cost Analysis you will have instant access to what the margin on a purchase or goods is, allowing you to make smarter business decisions.

"When you import your POS data the system combines the item selling price (according to the POS system) with the cost of the goods sold (based on iScala's knowledge of the recipes used and the cost of ingredients etc) to immediately report the margins," adds Grobbelaar.