5 Critical POS Reports Restaurant Owners Must Check Daily

To run your restaurant smoothly, you need accurate and timely data. Your Point-of-Sale (POS) System is your main source of that information, but it’s useless if you don't review it. A modern POS generates specialized reports that serve as your management guide. We’ve broken down the five most critical reports you should use to monitor your restaurant’s performance, costs, and team.

Reviewing these regularly helps you catch issues before they become expensive problems and will guide you to smarter decisions on staffing, pricing, and loss prevention.

1. Sales Performance of Products

What It Is: It tracks the sales volume and profitability for every single menu item sold in a given period.

Why It’s Important: This report is the foundation of menu management. It reveals your “Best Sellers”, which are popular and profitable, and your “Slow Items”, which are least ordered.

How It Helps Your Business: This report guides menu and pricing adjustments. It tells you which low-performing items to remove or enhance. It also helps your staff on which items to recommend or upsell to maximize profits.

2. Hourly Sales Report

What It Is: It tracks sales, orders, and customers by the hour.

Why It’s Important: Labor is one of your biggest expenses. This report provides an objective view of your peak hours and your slowest times.

How It Helps Your Business: This report directly affects your staff scheduling. You can avoid expensive overstaffing during quiet periods and ensure adequate coverage during your lunch and dinner rushes to maintain service quality. It allows managers to schedule their top-performing staff during peak hours for maximum efficiency and sales.

3. Voids, Discounts, and Comps Reports

What It Is: It tracks every transaction that resulted in revenue loss, including voided orders, applied discounts, and complimentary items or comps.

Why It’s Important: This report is your primary tool for revenue loss prevention. Discrepancies here can signal internal fraud, systematic errors, or poor kitchen performance.

How It Helps Your Business: It allows you to investigate spikes in voids to detect potential theft or identify specific menu items that are consistently being prepared incorrectly. It highlights employees who may need additional training on order entry or discount policies, reducing mistakes that lead to costly errors.

4. Employee Performance Report

What It Is: It tracks key metrics broken down by individual employee, such as sales generated, average check size, tip percentage, and number of orders processed.

Why It’s Important: This report removes subjectivity from management. It shows you who your best employees are and who needs more training.

How It Helps Your Business: It allows you to set data-driven performance targets, identify areas for staff training, and accurately calculate performance-based incentives or bonuses. It enables managers to recognize and reward top performers to boost morale, and provides objective data for coaching employees on effective upselling techniques.

5. Inventory vs Sales Report

What It Is: It tracks the amount of raw ingredient inventory that should have been used (based on recipes sold) versus the amount that was actually used.

Why It’s Important: This report measures your food cost accuracy. A large discrepancy indicates shrinkage, waste, or portion control issues that are affecting your profit.

How It Helps Your Business: It directly impacts your bottom line by detecting costly leaks. It helps you accurately forecast demand for ingredients to prevent stockouts and avoid overstocking and spoilage. It pinpoints specific ingredients where better preparation or stricter portion control is needed.

Conclusion

The true power of your POS system is unlocked only when you make data analysis a part of your routine. By dedicating time to reviewing these five critical reports, you transition from simply reacting to the previous day’s chaos to proactively making informed, strategic decisions.