Organise POS products and favourites around the way your restaurant serves guests

Clear product information is part of guest service

A guest ordering a cappuccino expects an uncomplicated conversation. Your employee still needs to identify the right product, size and price on the till. A well organised restaurant POS catalogue makes those decisions understandable without taking attention away from the guest. The quality of the catalogue therefore affects service even when guests never see the sales screen.

Bonzumo brings product selection into the sales workflow and provides favourites for frequently used products in its fast sales interface. A useful setup lets new colleagues recognise the same items as experienced staff. This guide focuses on the sales side of product organisation. Recipes, purchasing costs and stock movements belong to inventory management; here the objective is to find the correct product confidently.

Give similar products clearly different names

Two buttons labelled Water are difficult to distinguish when one represents a small bottle and the other a large bottle. Mineral Water 250 ml gives useful information before selection. Agree the wording with your menu and with the people preparing orders. Guests, servers and bar staff should not need different names for the same product. Review sizes, alcohol-free alternatives and the difference between individual dishes and menus.

More detail is not automatically better. Supplier references and promotional descriptions can make a button harder to scan. Give prominence to the difference that matters for selection. Review names on the devices your team will actually use, including smaller displays. Bonzumo displays maintained product information; choosing wording that people understand remains an important part of configuring the business.

Choose favourites from real ordering patterns

The fast sales interface in Bonzumo presents favourite products with their names and prices. In a café these could be core coffees, water and a popular pastry. In a bar they might be beer, house wine and selected soft drinks. Your service should determine the choice. A favourites screen should not turn into another copy of the whole menu.

Start with a focused selection and observe which items staff still search for repeatedly. Add or remove products deliberately, with one person coordinating changes. An unpredictable layout between shifts makes learning harder. Discuss proposed changes with the team: a relatively uncommon product may matter at a particular service period, while a bestseller may already be easy to find in a familiar category.

Review prices and local menus before service

A price change works in practice when the guest-facing menu and the sales interface agree. Decide who prepares changes and who reviews the result. Check a representative selection: a drink, main course, variant and favourite. This gives the team a concrete pre-service check instead of an assumption that somebody has updated the catalogue.

Bonzumo includes product and price management and location-specific menus. During setup, establish which assortment belongs to each operating location. A daytime café and an evening bar may have different priorities. When changing a seasonal menu, also review products that are no longer offered and similar entries from the previous menu. Explain where staff should report an unclear price or a missing item.

A café example across different service periods

Consider a café serving breakfast in the morning, light meals at lunch and drinks later. Its challenge is the changing focus of the team. Coffee sizes and breakfast products matter early, while other drinks become more important later. List common orders and common misunderstandings for each period. Use those observations to shape product names and the most useful shortcuts.

A new colleague then works through a practice order with two cappuccinos, still water and breakfast. Ask them to explain why they select each product. Hesitation between similar names is useful feedback about the setup. Review the basket and the wording reaching preparation as well. These small decisions reduce the private shorthand that a newcomer otherwise has to learn.

Train through a manageable set of orders

A typical sale is more useful for induction than a tour of every administration menu. Ask new staff to find common products, distinguish similar variants and check quantities. Explain how the basket is reviewed before sending the order or starting payment. Understanding the connection between a selection and its result is more valuable than memorising a button position.

Include a change of mind: the guest asks for the larger bottle or adds another drink. An order still being prepared is different from one already sent or paid, and staff should use the designated process for each situation. Record who resolves a missing product or unclear price. Clear interface information and clear human responsibility support each other.

Audit a small, representative part of the catalogue

Before changing product names or favourites, select a representative part of the active assortment. Write down the wording on the guest menu and the terms staff use during service. Mark entries where size, quantity or variant is not immediately apparent. This comparison separates a genuine ambiguity from a personal preference about screen layout.

Ask which products regularly require an explanation when a new colleague starts. That feedback is more specific than saying the till should be faster. If the difficulty is an unclear product name, an additional favourite may not solve it. If the wording is clear but the item repeatedly requires a long search, a better entry point may help. Knowing the type of problem makes the change easier to evaluate.

Work through the changes in an agreed sequence, starting with the most likely misunderstandings. Review the resulting selection together. Do not use completed sales as experimental material for catalogue maintenance. The purpose is to improve future selection, and staff should understand the distinction between updating product information and changing an already completed transaction.

Introduce changes without losing the team’s orientation

Staff develop spatial and language habits through repetition. Someone selecting the same product daily expects a familiar label. A new arrangement can be useful, but it should be explained before the next shift. Show exactly which frequently used items have a different name or access route. A practical example is more helpful than a general announcement that the till has been tidied.

Agree where feedback goes. During service, each employee should not solve the same uncertainty by adding another almost identical product. One responsible person can collect observations and distinguish an actual data error from unclear wording or an unfamiliar interaction. This keeps the shared screen understandable instead of letting several individual workarounds accumulate.

After a menu update, revisit the critical items that actually changed. Review their labels, prices and access routes rather than repeating an unfocused tour of the whole application. A small, relevant check makes maintenance manageable and establishes whether the change achieved its intended purpose. It also gives staff confidence that their specific feedback was considered.

Ask useful questions when comparing restaurant POS systems

Do not stop at asking whether a system has favourites. Ask how a frequently used product is selected, how a similarly named item is distinguished and how a changed price appears on the real sales screen. These tasks reveal the difference between the existence of a function and a setup that suits your menu.

For a Bonzumo demonstration, use a short list from your own assortment. Add one product your team currently confuses and a seasonal introduction. Ask a member of the service team to explain their selection aloud. That gives you a practical basis for assessment without judging ease of use only against a prepared sample catalogue.

Include a product that is not part of the core favourites. Staff should understand that favourites simplify access to selected items rather than defining the entire menu. A useful catalogue supports both the common order and the less frequent request. Discuss how the latter is reached in the configured setup and who keeps that route clear as your offer evolves.

Finally, record the small decisions made during the demonstration: preferred names, products to include in the initial selection and the person responsible for ongoing review. Those decisions are useful implementation work. They turn a general interest in restaurant POS software into a specific description of how your team will encounter and use its products.

Questions about favourites and product maintenance

Should every item be a favourite? No. Favourites give convenient access to products needed frequently or for a particular purpose. The complete assortment still needs understandable names and a clear structure. The appropriate selection depends on the menu, available screen space and how orders are taken.

Do favourites replace menu maintenance? No. A favourite is an entry point to a product. Names and prices still need maintenance in the appropriate place and a review in sales. Creating almost identical shortcuts to conceal contradictory data tends to make the catalogue harder to understand over time.

What should you bring to a Bonzumo demonstration? Choose several bestselling items, similar variants and one awkward case the team regularly encounters. Together we can review product selection, favourites and the basket using that material. This connects the discussion about restaurant POS software with the working day you want to create.