Are you glued to your phone? It’s okay to admit that you are, and you’re not the only one. We all know that mobile devices are here to stay, but did you know that they’re actually replacing desktop devices when it comes to accessing the web? According to Entrepreneur Magazine Online, in December 2017, 56.74 percent of internet traffic came from mobile devices (including tablets). That’s huge! While mobile responsive websites were once a nice to have now they’re a requirement, and companies are adding app versions of their sites alongside them as a clean and efficient way to access their content.

Once upon a time in a land called Winnipeg, a bunch of young adults met while working in a downtown restaurant. Bartenders. servers, cocktailers, and supervisors, these dedicated employees loved everything about their job and were the best of friends. Life was wonderful.

Well Ontario, $14 minimum wage is here and $15 minimum wage is just around the corner. In the restaurant industry this is understandably causing some major anxiety. This industry is labour heavy and with one of the biggest costs increasing dramatically, profitability is something that seems less and less certain.

It's kind of funny now, to think about the way we used to order pizza.

Find the phonebook under the sofa or above the fridge. Flip to the back to the phonebook to find the pizza places and their menus. Walk to your rotary telephone in the kitchen. Dial the number, fingers dusty with the inky scent of the yellow pages, give your order to the kid on the other end of the phone, tell him your address and give him directions.

Check to make sure you have cash—you had to have cash. About an hour later, the kid’s beat-up car pulled into the driveway, quarters and bills shifting in his fanny pack, and the doorbell rang.

Think about this question for a moment:

If you have no idea how many guests are going to be in your restaurant for lunch next Tuesday, how can you possibly forecast sales or effectively schedule staff?

Let’s put that question another way:

What if we could show you meal and liquor counts down to 15-minute intervals for every section of your restaurant so you would know exactly what’s happening at your bar this Thursday at 5:45 pm?

Yes, it’s that time of year again.

The time when restaurant owner/operators hole themselves up for days with charts and reports and more charts and reports to come up with the magic numbers that will determine how this restaurant is going to swim for yet another year.

While we all know it’s a gruelling and time-consuming task you’ve done time and again, you might think it’s pretty straight forward: Here’s our sales. Here’s our costs. Here’s our profits. Let’s do it.

And yet every year, for many restaurants, ‘unexpected’ numbers creep through cracks and targets go off-course and/or unnoticed by managers.

A trio of after-work ladies is saying cheers to Friday with happy hour sangrias, a heat wave drove your patio to hit an all-time sales record Saturday, and now that it’s halfway through summer, front and back of house are rocking.

Someone might even catch you smiling.

In the midst of all this bliss, it might be easy to shove to the back of your mind the ‘f’ word.

Fall.

It's no secret that a well-functioning restaurant is highly reliant on who's working.

Ameego is excited to announce the integration of its online restaurant scheduling and labor management software with MICROS point-of-sale (POS) platform.