(For those new to the column, Forward Migration is our term for companies moving from Wintel machines to Macs — or at least adding or increasing the number of Macs they use. A Forward Migration Kit is an overview of Mac OS products for a particular occupation, such as photography, optometry, etc.)
This week, in the first of a two-part series, we’re looking at Macintosh software suitable for restaurant owners and operators.
AccountEdge
Several MacCentral readers told us that they use AccountEdge by MYOB in their restaurant business. It offers accounting with business, inventory and contact management capabilities.
MYOB AccountEdge tackles such duties as job tracking, sales management, time billing, inventory, and payroll. It includes invoice and check registers that simplify the finding of open invoices, credits, quotes, payments, and other transactions. MYOB AccountEdge also inherits the signature features of other MYOB products, including inventory and payroll, multiple currency accounting and professional time billing. But it also adds some new tricks and has been redesigned to complement the Aqua interface of Mac OS X. AccountEdge retails for US$249.
Chef Office
Chef Office from Execuchef is for chefs, cooks, food service managers, buyers, culinary educators/students, and others. It lets you: instantly scale recipes by portion; perform searches by ingredient or by any of five customizable, categorical fields; convert American recipe units into metric recipe units; license and distribute your own cookbook or recipe collection) for sale or promotion.
You can also perform professional tasks such as: itemizing cost recipes for accurate menu pricing; breaking purchase unit costs into usable recipe unit costs; doing physical inventories; and organizing purveyor orders. Chef Office works with both Windows and Macintosh. On the Mac it runs on System 7.6.1 or later, but isn’t native for Mac OS X.
DataBaseDesignWorks
Mac software for restaurants “are as scarce as hen’s teeth,” said Kent Myhre, president of DataBaseDesignWorks. But he points out that they have such a critter. You can see the touch screen version of the “Order Entry” point online.
“You can then go to the payment screen and see how simple it is for the end user,” he said. “Go back to the starting point and check out all of the F&B working panels for an in depth look. F&B is a separate entity that we have built into our GolfSoft system. We have a full stand alone application for F&B management.”
GolfSoft is a complete point of sale, inventory management, and booking system that runs on Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. Developed for the golf club/course industry, it tracks customers, food and beverage sales, pro-shop sales, purchasing, receiving, inventory management, credit book accounts, tee-time bookings and management, tournament bookings and tournament entries via the web or across your local area network. And GolfSoft comes complete with extensive report writing.
“We customize to fit the culture per the particular client,” Myhre told MacCentral. “Our specialty is small to medium size businesses.”
DataBaseDesignWorks also have a keyboard or mouse based interface as well. The system hooks up to standard receipt printers and cash drawers. It also prints bar codes and utilizes bar code scanners.
“The engine behind this database application has been running on a Mac since 1984 — and it isn’t 4D or FileMaker Pro,” Myhre said. “It was the first ever RDBMS for the Mac.”
FileMaker Pro
The ever reliable FileMaker Pro. was brought up rather frequently. In fact, Stephen Reiss has been making custom software for restaurants since 1984 — primarily with FileMaker.
“We have never created a generic version because restaurants always end up needing something customized,” he told MacCentral. However, if you’re interested in talking with him about a project, drop him an e-mail.
Steve Dorsey of Dorsey Graphics likes FileMaker Pro because: it’s customizable; you can create your own interface, tailored to your themes; it’s Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X savvy; stable; easy to use; ODBC compliant; and offers remote access through the Web.
“This app is perfect for managing small or large businesses,” Dorsey told MacCentral. “It makes sense to simply buy a few iMacs and hire a small company to develop a database which meets your needs. It doesn’t even need to be very expensive.”
MacInn
Mac consultant Fred Cramer recommends MacInn. Though it’s targeted to small hotels and bed & breakfast establishments, it’s adaptable for restaurant use, he said.
MacInn from Significant Software is property management software that handles both front desk and back office operations. Introduced in 1985, MacInn is in use worldwide in properties of many sizes. It’s available for a 30-day free trial.
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