Tracking Guest and Staff Meals: How to Avoid Missed Revenue Opportunities

Missed revenue opportunities are a major reason why senior living and assisted living communities report financial losses. Revenue leakage happens when money is earned for services provided, but that money is not received or collected. One of the biggest contributing factors to this is charge capture failure. When charges aren’t made accurately, the money you’re owed falls through the cracks. 

In senior living, one of the largest culprits of revenue loss is staff and guest meals. If you’re using a point-of-sale system designed for restaurants and not senior housing, you may be leaving thousands of dollars on the table. Choosing the best POS system for senior living will help you capture more revenue and gather data that is more valuable for forecasting and planning menus. 

Why Tracking Guest and Staff Meals Matters

A meal or two here and there may seem inconsequential, but it adds up over time and becomes increasingly significant to your bottom line. You want to make loved ones and family members feel welcome in your community, just as you want your staff members to feel comfortable and enjoy a positive work culture.

However, when guest and staff meals aren’t charged, there are many compounding problems, including revenue loss. Aside from that, failure to track these meals will seriously skew the data you collect. This means you may have trouble accurately forecasting the amount of food you’ll need, or you may not be able to staff appropriately at crucial times. This could result in food and staff shortages, which can ultimately lead to dissatisfied residents and caregivers.

Combining revenue leakage with the various responsibilities of managing a dining service can be overwhelming. You must meet residents’ dietary needs and dietary restrictions, oversee a full culinary team, provide delicious and nutritious dining options, source fresh ingredients within your budget, and maintain pleasant and clean dining venues or private dining rooms. All of these factors play a crucial role in enhancing residents’ quality of life. That’s why senior and retirement communities can greatly benefit from incorporating revenue capture of meals for guests and staff into their internal processes.

How Tracking Guest and Staff Meals Can Impact Your Dining Services and Your Bottom Line

Time is money, and quality food costs are at an all-time high. So if you’re preparing more food and using staff time to do it — all while failing to charge for those meals — you’re losing out. Once you do implement a revenue capture plan for guest and staff meals, you’ll begin to see numerous benefits, including:

Better Budgeting and Financial Forecasting

It’s impossible to create a budget and know what’s coming if you aren’t accurately tracking and charging for extra meals. Predictive analytics is a powerful tool, especially when it comes to revenue capture, but it’s only as good as the data it’s collecting. If you aren’t tracking those “bonus” meals, your information will be incorrect, and your planning will go astray. Ensure greater accuracy in budgeting and forecasting with a senior dining solution that tracks every meal, every time, down to the last cent.

Opportunity for Additional Profit

Once you’ve been able to stop the loss and plug up those revenue leaks, you can really start to turn things around and even bring in additional revenue. If you aren’t capturing guest and staff meals, chances are you’re also not keeping track of any add-ons or extra items you could be missing. Once you start tracking, you can set accurate prices on all menu items, including meals and extra items like drinks, additional portions, desserts, and much more.

Improved Financial Transparency

Tracking all meals, including non-resident meals for staff and guests, increases transparency in your billing and financial management. It helps prevent chargebacks and billing discrepancies, which can also help you avoid resident dissatisfaction and confusion. It’s also a great advantage for your financial team, who can benefit from having improved visibility over dining expenses and billing.

Greater Focus on Resident Well-Being

When you’re capturing revenue appropriately for guest and staff meals, you won’t be constantly trying to stay on top of dwindling profits. Also, when you’re using a senior living dining software that takes care of repetitive administrative tasks, you’ll give time back to your staff members so they can focus more on the most important part of their job — the health and wellness of your residents. They’ll be able to spend more of their time providing an excellent culinary experience and top-notch food service, which will, in turn, encourage healthy eating and improve resident satisfaction. 

Best Practices for Tracking Guest and Staff Meals in Your Dining Program

Wondering how you can tighten up operations at your own senior living community and start tracking guest and staff meals? Here are some best practices you can implement to get started right away:

• Choose a POS system that’s designed for senior living.
• Integrate your POS with meal tracking for residents, guests, and staff.
• Audit current meal and add-on prices and ensure they’re accurate.
• Compile detailed reports to management and finance teams.
• Set special prices for guests and staff member meals.
• Make sure guest meals are connected to the residents they’re visiting for more accurate billing and fewer discrepancies.
• Diversify pricing options like meal credits, balance accounts, and flexible meal plans.
• Communicate pricing changes and dining policies with residents, guests, and staff in a timely and transparent manner.

How eMenuCHOICE Helps Track Guest and Staff Meals for Senior Living Dining Success

It isn’t always an easy transition when you start patching up revenue leaks. You’ve got to identify where you’re losing money, stem the flow, change the processes, and then start to turn the tide back to earning. It’s a lot to handle, but the burden is significantly lighter when you trust a senior dining solution like eMenuCHOICE. Hear how Civitas Senior Living was able to increase revenue using eMenuCHOICE. You could achieve the same with our system's:

Versatile Meal Tracking

You’re probably thinking it must be a hassle to distinguish between resident, guest, and staff meals and track them all manually — and you’d be right. But you don’t have to do it manually. Our platform makes it easy to designate the type of meal being charged and then link those meals to specific residents as needed. No need for human entry at meal times — just seamless meal tracking at the touch of a button.

Reporting Capabilities

Our strong reporting features add even more value for senior living communities. In an instant, you can generate accurate reports detailing staff and guest food consumption and payments. You can also get a clear view of resident meals vs. non-resident meals. This data can be an enormous aid in forecasting your food and staffing needs, ensuring you don’t fall short or under/overspend. 

Reduced Revenue Leakage

The bottom line is this: if you aren’t charging for guest or staff meals, you’re losing revenue. Eventually, even the smallest leaks become huge problems that will sink your ship. Our proprietary POS system was designed exclusively for senior dining, so we understand your needs and anticipate your concerns. If you repair the damage now and prevent future leaks, in time, you’ll start to see a rebound in profits and a stronger financial performance.

How to Get Started with eMenuCHOICE in Your Senior Living Community

If you haven’t been tracking guest and staff meals in your senior community, things are about to change for the better. You can stop revenue leakage and start to capture more profits, and you can do it without headaches or hassle. With eMenuCHOICE, revenue capture is seamless, accurate, and flexible. You can instantly track resident and non-resident meals and connect them when appropriate for better, more transparent billing. Book your introductory meeting today and see how we can transform the way you manage senior dining for the better!