Use Reports to Manage Your Operation

Balance Sales to Deposits
If the sale is recorded then there should be a corresponding deposit at the bank. It is just that simple. However, this is overlooked by the vast majority of business owners. Too many don't take the time to balance the 2 totals.
If a sale is recorded then the tender should be in the drawer. If not, someone should be held accountable for the difference.
Most restaurants that have servers have found a good method of accomplishing this through "Server Banking". In this method of doing business the server brings their own starting bank and makes change out of this bank. At the end of the shift the POS system will produce a report that shows credit card sales and a Cash Due amount. It is this Cash Due amount that the restaurant owner is interested in. The server produces this report, produces the credit card slips and then the exact amount owed the restaurant based upon the Cash Due amount. The rest of the cash they keep as their tips. The restaurant owner is never short when using this method.
Use the blind balance routine in most systems to identify employees who commonly steal from your cash drawer. This module will calculate exactly how much cash should be in the drawer and ask the cashier to count and blindly enter the amount of cash that is in the drawer. The report shows instantly the over/short of the drawer and will not allow the cashier to re-enter a new cash amount.
Using server banking and blind balance routines are great ways to match sales to deposits. By controlling your cash and charges you will see more of them actually reaching the bank.

Identify you Best Sellers
Use item and product movement reports to spotlight your top selling items. You should know almost daily what your best movers are and then make sure that you are never out of them.
To miss a sale is a terrible thing. Being out of your top selling items will cost you sales and profits. Stay on top of your best sellers to make sure that you don't ever miss a sale.
Just the opposite of this is knowing what is not selling in your business. All businesses work on turns of inventory. You should know what turns are expected in your vertical market. If you have product that is historically not meeting your turn expectations you should re-evaluate if you should continue stocking the item.
What is worse is an item that is not selling at all. In restaurants it does not pay to continue to stock an item that is not selling or restock an item because you threw the last case out.
In a retail store if you have to continue to knock the dust off of an item or if it has been on the shelf so long the packaging is starting to dry rot then you have a problem item.
Know what items are not selling, reduce them for quick sell and then do not restock them. You are much better off pouring this money into items that do sell or draw new customers into your business.

Understanding Your Labor Costs
The fastest way to impact your bottom-line profits is via your labor costs. Having a good idea of what you are spending on labor, forecasted to spend and your over/short regarding hours spent is critical to your profitability.
Using a POS system’s time clock feature will allow you to easily track the hours and dollars spent on labor. Taking reports daily gives you an idea of trends and will help you recognize when times are slow and when you should send people home. The right time to take a labor report might be when you see that sales are slow. See if your labor costs is running high and make cuts if necessary.
If your POS systems includes a labor forecast and labor scheduling module you should absolutely take advantage of this program. The time you spend learning and making the labor schedule will quickly pay dividends in the form of increased profits. Without doubt, this module will bring additional profits faster than any other back office module.
Think of the savings like this. If employees clock in 10 minutes early, it only takes 6 employees doing so to equal an hour of labor. At $15/hour that then equals to $105 per week or $5,460 per year is lost profits. Using the labor scheduling module and requiring employees to clock in on the POS system will stop them from clocking in earlier than their scheduled time and require manager approval to clock out late.
Use all of these reports and modules to understand your business, make mid-day adjustments and control your operation to increase your profits.