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BC Beer Business Focus: BarSight Restaurant Systems

With the rapid development of its craft beer sector over the past decade, British Columbia has become home to an abundance of innovative breweries. However, the creativity doesn’t stop there; BC also boasts a number of talented new companies who service those many craft beverage manufacturing, retail and hospitality businesses.

One of the inventive enterprises British Columbia has spawned is BarSight Restaurant Systems, a technology company which specializes in hospitality management software. BarSight is becoming known for its comprehensive, modern system that is well suited for managing craft brewery front-of-house operations.

Recently, What’s Brewing asked founder Brian Howard to describe how BarSight works. Here’s what we learned.

Q&A with Brian Howard of BarSight Restaurant Systems

Brian Howard

Q: When was BarSight created and why?

A: I started out a few years ago working for a company that provided IT support for multiple restaurant franchises, mainly working on integrating with accounting software and POS terminals. I noticed some common issues between them all; either a lack of centralized business management software, or multiple overpriced systems set up haphazardly. So, back in 2019, my wife and I decided to create BarSight in order to offer a low-cost solution that includes all the features to help owners manage employees, accounting, and communication logs in one place.

What makes BarSight different from other solutions?

BarSight is built to walk the fine line of being simple enough for anyone to use, yet flexible enough for multiple different restaurant or brewery setups. One of the key advantages we offer is our easy pricing model, based simply on number of users and/or locations. All our features are available to all paid plans, so there is no need to upgrade for certain features, and no hidden costs when integrating with another system.

For instance, the competition will charge extra when you reach a certain number of employees with manager access, or when you need to access certain features. That is just confusing and frustrating for business owners, if you ask me!

One of BarSight’s loyal clients

How has BarSight been received?

So far so good; the people that use it love it! Due to the pandemic, it’s been a bit of a slow and rocky start for us, but we’re starting to see the economy improve and sign-ups increase.

Are there any aspects that would be particularly useful in a craft brewery?

Aside from our employee scheduling feature, which is the cornerstone of our software, I’d say the accounts payable module. It’s such a simple and tidy way to keep track of the invoices your brewery receives. For example, you can designate a certain staff member to come in the mornings and enter your vendor invoices. Then when the time comes, you can generate a report for your bookkeeper.

Any features your clients can’t live without?

All of them! We have a pretty diverse user base right now, and certain features are favoured by different customers. It’d be hard to pick just one, but I’ve heard the most praise for our automatic sales forecasting feature. It’s just a simple way to build and plan your employee schedule while keeping an eye on your operating margins.

How much does it cost to get up and running?

There is no setup fee, and we offer a free 30-day trial that gives you time to test out all the features. After you sign up, our system pops up a window with a few questions about typical roles for your employees (server, host, bartender, etc), then you create accounts for your staff as needed. You can get your first schedule created and shared out to your employees in the time it takes to finish your morning coffee.

Any particular ways you’ve been active in the community?

We’ve joined both the BC Restaurant & Foodservices Association and the Canadian Craft Brewers Association. We also will be a sponsor of the Canada Beer Cup, coming up on October 3rd, which showcases the amazing craft beer from our brewers, coast to coast. We are also looking at other ways we can use portions of our revenue to give back to our local community.

Any out-of-the-box successes to share?

Our business, BarSight, is all about solving problems. During the onset of the pandemic, when most stores were forced to close, we asked our clients what we could do to help. So Golden Ears Cheesecrafters came to us for assistance in shifting from traditional retail to an online store.

Before COVID, I had not considered building online portals, but we do have a professional background in that area and I’m a problem solver at heart. Less than a week later, we had the web store built and ready to take orders as well as confirm delivery and pickup times. I’m still proud of how quickly we were able to help.

BarSight Restaurant Systems

Built in Beautiful British Columbia. Proudly Canadian.

www.barsight.ca

  • Restaurant Scheduling Software
  • Employee Management Software
  • Private and Group Messages
  • Vendor Management Software
  • Expense Reporting Software
  • Manager Logbook Software
  • Employee Training Software
  • Digital Menu Boards

Try BarSight for 30 days free: Get Started →

 

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Many thanks to our Community Partner BarSight Restaurant Systems for sponsoring this interview.

What's Brewing

These articles are the work of the What's Brewing Editorial Group.


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