Product Release Notes – April 2021

photo: Eggspectation, Chantilly, VA

Some things we hope will look exactly the same after the pandemic is over – hugs, travel, full tables and packed bars at our restaurants – but our software is not one of them!

Here are some recent changes we’ve made:

• Support for Multiple POS Systems is here!
• Improved nightly sales emails with a refreshed design, comparison to two years ago, and a regional sales benchmark
• Add packaging and non-food items to recipes for a more complete recipe price
• Purchasing Report for easy access to overall purchase history of categories and individual items
• A new user permission level called MarginEdge Admin that gives full access to all the features in the software
• And more improvements to Menu Analysis, Bill Pay, viewing invoices, and syncing with accounting!

Plus, we’re looking to streamline the transfer of products between your restaurants. If you’re interested in beta testing product transfers at your restaurant, please reach out to my colleague Jamie, at jamie@marginedge.com.

If you have any feedback or ideas to improve – we want to hear it! Just reply to me here or reach out to help@marginedge.com.

– Simon Krauss, Director of Product Management

Support for Multiple POS Systems

Combine sales across systems into your MarginEdge reports! If you operate multiple point of sale systems in your restaurant, you can now connect all supported POS systems to MarginEdge. We’ll pull the sales data into your reports automatically, even in time to send you a combined nightly sales report. You can also export sales from each connected POS to your accounting system.

To get set up with a new POS integration, reach out to help@marginedge.com.

Nightly Sales Email

We’ve made a number of improvements to the nightly sales email, including:

• The ability to add a sales comparison to two years ago (might be more helpful these days!)
• A sales benchmark of similar restaurants
• A fresh new look!

Most users should now see these changes, though we are still in the process of upgrading some locations.

If you have questions about how the sales benchmarks are calculated, you can check out our help article.

For instructions on how to set up your nightly sales email, visit this help article.

Recipes

Add Non-Food Items to Recipes
You can now add take out containers, utensils, or any products classified as “Other” to your recipes for a more complete recipe cost.

Menu Analysis for Bar Items
You can now do Menu Analysis with Bar Items, accessing all the same great insights around costing and profit margin for the bar items on your menu.

Purchasing Report

We’ve added a Purchasing Report that shows all purchasing across a given time range, category, and category type for an individual restaurant. Coming soon, you will be able to compare purchasing across all your restaurants. You can answer questions like “How much Ground Beef did I buy for last July 4th?” or “What are the top 5 products I’m buying in Seafood?”

The Purchase Report can be found under the Products header in the left navigation.

New Role: MarginEdge Admin

We’ve rolled out a new role called the “MarginEdge Admin.” The MarginEdge Admin role is the highest user permission in MarginEdge. Users with this role have access to all data and actions in the software including viewing labor data, making and approving payments, and sending information to accounting. MarginEdge Admin users also have the ability to manage permissions for all other users within the restaurant.

For more information on the MarginEdge Admin role, check out this help article The MarginEdge Admin Role .

Bill Pay

Download an eCheck PDF
You can now choose to download an eCheck as a PDF to send electronically to vendors instead of through the mail, allowing them to process your payment more quickly.

Pay right from Orders Screen
On your Orders screen, each invoice closed to A/P will now have a “Pay” button, taking you directly to the payment screen, saving you some clicks! This option will only be active for users who can already pay bills.

Failed Checks Alerts
We’ll send you an automated message alerting you if a check comes back as undeliverable and show these checks as “FAILED” in the Bill Pay Payments screen. We’ll reopen those invoices for payments, providing a clearer history and suggested next step.

Invoices

Category Allocation for Line Items
You can now see the category allocation for each of your line items and other fees like taxes and delivery directly on the individual invoice screen, both from the Orders page as well as when in Invoice Approval. This provides an in-line view of exactly how the invoice will be sent to your accounting system.

Navigation Improvements
We’ve also made some navigational improvements to help you get where you want to go faster. We’ve reorganized the Orders section in the left navigation bar and now allow you to open any given invoice in a new tab. (PS: You can open lots more things in a new tab as well, like Products or Vendor Items!)

Invoice Approval Screen: Show New Product and Item Count
The invoice approval screen now shows you how many new vendor items and products are on each invoice. If you are reviewing mostly for new product categorization, this will help you approve the invoices without new products quickly before looking at the remaining invoices.

Accounting

QuickBooks Online – Exporting Credit Card Paid Invoices
We now support exporting invoices paid with a credit card to QuickBooks Online. Invoices exported with a credit card payment account will report a credit card charge to the mapped vendor account. If you don’t want to create vendors for certain invoices paid with a credit card, you can still export the invoice without a vendor mapping and the vendor name will show up as a memo in your credit card register.

Great Plains – Support for Memo Lines
We’ve added support for memo lines on sales lines exported to Great Plains accounting system. If you’d like to get memo lines, reach out to help@marginedge.com to get you set up.

POS Integrations

We now integrate with the following POS Integrations:

• SpotOn
• CBS Northstar
• Grubbrr
• Sapphire
• Rezku

For anyone counting, that’s 58 POS Systems!