| Term | Definition |
| P&L | Profit and Loss Statement (P&L) - An end of the month accounting report that outlines all activity of the establishment, shows totals for labor and food cost, figures in waste, discounts, overhead, payroll, and all other affecting factors, and gives the manager a final number of profit made or loss incurred. |
| Paid-In | Additional money, not from a sale, that is put in the till. |
| Paid-Out | Money removed from the till to pay tips or invoices. |
| PAN | Primary Account Number (PAN) - The embossed or encoded number that identifies the card issuer to which a transaction should be routed. |
| Par Levels | The amount of any given inventory item that should be on hand at all times. Sometimes refereed to as a “build to” for ordering purposes.Example: If there are 5 watermelons on the shelf on Friday, and the par is 6, the manager will order one watermelon for tomorrow’s delivery. |
| Parallel Interface Port | An interface from a computer system where data is transferred in or out in parallel, that is, on more than one wire. A parallel port carries one bit on each wire thus multiplying the transfer rate obtainable over a single wire. There will usually be some control signals on the port to indicate when data is ready to be sent or received. |
| Parent Menu Item | See – Fixed Price Meal. |
| Password | An arbitrary string of characters chosen by a user or system administrator and used to authenticate the user when he attempts to log on in order to prevent unauthorized access to his account. |
| Payment Window | This is the first window in a Double Window Drive-Thru. This is where the customer pays for the order. |
| Payroll | Refers to the accounting process by which tracked hours worked and rates of pay for each employee are totaled and pay checks are generated. |
| PBX | Private Branch Exchange (PBX) - A switching device owned by a customer (rather than the telephone company) to route internal calls among various extensions, to switch incoming calls to the appropriate extension and to route outgoing calls to the public telephone network access point.In hotels, the center where internal telephone operators are stationed and incoming and outgoing calls are redirected. |
| PC Workstation (PCWS) | A personal computer that functions both as a PC and as a User Workstation. |
| Periodic Inventory | Usually only done twice a month, a periodic inventory requires the manager to count what is on his shelves to see what he has in inventory. This type of inventory is not subtracted from when menu items are rung. It is balanced by the manager counting and figuring a relationship based on what he had at the last inventory, plus what he purchased, minus what he has now. |
| Peripheral | Any part of a computer other than the CPU or working memory, i.e. disks, keyboards, monitors, mice, printers, scanners, tape drives, microphones, speakers, cameras, to list just the less exotic ones. |
| Perpetual Inventory | A perpetual inventory is an inventory that has been set up in a database to subtract recipe ingredients from the inventory each time a menu item is rung, thus giving the manager a running count of what he should have left on his shelves.Example: If a server orders a chicken sandwich, the computer will subtract 1 hamburger bun, 1 chicken breast, 1 oz. onion, 1 leaf lettuce, and 1 oz. tomato from the inventory and will total what should be left on the shelves |
| Personal Identification Number(PIN) | A password, typically four digits entered through a telephone keypad or automatic teller machine. |
| Petty Cash | This refers to the cash on hand that is used to handle any emergencies |
| Pick-Up Check | An operation performed by the employee that retrieves an already started guest check from the computer’s memory. |
| Pick-Up Window | This is the second window in a Double Window Drive-Thru. This is where the customer picks up the order. |
| PIN | See – Personal Identification Number. |
| PLU | A PLU (Price LookUp) displays a group of menu items, discount keys, service charge keys, or tender/media keys. When a PLU key is pressed, a touchscreen is generated with all the item prices linked to the same PLU key. |
| PMS | Property Management System (PMS) - An interface that allows a hotel to post restaurant charges, service charges, valet charges, etc. to a guest’s room folio so that payment may be made for all charges incurred at one time. |
| Point of Sale (POS) | The term “Point of Sale” is used to describe functions having to do with the posting of and accepting payment for menu items. A POS System is a computer system that is used to post and track these transactions. POS Operations is an application of the POS software that makes it possible for the employee to carry out these transactions. However, POS does not refer to the physical location where the sale takes place. |
| Point of Sale Terminal | The POS terminal is the computer that the POS software runs on, and where transactions are carried out. |
| Pop-Up Screen | A screen that has been programmed to automatically appear when a particular button or icon has been selected. It is called a pop-up because once a selection has been made from the pop-up, it automatically disappears and is replaced by another screen. Opposite of “Stay-Down Screen”. |
| POS | Point of Sale (POS) - The term “Point of Sale” is used to describe functions having to do with the posting of and accepting payment for menu items. A POS System is a computer system that is used to post and track these transactions. POS Operations is an application of the POS software that makes it possible for the employee to carry out these transactions. However, POS does not refer to the physical location where the sale takes place. |
| Positive Authorization | The procedure by which an account is accessed to determine it’s status prior to authorization. |
| Posting | To ring up a menu item and subtotal or service round the check, thus adding the item’s cost to the check’s total, and sending it to the kitchen to be made. |
| Pre-check | A User Workstation that is primarily being used to ring orders. A guest check will normally be taken to a cashier terminal for settlement. |
| Premium | This term refers to an establishment’s pricing structure for alcohol. Well is the cheapest priced liquor (possibly a no-name brand, Call is a moderately priced liquor (such as Jim Beam), and Premium is an expensively priced liquor (such as Johnny Walker Red). |
| Prep Instructions | Instructions to the kitchen or bar that indicate special requests by the customer. ('No tomato', 'extra mayo', 'sauce on side', etc.) This is also used to communicate required information to the kitchen. (Meat temperatures, salad dressing, ice cream flavor, etc.) |
| Previous Balance | The previous balance is the subtotal already on the check before a new round is rung. |
| Previous Round | A previous round is a service round that occurred before the most recent service total. By the time the customer is on dessert, the check may include several previous rounds (drinks, appetizers, and entrees) with a service total occurring after each. A previous round includes all of the things that were posted during that round (menu items, discounts, service charges, tender/media". Menu items posted in a previous round presumably printed to remote devices when the check was service totaled, and the kitchen made/is making them, so the restaurant has incurred cost. For this reason, the question of who can make changes (voids, returns) to a previous round is a security concern to the restaurant. |
| Price LookUp | A 'Price LookUp' displays a group of menu items, discount keys, service charge keys, or tender/media keys. When a PLU key is pressed, a touchscreen is generated with all the item prices linked to the same PLU key. |
| Primary Account Number (PAN) | The embossed or encoded number that identifies the card issuer to which a transaction should be routed. |
| Printer Rerouting | Typically used in an establishment that runs both a Service Bar and a Main Bar. The service bar would only be operational during high volume times of day. When the volume decreased, main bar would then be receiving server orders. The printers would be rerouted so that orders for drinks would now print at the main bar printer instead of the service bar printer. |
| Printing Class | See – Classes. |
| Private Branch Exchange (PBX) | A switching device owned by a customer (rather than the telephone company) to route internal calls among various extensions, to switch incoming calls to the appropriate extension and to route outgoing calls to the public telephone network access point.In hotels, the center where internal telephone operators are stationed and incoming and outgoing calls are redirected. |
| Privileges | A control function of a computer system by which employees are assigned certain functions that are available to them, while other functions may be restricted. |
| Profit and Loss Statement (P & L ) | An end of the month accounting report that outlines all activity of the establishment, shows totals for labor and food cost, figures in waste, discounts, overhead, payroll, and all other affecting factors, and gives the manager a final number of profit made or loss incurred. |
| Profit Center | Any are of the business that generates revenue. The restaurant bar is a profit center, because although it incurs expense, it brings in money. The restaurant's parking lot requires cleaning and maintenance. If parking is free, the lot, while necessary to the business, is not a profit center. Also see – Revenue Center. |
| Property Management System(PMS) | An interface that allows a hotel to post restaurant charges, service charges, valet charges, etc. to a guest’s room folio so that payment may be made for all charges incurred at one time. |
| Protocol | A set of formal rules describing how to transmit data, especially across a network |