Are you tired of running your restaurant without a clear system in place? A restaurant checklist app might just be the game-changer you need! Here are the five best options to opt for in 2023.
Running a restaurant is incredibly complex. Restaurant owners and managers have to juggle countless tasks — ordering supplies, managing staff schedules, controlling inventories, tracking orders and deliveries, and analyzing sales data are only some of their demanding duties.
Without the right tools and technology, it can be easy to overlook the most significant tasks and daily duties. One such handy tool is a restaurant checklist app, which provides an efficient way to stay organized throughout the day. A checklist app can help you with customizable to-do lists, task reminders, order-tracking capabilities, and inventory management tools.
With a restaurant app, you can schedule cleaning processes and health inspections, communicate with other team members on the go, and more. But not all apps are created equal. That’s why below, we go through our top five best restaurant checklist apps to consider in 2023.
If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.
Our Top Picks
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Best all-in-one restaurant checklist app
Learn more -
Good for gaining an oversight of daily operations
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Good for staying ahead of regulations
What to Look For in a Restaurant Checklist App
Before we look into the best restaurant checklist apps for 2023, let’s consider what the best one should have.
A restaurant checklist app typically includes a variety of customizable checklists and forms, such as employee restaurant cleaning checklists and food safety inspection forms. A good app enables you to track daily operations and ensure your restaurant is running smoothly.
Your app should allow you to perform the following actions:
- Assign tasks: Your app should allow you to assign tasks to team members to ensure clear responsibilities and deadlines.
- Attach and save multimedia files. Multimedia file attachments allow restaurant owners and managers to store images, PDFs, spreadsheets, and other files to record issues and quality standards.
- Collect real-time reports. With real-time reports, restaurant staff can get feedback on things like compliance issues, inventory levels, and task statuses as they occur. This allows you to solve problems quickly, ensure employee accountability, and increase operational efficiency.
- Take advantage of mobile capabilities. Look for an app that allows you to sync your checklists on multiple mobile devices. This helps managers and employees stay connected, track task progress, monitor industry and restaurant standards, and more from anywhere at any time.
The 5 Best Restaurant Checklist Apps of 2023
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Connecteam — Best all-in-one restaurant checklist app
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Connecteam offers a one-stop restaurant management app that is both easy to use and affordable. This app is designed to help your restaurant, no matter its size, digitize manual processes and streamline workflows.
Connecteam provides a comprehensive solution for managing and tracking operations in the restaurant industry — all while staying compliant with relevant regulatory requirements. Connecteam also offers a variety of features to help you save time, money, and resources.
Automate and Digitize Your Business
Connecteam helps you digitize and automate checklist-based processes and reduce tedious manual tasks. This can free up time for your employees and enhance productivity. All forms and lists are instantly available on connected mobile devices and connected to a central knowledge base.
Whether you need to create a deep cleaning and sanitizing checklist, schedule food safety checks, or submit health inspection forms, Connecteam helps you ensure efficiency, quality, and compliance.
Create Forms Easily With Attachments
Creating inventory and food safety forms with Connecteam’s checklist app is simple, fast, and efficient. You can easily collect information from your team to standardize procedures and make shareable documents, including onboarding and training forms. All forms are customizable and updatable so you can communicate important information like menu changes or new health regulations.
Moreover, you can attach PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, images, and other files. This allows you to keep clear records and align teams. For instance, you can attach images to recipes so your chefs know how to plate certain dishes.
Use Tailor-Made Templates for Restaurants
Connecteam provides tailor-made templates for reports, checklists, and other forms specifically designed for restaurants. This way, you can easily digitize procedures such as pre-inspection, safety, and inventory checklists without much pre-configuration. You can also create your own templates from scratch.
Create Tasks and Get Notifications
Connecteam allows you and your team to create and assign tasks. Because all tasks are available in one place, employees have a clear overview of responsibilities.
Additionally, you can share company news and updates in just a few clicks. With Connecteam’s app, you can notify your entire workforce about restaurant and task completion updates in real time. This helps you enhance customer satisfaction due to improved product and service quality.
What’s more, managers can see who has received and read a notification. This gives you more oversight over employees’ workflows and can improve productivity.
Ensure Compliance
Connecteam’s restaurant checklist app helps you ensure compliance with all necessary procedures and standards. You can upload documents related to health and safety regulations and create associated task lists customized to your particular restaurant. You can even add e-signatures for compliance purposes.
Because you can assign notifications and deadlines to tasks, Connecteam ensures that nothing falls through the cracks. The app can provide a record of completed tasks, which you can use to demonstrate compliance during audits or inspections.
Improve Communication
Connecteam’s built-in chat feature streamlines communications so you and your team can ask questions and collaboratively problem-solve time-sensitive issues. It can also improve customer service, for example by enabling staff to communicate about special requests by customers.
Key Features
Pros
Comprehensively automates and digitizes your restaurant processes
Creates and integrates forms easily
Provides accessible and up-to-date information to all employees
Capable of quick-entry review and secure data analysis
Cons
Limited customization options
Pricing
Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users
14-day free trial, no credit card required
Start your free trial -
Hubl App — Good for gaining an oversight of daily operations
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Hubl App is a hospitality checklist app. The app focuses on food safety due diligence by tracking food temperature recordings. It also offers calendar functionalities for tracking team responsibilities.
Hubl is straightforward and affordable. It’s ideal for smaller restaurants that want to start digitizing their procedures at a low cost.
However, as a relatively modest app, Hubl lacks some of the more advanced features you will find in other apps in this list, such as a team communication solution and a knowledge base to store recipes and important documents related to health and safety. For larger restaurants, Hubl may not ensure standardization, collaboration, and full compliance.
Learn more about Hubl AppKey Features
- Basic operational checklists, plus temperature checks and alerts
- Dashboard for oversight of tasks
- Calendar to view historic checks and corrective actions
- A cost-efficient solution
Pros
- A budget-friendly option
- Designed with food safety standards in mind
Cons
- Not suitable for larger restaurants
- Lacks key features like communications tools and a knowledge base
Pricing
Starts at $20/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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Trail — Good for staying ahead of regulations
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Trail is another checklist app designed for hospitality and leisure businesses. Trail focuses on guiding teams through daily operations, from opening tasks to food safety checks.
Trail is a step up from Hubl in its scope of capabilities, as it also includes performance reviews and logs. Trail uses the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system to ensure that your food checks are aligned with industry standards.
However, managers and leaders cannot view details of a task’s status, only whether it has been drafted, published, or archived. Additionally, because the company is based in the UK, live customer support is only available during UK business hours, except for emergencies.
Learn more about TrailKey Features
- Digital task checklists feed directly to performance logs and reporting
- Has a template library for tasks
- Aligned with HACCP standards
- Robust notification settings
Pros
- Allows custom checklists or access to templates
- Ensures food safety with HACCP checks
Cons
- Does not offer full visibility on task status
- Limited customer support hours
Pricing
Starts at $17/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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MeazureUp — Good for straightforward streamlining of restaurant operations
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
MeazureUp offers a restaurant checklist app for task and operational performance management across multiple locations. It also has templates for forms like a restaurant kitchen cleaning checklist.
Users can access the app from any device for real-time reporting on restaurant performance. MeazureUp also includes calendar functionalities where users can track task progress over time. It will also send automated email alerts when tasks are due or overdue.
While its checklist and task features work well, some features may cause issues. According to multiple online reviewers, deleting or modifying entries can be difficult and the app often lags. There is also no work chat feature in case staff members need to communicate about task details or updates.
Learn more about MeazureUpKey Features
- Customizable and configurable checklists
- Audit planning capabilities
- Tracks progress in real time
- User-friendly platform
Pros
- Easy to use and generate reports
- Good customer service
Cons
- Limited communications features
- Some features are buggy
Pricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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FusionPrep
FusionPrep — Good as a basic restaurant and kitchen compliance checklist
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
FusionPrep is a kitchen solution that allows you to bring your recipes and documents into one place. It is focused on back-of-the-house operations, with checklists to manage inventory and recipes.
FusionPrep includes temperature logs, line checks, and other basic restaurant checklists and compliance schedules for food safety. It also stores training materials and allows for employee screening. FusionPrep feeds all its data into an insights dashboard so users can visualize restaurant performance.
That said, FusionPrep is quite limited in functionality. Specifically, it does not allow you to track tasks and receive notifications when they’re completed. While you can create your own documents and checklists, FusionPrep’s template library is very limited.
Learn more about FusionPrepKey Features
- Pre-defined corrective actions
- Centralized reporting and compliance dashboard
- Recipe and inventory management
- Training material management and employee screening
Pros
- Easy to use and configure
- Robust food safety and employee screening features for compliance standards
Cons
- Notifications very limited
- Lack of advanced functionality and templates
Pricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
Compare the Best Restaurant Checklist Apps
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FusionPrep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews |
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N/A
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N/A
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| Pricing |
Starts at just $29/month for the first 30 users
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Starts at $20/month
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Starts at $17/month
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Contact vendor for price
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Contact vendor for price
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| Free Trial |
yes
14-day
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yes
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yes
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yes
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yes
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| Free Plan |
yes
Free Up to 10 users
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no
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no
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no
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no
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What Is a Restaurant Checklist App?
Restaurant checklist apps are mobile applications that help restaurant owners and managers manage and monitor tasks, staff schedules, inventories, orders, and deliveries. They also analyze sales data and other important information.
Restaurant checklist apps may also let users create custom checklists for each task or area of the restaurant. Some apps also provide features such as reminders for upcoming tasks or alerts when certain items need restocking.
For instance, you can use a cleaning checklist template to ensure you’re completing essential tasks, such as placing pest traps, sanitizing floor mats, properly cleaning and sanitizing cooking equipment and appliances like coffee makers, emptying trash and recycling bins, and more. Advanced apps will even alert you about potential hazards such as cross-contamination when your team hasn’t completed core tasks.
How Does a Restaurant Checklist App Work?
A restaurant checklist app allows you to create, store and manage checklists for all the processes you need to run restaurants. The best ones include a library of pre-made checklists or the ability for users to create custom ones from scratch.
Once created, users can assign items on the list to certain staff members. When an employee has completed the task or passed it on to the next responsible person, the app typically marks the task’s change in status, with notes attached if necessary. More basic apps will simply mark the task as complete or incomplete.
If the restaurant checklist app has notifications and alerts features, it will send reminders to employees when tasks are assigned, due, late, or completed. This ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.
Some checklist apps also feature reporting capabilities so you can generate reports on how well your restaurant is running.
The Benefits of Restaurant Checklist Apps
Generally, you can expect the following benefits from a restaurant checklist app:
- Improved efficiency: A restaurant checklist app can help streamline your operations, reduce redundancies, and improve overall efficiency. With all daily tasks organized into well-structured checklists, you can easily assign and keep track of duties. Staff can store and access relevant supporting documentation, while restaurant owners and managers can better monitor standards and operations.
- Increased productivity: With a restaurant checklist app, managers can quickly determine the priority of tasks and assign roles to employees to enhance productivity, especially in situations of tight staffing and budgeting. These apps can also improve response time from various stakeholders like restaurant owners, managers, staff members, and suppliers by giving instant access to data.
- Better organization: Checklists provide an easy way to organize processes and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. They keep managers updated on the status of each restaurant location and employees on their duties. This also eliminates unnecessary and time-consuming back-and-forth communication between restaurant management and employees.
- Reduced costs: Restaurant checklists reduce costs by cutting down on wasted materials. For example, incorrect orders with suppliers or food expiration could result in significant losses. Checklist apps resolve this by helping employees follow all necessary procedures with the latest industry regulations in mind.
How Much Does a Restaurant Checklist App Cost?
The cost of a restaurant checklist app can vary depending on its features and capabilities. Most apps will offer basic plans that are free or low-cost. Others will provide advanced plans with extra features for a monthly subscription fee. Some may charge an upfront fee for access to their full-service suite. You can expect a good restaurant app to cost around $20 to $40 monthly.
Some providers chose not to disclose their pricing. If that’s the case, you need to contact them for information. Connecteam uses a transparent pricing structure and strives to provide value for as many clients as possible. Our small business plan is free for up to 10 users and helps establishments on a limited budget to get a competitive edge in the industry.
FAQs
Is there an app to keep track of restaurants?
Many mobile apps like Connecteam help restaurant owners and managers keep track of tasks, staff schedules, inventories, orders, and deliveries. They allow users to create custom checklists for each area of the restaurant, such as proper cleaning, to ensure nothing gets overlooked.
Is there a free checklist app?
Yes, there are many free restaurant checklist apps available. They typically offer you to create custom checklists, track tasks, and manage schedules. However, if you need more advanced features or extra support, paid plans may be a better option for you. Connecteam offers a free trial and a free small business plan.
What is a task list for a restaurant?
Checklists are necessary for restaurants to guarantee that staff are completing all essential duties for business operations and compliance. They include lists of tasks to be done or verified based on industry standards and procedures, such as a restaurant cleaning schedule checklist.
The Bottom Line On Restaurant Checklist App
Restaurant checklist apps are powerful tools for streamlining the day-to-day operations of restaurants. With customizable to-do lists, task reminders, order-tracking capabilities, and inventory management tools, these apps can help restaurant owners and managers stay organized and compliant with regulations.
Connecteam is the most comprehensive restaurant checklist app solution available. It offers an all-in-one, easy-to-use platform for collaboration, onboarding, compliance, and more. Features include but are not limited to custom forms and checklists, a template library, work schedules, and work chat.
Try out Connecteam today by signing up for a free trial.