Getting overwhelmed while trying to manage hundreds of tasks is normal. Digitize what you can to focus on what’s most important – your customers and their experience.
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As a former waitress, I can say that a restaurant can be one of the most hectic work environments. Because the day-to-day can be so crazy, it’s crucial to have the right people and software in place to minimize the stress.
Restaurant management software is the essence of the restaurant’s success. Restaurateurs have to deal with everything from staff scheduling to inventory management. Doing these tasks manually can lead to many mistakes, tons of wasted time, and ultimately other tasks falling through the cracks.
Our Top Picks
- Connecteam – Best for Employee Management
- Toast – Best POS
- Yelp Guest Management – Best Reservation and Table Management
- Gusto – Best for Payroll
- MarketMan – Best Inventory Management
- UpMenu – Best Online Order Management
Best Employee Management Software
Employee management software brings your restaurant into the 21st century by streamlining all communication, so employees know where and when to be for a shift.
Employee management software should include push notifications to notify employees when schedules are published and remind them of upcoming shifts. The software should also allow for open communication 1:1 or between set groups (employees, departments, managers, etc.).
Possibly the most important part of employee management is time-tracking and scheduling. Having an easy-to-use scheduling feature saves managers time creating and changing schedules. Only allowing employees to clock in and out from a set location using geo-tracking ensures there’s no time theft.
Using an app where employees can clock in and out and then be able to do payroll directly through the app also saves so much time and eliminates human error.
Connecteam is an all-in-one employee management software where employers can quickly schedule employees. You can create a checklist of tasks for each employee within each shift so everyone knows their responsibilities.
Employees can input their availability, and Connecteam will notify you of any conflicts before publishing the schedule to avoid last-minute shift changes. Enable geo-tracking to ensure employees are only clocking in from the restaurant to prevent time theft.
Use Connecteam’s course feature to streamline onboarding and training. Upload documents to the knowledge base so employees have quick access to recipes, specials, and any other needed information.
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Employee Management has never been easier!
Employee scheduling, time clock, onboarding courses, knowledge base and so much more!
VeriClock’s employee management software offers open communication between employers and employees to discuss time tracking disputes. You can choose to have both employers and employees sign off on weekly time cards to ensure accuracy and compliance with labor laws.
Employers can export timesheets to QuickBooks, Sage Accounting, or Peachtree to make payroll easier. Vericlock can be customized to add in mileage tracking and safety checks in addition to the time clock feature.
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Offering workforce scheduling and shift-based tasks, 7Shifts was created for restaurants. Communication features are user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy to notify all employees of any scheduling changes.
From an employer’s perspective, the app is simple to use, creating a schedule is easy and communicating with employees is straightforward. From an employee perspective, receiving notifications when schedules are published makes it clear where and when their shifts begin.
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Best Point of Sale Systems
The ability to quickly process customer payments is not a luxury but a necessity in the 21st century. The restaurant management POS system needs to be able to process credit cards and keep track of cash in and out throughout the day.
A convenient POS system would include the main portal and portable kiosks to offer customers payment directly from their tables.
It’s also crucial that the system can process payments offline so as not to interrupt the flow of the restaurant.
You need the restaurant system to keep track of sales metrics, create reports, and it needs to be easy to use. A system that can be learned in a day or less is ideal for the fast-paced restaurant industry.
Toast is known for its feature-rich POS system because it can split items and customer bills and send notifications when an order is completed.
The POS restaurant management software is used on Android-based tablets meaning servers can send orders straight to the kitchen and collect payment tableside. This simple-to-use system increases table turnover, and Toast even claims to have increased annual server gratuity by $7,000.
You should be aware, however, that there is a minimum of a one-year commitment to the software.
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Revels POS system was created with restaurants and bars in mind. Along with the POS restaurant management software Revel provides, there are numerous hardware options available. From iPads to cash drawers to printers, Revel offers a wide variety of hardware choices to fit your business needs.
When your system goes offline, everything comes to a halt, including credit card payments. Revel provides an always-on mode to keep your restaurant running even when the internet connection isn’t active. Payments can be made offline, and as soon as the system is back online, the payments are processed.
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With credit card payments, in-depth reporting, fraud protection, and customer support, PayCafe has many of the desired features of a POS system. In addition to credit card payments, PayCafe also offers PayPal, eChecks, and Bitcoin. At the time of writing this, PayCafe does not have a cash tracking option.
Use PayCafe’s advanced reporting features to give you a complete overview of your restaurant and better understand customer trends. Whether you need real-time updates or a better understanding of meals sold to make better business decisions, PayCafe probably has a relevant report.
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Best Reservation and Table Management Software
The key to happy customers is good service, and that starts from the moment they make a reservation. Customers want hassle-free reservations, sometimes over the phone but generally online.
A good reservation management software includes an easy-to-use interface for customers, SMS or push notifications to remind customers of their reservations, and the ability to store and manage customer information for future bookings.
Once the customers walk through the door, they want speedy and attentive service. They want an accurate prediction of the waiting time so they can begin enjoying their night out.
Table restaurant management software needs to be intuitive and easy to use for employees so they can provide customers with the most accurate information and best service possible.
Yelp Guest Manager has many front-of-house management tools as well as customer-facing tools for guests. Hosts can communicate with waiting guests through the app, they can send notifications to remind guests of reservations, and they can create a custom floor plan to make seating guests quick and easy.
Guests can check in through a kiosk at the restaurant or through their mobile phones. They can add themselves to a waitlist if they forget to make a reservation and get notification updates with accurate wait times.
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Give every guest the VIP treatment when you remember their past orders, spending history, birthdays, and more using Eat App. You can build a guest database to market directly to relevant customers, send surveys to certain guests and even customize messaging to keep in touch with valued customers.
Hosts can use a phone, tablet, or computer to input guest reservations or add walk-ins to the waitlist. Guests, as well as hosts, will have an easy time using the restaurant management software. If there are no reservations available at the time a guest picks, the app will automatically suggest an alternate time. There is also the option to give discounts based on the time of the reservation to amp up reservations during non-peak hours.
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Resy is a reservation platform known for its customizable features that allow restaurateurs to personalize all aspects of the reservation process. Personalize reservation confirmation text messages to fit with the vibe of your restaurant.
Customers can book reservations through multiple online platforms and even receive an SMS to notify them when their table is ready. If a guest forgot to make a reservation, they can join the waitlist and receive an SMS when a table opens up.
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Best Payroll Software
Payroll management software is needed to decrease human error and ensure employees are paid accurately and on time. Automated payroll saves the owners time and money every day.
Payroll management software needs to calculate employee salaries and create digital pay stubs and payroll reports. It should also automatically calculate and deduct taxes to make tax filing more manageable at the end of the year.
Employees appreciate direct deposit to save them the hassle of depositing checks. They also want to access the portal themselves to be able to check their monthly salaries and manage their benefits.
Gusto has many features needed to automate payroll and is reasonably priced. Gusto takes care of direct deposit with just a two-day turnaround.
Using Gusto, employees can use the cashout function, where they can take out a portion of their salary before payday. You don’t need to track these advances since Gusto automatically deducts them from the employee’s salary.
Payroll with Gusto includes automatic salary adjustments, including health benefits, workers comp, and child support wage garnishment. You can manually enter daily cash tips to ensure your waitstaff are correctly taxed. Gusto will automatically create and file W-2s and 1099s for every employee, saving you even more time.
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Patriot Payroll service is a straightforward payroll software, with features ranging from direct deposit to employee portal access. They offer free personalized set-up, saving you lots of time and frustration getting the software exactly how you’d like.
Patriot Payroll has a tax guarantee where they promise accuracy of federal, state, and local tax filings. They are so confident that they guarantee to cover any penalties and interest resulting from a tax filing mistake.
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RUN by ADP offers strong reporting features and compliance tools to notify you of payroll errors. You can pay your employees through direct deposit or paychecks. RUN will even deliver sealed envelopes of paychecks to your office for you to distribute among your employees.
One of ADPs biggest drawbacks is their unclear pricing, if you manage to move past that and get a quote for your restaurant you’ll see that there are four payroll plans. With both plans you get automatic payroll tax deduction, however, tax filings are an additional fee.
ADP is marketed towards growing businesses with customizable options but because of ADPs mystery pricing, we assume it’s one of the higher-priced options, making it only realistic for larger businesses.
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Best Inventory Management Software
There’s nothing worse than wasting money on expired food. Food waste is a problem when you don’t know what you have in stock. Inventory management software keeps you posted about what you’re running low on or what you have too much of, which helps you know what to have servers pushing and can help you plan your next order.
A great restaurant inventory management software should be automated and create accurate reports of what is selling and what isn’t. Automated inventory management saves you time from doing regular inventory checks and reduces the human error associated with manual checking.
Within the reporting feature, the restaurant management software ideally will include the pricing of each meal to understand how much profit per order you’re making to inform you if you need to raise your prices or not.
MarketMan keeps things simple with low-stock alerts, vendor management, and the ability to send purchase orders straight from the app.
The food cost threshold keeps track of all ingredients in a meal and notifies you if the prices of a meal goes up so you can adjust your prices if needed, keeping your profits in mind.
Your inventory quantities are updated in real-time to ensure the most up-to-date information. You can also get reports on which items are selling and which aren’t, and track waste and theft.
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TouchBistro notifies servers when quantities are running low, eliminating the dreaded “sorry, but we ran out of that, can I get you something else instead?” They also offer recipe logging to record the cost and quantity of ingredients needed per recipe. Once a meal is ordered the app tracks what and how much of each ingredient is used per serving.
You can use their suggested ordering feature to reorder popular items, saving you time thinking of what you need before your next order.
One potential downfall of TouchBistro is that you must use their POS system, which might work out for your restaurant, but you can’t integrate their inventory tracking with a different POS system.
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Upserve is great for small and medium-sized businesses looking to track their inventory and manage ordering.
Upserve has many of the needed features for automated ordering. There are detailed inventory reports to make sure you stay up to date with your stock and you can reorder from vendors with just one click. You can even set up automatic orders when stock is running low.
Notifications are color-coded so you can easily see when an order has been submitted, received by a vendor, delivered, and completed.
Along with Upserve’s comprehensive reporting, it’s easy to set up and offer 24/7 customer support.
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Best for Online Order Management
Since Covid hit, more and more people are ordering in. Over 60% of U.S. consumers order delivery or takeout once a week, making it an important part of any restaurant.
A good online ordering management system has an easy-to-use interface for customers and a loyalty program to keep the customers coming back.
Of course, the restaurant needs to be able to integrate payments through the online order restaurant management software and fully customize the menu to fit the restaurant’s needs.
Low fees are also critical in deciding who to partner with as many third-party apps take 20-30% cutting into restaurant margins.
Marketing is also important when deciding which online order management software to use to be sure the restaurant gets exposure to the most relevant customers.
UpMenu is an online ordering restaurant management software that gives customers the ability to order directly from UpMenu’s website. Restaurants can draw their delivery area on a map, enter a customized menu, and choose accepted payment methods.
UpMenu has a loyalty program that uses the concept of stamp cards to draw customers back time and time again.
Restaurants can build their page on UpMenu’s website using free templates or from scratch. To help marketing efforts, each restaurant can create a customer database and send out promotional emails, SMSs, and push notifications promoting discounts and other campaigns.
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Menufy gives restaurants a custom URL with design support from an in-house team. Menufy offers marketing tools making it a good way to reach a customer base that might not be exposed to your restaurant otherwise. Menufy sends out two marketing emails a month and offers additional marketing tools at an added cost.
In the case that your restaurant doesn’t have a strong internet connection, don’t worry because you can receive orders via phone, SMS, fax, email, or the dashboard, so you’ll always know when you have an order to prepare. It’s important to note that there is no driver management capabilities for in-house drivers, but if most of your orders are for pick-up it won’t be an issue.
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MenuDrive has a desktop and app option to make it easy for restaurants and customers alike. They use SEO (search engine optimization) to drive traffic to the restaurant websites, creating tangible value for each restaurant’s bottom line. They analyze which menu options should be promoted and what ideal prices should be set at to stay competitive and still make profits.
You can create custom menus with photos to give the best user experience. MenuDrive will customize your restaurant’s page to fit your branding. In another effort to help market your restaurant, automated email campaigns are sent out to lock down your customer base.
They also have a loyalty program with a coupon library where specialized discounts and specials are offered to returning customers.
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FAQ
What software is needed to run a restaurant?
- Employee management software
- Point of sale system
- Reservation and table management software
- Food Costing and inventory management software
- Restaurant accounting and payroll software
- Online ordering software
What is restaurant management software?
Restaurant management software helps you run transactions, manage inventory accurately, digitize meal ordering, and generally run everyday processes more efficiently.
How do I manage a restaurant remotely?
You will need to digitize processes to be able to log in from offsite. Look for technology that uses a portal login, so you only need a computer and internet to access your restaurant’s data.
What is a cloud POS system?
A cloud POS is a web-based point-of-sale system that lets you process payments using just the internet.
The Bottom Line
You now know why you desperately need to digitize as many tasks as possible to run your restaurant more efficiently. The less time it takes you to do these mundane tasks, the more time you have to focus on customers.
Update your employee management system to a useful app that includes a payroll feature.
Keep a digital inventory list that automatically updates. Use POS restaurant management software that tracks each payment made throughout the day. Come into the 21st century by making online orders and reservations easy for customers.
Anything you can do to simplify your employees’ lives will ultimately simplify your life. These changes won’t only benefit your employees, but the customers will feel the vibe of the staff as well. A staff that works together gives better customer service and a better experience to everyone that walks through your doors.
Restaurant Management Software that Actually Helps!
Ensure your employees know what’s expected of them and exactly how they can accomplish their tasks!