8 Restaurant Management Apps To Use In 2023

restaurant management

Whether you are the owner of a fine dining restaurant, quick-service restaurant, food truck, or coffee shop, you will need restaurant management apps to streamline your business operations and unlock potential revenue in 2022. These apps enable you to centralize different facets of your restaurant’s day-to-day activities, such as accepting online orders, ringing up customers, managing payroll, and tracking performance.

The restaurant management apps make everything easily accessible in one interface so that you and your staff can work more efficiently. Besides, it automates some of the manual tasks and integrates them with other on-premise systems to add more value to your business while helping you deliver a best-in-class guest experience.

The decision to choose the right restaurant management apps for your set-up may not be so easy. It depends on several factors, ranging from user experience to functionality. But you need not worry, as this guide will help you identify the restaurant management apps that suit your business requirements.

8 Restaurant Management Apps That You Should Consider

Finding the right restaurant management apps for your restaurant depends on more than a few variables, some of which might come down to your personal preference, but business needs would primarily drive it.

1. POS System

Over the last few years, the POS system has become the most powerful form of restaurant management software for the restaurant industry. This management software can process credit card payments, print receipts, and display information on a user-friendly screen, among other features. With the advancements in the technology field, the bulky table top POS systems are fast shifting to handy tablets, such as iPads, becoming more portable.

Things to consider when choosing a restaurant POS system

    • It should be easy to use because a system requiring extensive training might lead to frustration for the employees.
    • Given that a good POS system can be very costly, you should ensure that it can handle your business volume and restaurant specifications to make it a sensible purchase.
    • Besides the software, you need to get the necessary hardware components, including the monitor and any portable terminal that must be linked to the main unit.
    • It should have all the programs required for front-of-house and back-of-house calculations, such as financial tracking, inventory reports, etc.

2. Restaurant Reservation System

Restaurants are slowly transitioning from the traditional pen and paper booking method to the restaurant reservation system. It makes your day-to-day restaurant operations immensely easy and creates a much better customer experience. The customers can input their information through a mobile app, web widget, or website interface, instead of manually entering the information in a physical form.

Things to consider when choosing a restaurant reservation system

    • Please ensure you choose an app that fits your restaurant’s daily requirements.
    • It should be easy to use and not take hours to train staff. Besides, it should be scalable to fit the current and future requirements of the restaurant.
    • It should offer the provision to store all the restaurant information in the cloud rather than on the on-premise system in order to provide a faster user experience.
    • It should have an intuitive table management system, allowing your restaurants to receive bookings through multiple channels.

3. Inventory Management Software

A good inventory management system will provide a crystal clear and accurate idea of the current state of your stock inventory, eliminating the need for frequent manual inventory checks and reducing the scope of human errors. This automated restaurant software will ensure adequate stock level at any given time, so you will have more time to focus on running the business and expanding it rather than engaging in the menial tasks of stock checks.

Things to consider when choosing an inventory management software

    • It should be able to provide an accurate estimate of inventory order level such that there is no scope for overstocking or understocking.
    • It should have an automated inventory tracking system, minimizing the need for human intervention.
    • It must create reports providing insight into which products are generating sales and which aren’t.
    • It must have the provision to integrate with a POS system or accounting software.

4. Restaurant Accounting Software

The excitement of running a restaurant business often makes many overlook an essential aspect of the business – restaurant accounting. In the absence of adequate accounting supervision, a restaurant is destined to fail. But not every restaurateur has the budget to hire a credible restaurant accountant. This is where restaurant accounting software comes into play, which is relatively cheaper than hiring an accountant or sometimes even free. You will learn to use the app in no time and will be able to balance your books like a professional.

Things to consider when choosing a restaurant accounting software

    • It must generate reports providing real-time insights into your financial position.
    • It must have the provision to integrate with a POS or payroll system.
    • It should store all the information in the cloud so you can easily access it from anywhere.

5. Online Ordering Software

The post-Covid era has forced restaurants to rely on online ordering software more than ever. The customers have gotten used to ordering food from the comfort of their homes, which left the restaurants with no other options but to use online ordering software to continue catering for this segment of customers. Because of this shift in consumer preferences, more and more restaurants have started to use online ordering software.

Things to consider when choosing an online ordering software

    • It must have a user-friendly web interface that is easy to understand for the customers.
    • It should allow your restaurant to accept orders through multiple channels.
    • It must have the ability to integrate with a POS system or payment software.

6. Restaurant Analytics Software

One of the significant drivers of profitability in a restaurant is its operational efficiency. A restaurant analytics software helps you identify the various avenues of efficiency improvement in your restaurant. This software allows you to deep dive into different aspects of your business so that you can achieve your goal, such as enhancing sales, improving staff productivity, cutting operating costs, or identifying fraud.

Things to consider when choosing a restaurant analytics software

    • It must be able to store customer data, which can be used to create a customized guest profile and analyzed to understand your clientele.
    • It should be able to integrate with your restaurant menu or POS system.
    • It must provide insights about each server – who is doing well and who is not.

7. Restaurant Loyalty Software

Some POS systems have integrated loyalty software in their offering. If not, you can purchase restaurant loyalty software separately. This software can be easily integrated into your operations to capture vital customer information that you can process to design personalized rewards. It is a fact that customers tend to spend more when they are rewarded for their purchases, making it a win-win situation for both – you and the customers. Purchase of restaurant loyalty software indeed can be seen as a strategic investment.

Things to consider when choosing a restaurant loyalty software

    • It should allow the customers to go cardless by storing all the loyalty program-related information on their phones, ensuring maximum convenience.
    • It should offer adequate flexibility to design rewards meeting the specific needs of your business and making it more attractive for the customers.
    • It should be able to capture detailed customer information, which you can use to understand customer behavior and design a reward system that truly motivates customer purchases.
    • The distribution of rewards should be automated to save time and effort.

8. Social Media Marketing Software

The size of social media followers is increasing by the day, and with every new face comes an opportunity for you to reach out to new customers. You must interact with your customers and promote your brand among them using social media. This is where social media marketing software fits into your scheme of things.

Things to consider when choosing a social media marketing software

    • It should help you create business opportunities by managing online campaigns on your restaurant’s social media account.
    • It should generate reports capturing campaign performance, enabling you to accurately measure the return on investment of the social media campaigns.

The restaurant industry is changing very fast, and to keep pace with the transformation, you need to invest in new and upcoming technologies. You require dexterity and accuracy to work more efficiently and keep yourself in the race in the growing restaurant market. Purchase of restaurant management apps is one of the ways to do that.

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Nikunj is the Communications Lead at Restroworks, a global leader in cloud-based technology platforms. In his role, he oversees global marketing and branding initiatives for Restroworks across APAC, the Middle East, and the US.

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