12 Best Apps For Restaurant Owners To Streamline Their Business Operations

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12 Best Apps for Restaurant Owners to Boost Efficiency 

Let's double down on some of the best applications for restaurant owners in 2024 and beyond.

1. Xenia - Overall No. 1 Best Custom Restaurant App 

Not only does the cost, but a bounty of different features makes Xenia on of the coolest apps for restaurant owners.

This platform leans on offering BOH restaurant services that are relatively much difficult to manage, as compared to front-ended customer facing operations.

The mobile first solution features, perks such as: robust Task Management, Incident Reporting, SOPs and checklists for any number of restaurant maintenance management, and safety workflows.

On top of that, Xenia's SOP creation tool is AI-Powered, resulting in facilitating restaurant owners to create extensive SOPs in a matter of seconds!

Moreover, this tools empower Restaurant Managers to gain better control over their operations through a variety of ready-to-customize checklists.

Where can you find these restaurant checklists?

Good question.

Xenia maintains a dedicated repository of hundreds of checklists varying over different use cases from all types of industries. Restaurants are just part of the bigger picture.

For more details, take a look at some of the powerful feature this restaurant app brings to the table.

Key Features

• Customized Checklists to meet restaurant safety regulations, standardize processes acorss all your restaurant branches and meet any day to day BOH restaurant requirements.‍
• Inspection and Audits enforce processes following the most recent standards and industry best practices, including proactive hazard analysis
• ‍Real-Time Communication enables managers to streamline their communication for increased team productivity.
• ‍Task Management enables you to create and manage recurring schedules for tasks such as review meetings, inspections, cleanings, and any other activity that has to be completed
• Reports and Analytics: Xenia's analytics dashboards provide access to detailed reports on worker performance.
• ‍Temperature monitoring integration- With 24/7 temperature monitoring, you can fully automate food safety processes, esnuring that these temperatures remain well within safety and food consumption range. ‍
• SOP and AI-powered writing for efficient operational workflow.

Pricing 

• Free Plan: Starting at $0 for up to 5 users with access to all the basic features.
• The Starter Plan is $99 a month for the first 15 users and includes a work calendar view, work reports, template reports, sub-assets, and sub-locations.
• Premium Plan begins at $199 per month ($40 per additional user) for the first 15 users and includes reporting dashboards, time and expense monitoring, template branding, public form submissions, automated templates, and more!
• Custom Plans offer an unlimited number of users, a dedicated account manager, onboarding and implementation, and integrations for whatever price you decide is reasonable.

Feel free to book a demo today!

2. TouchBistro

Among popular apps for restaurant owners, TouchBistro is more of a household name.

It has POS capabitlies, allowing managers to necessitate easily rely on digitized solutions for sales tracking and various other things.

TouchBistro allows complete order management from your iPad, as well as configurable menu items, the ability to establish a food schedule, inventory management, and powerful reporting options, making it an obvious choice for any restaurant. 

This app for restaurants lets managers have comprehensive order management, the ability for customers to pay at the table, and to monitor employee sales activity via real-time or historical data.

Key Features

• This custom restaurant app lets managers Control and manage the restaurant's supply inventories.
• The easy-to-use menu management feature will allow you to change and alter the menu regularly.
• Detailed statistics and analytics to evaluate employee performance and avoid any step that isn't selling to help your business.
• Integrated accounting to streamline your restaurant's financial operations.
• Collect and save client preferences, offer reward programs, and tailor their eating experience to boost customer happiness.

Pricing 

• 1 User (Solo) $69/month

 • 2 Users (Dual) $129/month 

• Up to 5 Users (Team) $249/month 

• Unlimited (Unlimited Users) $399/month

3. FoodDoc 

FoodDocs is a top-notch restaurant app built exclusively for food safety system compliance.

The software allows users to create, monitor, and control all restaurant activities from any device that can access the internet. FoodDocs offers an AI-powered food safety system with a configurable HACCP plan.

Key Features 

• Create a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Plan with ease, guaranteeing that your restaurant not only meets but exceeds regulating criteria.
• Experience the ability to tailor monitoring activities, effortlessly customizing the program to your workflow and operational needs.
• Robust in-app notifications Keep your team on track. Remind your employees of their tasks and duties to ensure that nothing goes between the cracks.
• The app empowers restaurant managers to conduct training sessions with ease making compliance an integral part of your restaurant's culture.

Pricing 

• Basic plan is Only Billed Annually (£999/year)
• Standard plan is £199/month
• Professional plan is for £299  
• for enterprise plans, contact the support team.

4. Crunchtime

Next, on the rundown of the best restaurant apps is CrunchTime, a dynamic solution for multi-unit restaurants. The program allows restaurant operators to improve client experiences while simultaneously mastering the art of profitability.

Key Features

• Intuitive management features to control food costs and optimize inventory 
• The Average Transaction Value (AvT) delivers necessary data to owners to assist them in making informed choices while maintaining profitability
• gives vital insights into sales forecasting, helping managers to predict demand, maximize resources, and remain ahead of the competition.
• This custom restaurant app offers scheduling and labor management to improve operational efficiency and staffing levels.
• CrunchTime's Labor Cost Management function enables owners to keep a close check on labor expenditures.

Pricing

For pricing details, please contact CrunchTime.

5. 7shifts

Although 7shifts is well recognized as an effective staff scheduling system, it also serves as any restaurant labor management solution. Here's a quick look at some of the program's main highlights below.

Key Features

• Its simple drag-and-drop features allow restaurant operators to assign employees to shifts depending on their availability and specific shift needs.
• With a single click, owners can simply accept or refuse staff requests, promoting a responsive and well-coordinated workforce.
• The labor cost savings calculator enables restaurant operators to manage their workers strategically, optimizing productivity while keeping a close eye on the bottom line.
• This app for restaurant owners offers a Tip Pooling report. This means owners can centralize all staff gratuities, simplifying transparent and equitable distribution.
• Integrates easily with several Point of Sale (POS) systems, ensuring a smooth flow of data across different facets of restaurant administration

Pricing

• Comp: free for up to 30 employees
• Entrée: $29.99 per month 
• The Works: $69.99/month
• Gourmet: For corporate restaurants and chains, contact 7shifts for a tailored pricing quotation.

6. FreshBooks 

FreshBooks is a flexible accounting app for restaurant owners designed to ease bookkeeping and give deep insights into your restaurant's financial performance.

Key Features 

• Accounting features provide a detailed record of all your financial activities, ensuring that every financial engagement is thoroughly documented.
• The Profit and Loss report allows you to see your overall income against total spending. This helps you to assess your company's profitability. 
• The program delivers a clear view of your tax obligations by unifying your financial data, assuring compliance. 
•  FreshBooks recently released an upgrade to the Balance Sheet report. This update adds a useful feature: customers may now see retained earnings in their Balance Sheet reports.

Pricing 

• Lite – $ 4.25

• Plus – $7.50
• Premium – %13.75
• Select – Contact FreshBooks for tailored pricing quotation

7. Humanity 

Humanity is an innovative app that is changing the way large teams are handled.

Consider it your dashboard for your company's daily operations. The software’s easy mobile app and desktop solutions eliminate human error and streamline complicated operations, removing the need for pen and paper in staff management.

Key Features

• offers real-time insights about your workforce's activities and statuses, allowing you to stay in the loop with a single glance.
• Receive real-time notifications on employee actions, schedule changes, and other important information, keeping you in control and your team in sync.
• The Attendance Management function automates the process, ensuring that attendance records are accurate and up to date.

Pricing

• Free trial for the 30-days
• Starter: $3 per user per month 
• Classic: $4 per user per month
• Custom pricing for businesses

8. Avero

Avero offers an insight powerhouse that provides restaurateurs with crucial tools to improve business operations and sales.

As one of the best apps for restaurant owners, this tool integrates seamlessly with your restaurant POS and provides access to a full range of tools that provide optimal restaurant management.

Key Features 

• The Promotions Management feature enables restaurateurs to successfully design and manage promotions, ensuring that marketing campaigns are in sync with overall business goals.
• The app lets you gain an in-depth understanding of your restaurant's financial health, allowing you to make educated decisions and manage resources for long-term profitability.
• Detailed Reporting  to evaluate your company's performance
• Streamline operations across multiple locations, assuring uniformity in performance and client experience.
• With Avero's Sales function, you can easily track and analyze sales data.

Pricing 

• Starter -Free
• Essential -$300/year
• Profesional -$600/year

9. HotSchedule 

HotSchedules—an innovative, mobile-friendly, cloud-based system designed to transform how managers generate, discuss, and manage staff work schedules.

HotSchedules emerges as a vital participant in lowering labor expenses and improving operational precision due to its dedication to efficiency.

Key Features

• The API integration guarantees that your workforce management is integrated and synced. 
• The Access Controls & Permissions feature allows you to define who has access to what, ensuring that critical information is protected. Define who has access to what and how sensitive information is protected. 
• Alerts and notifications ensure that managers and staff are kept up to speed on scheduling changes, approvals, and other important information.
• The Automated Scheduling feature of this restaurant app streamlines the time-consuming task of making schedules, allowing managers to enhance operational efficiency but also adds to lower staff expenses.

Pricing 

• Contact HotSchedule For tailored pricing quotation

10. When I Work

Moving on with our best apps for restaurant owners recommendations, When I Work is a name worth mentioning.

It is a versatile and efficient employee scheduling tool that is perfect for restaurateurs who are looking to better their front-of-house and back-of-house performance.

The software provides an accessible platform for employees and restaurants who are looking for seamless management of shifts and scheduling updates.

When I Work is also known for its extremely user-friendly design and robust feature set. Managers can make shift creation and management super simple ensuring process excellency.

A standout feature of when I work is that it allows managers to assign associates to specific shifts based on their job positions. That way, each shift is adequately staffed regardless if the employees are servers, chefs, etc., and again based on availability.

The application also has templates that can be used in scheduling; a handy function that can decrease the time taken to create weekly schedules.

Key Features

• Keep track of employees' attendance and timeliness.
•  Streamline the process of obtaining and managing employee leave.
•  Keep accurate records of employee hours for payroll and compliance purposes.
•  Sync schedules with calendar software to ensure smooth integration and accessibility.
•  Facilitate communication between management and staff about schedule and shift changes.

Pricing 

• Essential -$2.50
• Pro -$5.00
• Premium -$8.00

11. MarketMan‍

A leading cloud-based restaurant inventory management software, MarketMan is designed to help restaurant owners with a variety of managerial needs.

While exploring the various functions of MarketMan, users can see how the platform enables them to easily count inventory from any device, track food waste, and put in orders with their suppliers.

Its intuitive interface is also very useful as it allows operators to easily organize their inventory items into logical groupings. Users might group some of their inventory items as fruits, vegetables, beverages, or desserts.

MarketMan also offers several useful analytics, such as the Price Change Report, which monitors fluctuations in inventory prices from suppliers over time. MarketMan also integrates with popular POS and accounting systems, helping to sync data across multiple platforms including Lightspeed, Toast, Square, Quickbooks, and Xero.

Key Features

• Conduct precise inventory audits to ensure accuracy and identify any irregularities.
• To prevent waste and increase stock levels, organize and track inventory items from ordering to consumption.
• Streamline supplier contacts and transactions, allowing for more efficient ordering and replenishment.
•  Implement automated ordering systems to speed up procurement and ensure timely replenishment of vital items.
•  Budget monitoring tools let you correctly track and manage your expenses, providing you with more financial control.
•  Track inventory management expenditures to gain insights into spending patterns and areas for improvement.

Pricing 

• Operator -$239
• Professional -$299
• Ultimate - $429

12. Sortly

Up next on our best apps for restaurant owners list, we've got Sortly.

It is a dedicated inventory control and asset tracking software for restaurant managers to simplify documenting and tracking your inventory from anywhere at any time. With an Android, iPhone & and iPad App, Sortly Pro is a user-friendly solution for individuals and businesses alike.

The monthly subscription that Sortly Pro offers includes detailed phone and email support which is handy for any questions or problems that might occur with the software as well.

With the Sortly Pro Plan - i.e.if you sign up for it, you can simply add notes or tags to easily identify and search for items based on various criteria such as quantity, price, product information, etc. You can conveniently highlight a particular part of a photo for better identification of that specific object.

Equipped with customizable QR labels that efficiently let you scan & and identify your inventory, and an ability to import data from CSV files for easy setup, Sortly Pro makes it easy to scan and find your items quickly.

Key Features 

• Scan barcodes to swiftly identify and monitor products in your inventory.
• Keep a record of all interactions and moves involving inventory items to improve accountability and traceability.
•  Streamline the organizing and monitoring of inventory goods, including quantities, prices, conditions, and comments.
• Assign unique rights to users, providing for regulated access to inventory data depending on their roles and responsibilities.
• Create detailed reports to acquire an understanding of inventory performance, trends, and possible areas for improvement.
• Set up alerts and notifications for critical events like low stock, late returns, and warranty expirations.

Pricing 

• Free
• Advanced -$49
• Ultra -$149
• Pro -Contact Vendor

What is a Restaurant Management Software?

A restaurant management app is point of sale (POS) software designed primarily for restaurants and other food service enterprises.

Its major purpose is to assist owners in managing their businesses more smoothly and effectively by automating various operations.

As a result, doing so reduces the time spent on tasks and allows the managers to focus on providing great food to the customer faster. These tasks might include menu management, inventory tracking, online ordering, and staff scheduling.

Purpose of Restaurant Management Software: Why Should You Invest in a Restaurant App?

Restaurant apps for owners primarily, increase profit margins, sales, and customer satisfaction. Moreover, they lessen order processing mistakes, order processing time, and worker turnover. But that’s not all, some other reasons why these custom restaurant apps should be on your priority are;

Organized Inventory Management 

With a reliable tool, you can enhance inventory management and turnover, make modifications to different types of menus, and even devote time to staff scheduling.

Optimized Customer Service

These robust apps for restaurant owners provide quick turnaround with little room for error. Additionally, you can Improve communication between front and back-of-house staff in your restaurant.

Payment Processing

 A complete and best app for restaurant owners offers quick, trustworthy, and secure payment processing.

Increased Customer Loyalty

Some restaurant management systems allow you to use value features like coupons, promotions, and discounts, as well as a full gifting tool set, to motivate customers to return. 

General Benefits of a Restaurant Management Software

Depending on your exact business requirements, the benefits of any range of apps for restaurant owners will vary.

In that sense, it isn't necessary for your competitors favorite apps for restaurant owners to be as much of a rewarding experience. Your business may be catering to a different bunch of foodies, or some of your restaurant operations might be different than the rest of the market.

However, here are some general benefits of relying on apps for restaurant owners from an operational efficiency point of view.

Automated Workflows: Automate just about anything through digitial checklists, workflows and many other features available in apps for restaurant owners. Doing so ensures that work procedures are setup correctly; they can be recurring if it's needed and everything is going in a smooth motion.

Streamlined Sales Tracking: Streamlined sales tracking allows restaurant managers to quickly identify best-selling items, track daily revenues, and understand customer buying patterns. With this information, they can make informed decisions about various BOH restaurant operations and front-end customer facing activities as well.

Digitized SOPs and Checklists: Digitizing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and checklists make everything more accessible to staff and easier to update. Digital checklists can be used for opening and closing routines, food safety compliance, and quality control measures.

Proactive Approach to Maintenance Management: A proactive approach to maintenance management involves regularly monitoring and maintaining restaurant equipment and facilities to prevent unexpected breakdowns and costly repairs

Better Customer Relations: Modern day apps for restaurant owners can store customer preferences, order history, and feedback, enabling staff to provide a more tailored dining experience.

The Verdict?

A restaurant manager's work week includes balancing team communication, customer service,  both activities, and budget. Hence choosing the best app for restaurant managers is vital 

With features like employee scheduling and financial management built into the program and food safety regulations, Xenia covers all of these parameters quiet easily.