15 Best Restaurant Checklist Apps For Business In 2024

15 Best Restaurant Checklist Apps In 2024

Let's take a detailed look at some of the best restaurant checklist apps that you can potentially use to your business's advantage.

Later on in this post, we'll discuss some of the most important areas of restaurant checklist software that you need to know, to potentially streamline everything.

1. Xenia - Overall No. 1 Best & Free Online Restaurant Checklist App

Whether this is your first checklist app or your tenth, our #1 pick Xenia has you covered. 

Deceivingly powerful while being simple to pick up and use immediately, Xenia has the right solution for teams of all configurations. Available on both Android and Apple products, Xenia was purpose-built for quickly knocking down checklists and tasks on the go.

Price-effective and scalable for organizations with one location or 50, one of the best things you can do as a business owner is standardize your operations, and having a strong restaurant checklist app is a great way of doing just that.

Using one of the 500+ free templates available in their library you can jump right into running your spot like one of the pros. If you already have forms and processes in place, it takes only moments to digitize them in Xenia.

Opening and closing procedures, cleaning, food safety compliance, training, equipment maintenance - all of these tasks are easily logged and analyzed within the platform so you can identify areas of improvement, or just ensure that your staff are meeting your expectations.

Here’s a quick look at some of the notable features of this restaurant checklist software.

Key Features

• Tasks: Create, assign, and track tasks (or work orders) in seconds. You’ll drive performance and accountability, all in the name of a better customer experience.‍
• Scheduled Work: Never miss another opening or closing check with centralized work schedules. Automatic notifications ensure nothing flies under the radar so you can spend more time improving the business and less time planning work.‍
• Checklists & SOP’s: Xenia’s checklist builder and template library combine to provide everything you need to get going - in minutes, not days. Countless step types, publicly available URLs, media attachments and conditional logic are just a few of the ways you can conduct digital checks. Store SOP’s for reference or use them as an instructive tool to ensure adherence to brand standards.
• ‍Real-Time Updates & Collaboration: Receive instant feedback and notifications when work is performed, tasks are overdue, or the results of an assignment are unsatisfactory. Be in the know with your team, even if you’re miles away.
• ‍Preventive Maintenance: For operators who maintain their own assets (fridges, freezers, fryers) it’s imperative that you keep a detailed record of the work you did and when. Even if you outsource this, it’s a great way of keeping tabs on your contractors.
• ‍Inspections: When you break it down, just about every inspection is a checklist in some form or another, right? Digital food safety compliance checklists for things like HACCP and GFSI are completed from your phone or tablet and recorded forever on the cloud - next time you need to get recertified it’s easy to jump right into things with Xenia.
• ‍Corrective Actions: Even though we like to think we’ve got everything under control, accidents are bound to happen. Whether it’s an incident or a temp check that was out of range, corrections need to be made. Xenia’s powerful corrective and preventive action (CAPA) workflows allow you to track these tasks and ensure proper and timely follow up happens.
• ‍Reporting: Take all of the valuable information you’ve collected while performing your checklists and analyze the results. With configurable dashboards out of the box, and the ability to order customized reports made by their data science team, there’s no insight you can’t find using Xenia.
  

Pricing

• Free Forever: Free for up to 5 users with access to task & work orders, parent assets, internal chats, template builder etc.
• Starter: $99 / month for 15 users and comes with a work calendar view, work and template reports, sub assets and sub-locations.
• Premium: $199 / month for 15 users and offers limitless access to all the core features.
• Custom: Need something tailored to your organization?

Book a Demo Today!

2. Certainty

In the world of checklist software, Certainty Software stands out for its practical approach to streamlining audits. With customizable templates, automated workflows, and simplified data handling, it's a solid choice for businesses aiming to enhance their audit processes. 

Whether you're focused on compliance, risk mitigation, or continuous improvement, Certainty Software offers a straightforward solution without unnecessary frills. 

Key Features

• Conduct audits and inspections on iOS, Android, and Windows devices
• Schedule audits and inspections 
• Filterable system reports
• Analyze and report data online or export to PDF, Excel or CSV formats
• Business intelligence analytics
• Delegate actions to team members

Pricing

• Standard - $18/user/month
• Enterprise - Contact Certainty.

3. StartSafe

StartSafe offers a straightforward solution for restaurants - using uncomplicated templates, checks, and alerts, this platform facilitates real-time reporting on various aspects like equipment, buildings, and product quality control. 

Its digital nature simplifies the process of connecting employees, clients, and procedures all in one place, providing assurance that your business is fully compliant. It’s a practical approach to a practical problem and has found much success in the industrial settings.

Key Features

• Define assets
• Create template procedures
• Dashboard
• Actions
• Reminders
• Reporting

Pricing

• Business - £28/month
• Business Premium - £120/month
• Enterprise - Contact StartSafe.

4. Action Audit

Action Audit does best at tracking and performing actions related to audits (unsurprisingly).

This app efficiently handles audits, capturing non-compliance issues and areas for improvement. Its functionality extends to generating analysis reports and action plans, with the added benefit of customized report editing. 

Their workflows help provide alignment with operations and task management, and could be quite affordable for those with small teams.

Key Features

• Audit zones
• Multiple checklists (based on selected plan below)
• Storage for attachments
• Attaching photos to audits
• Reporting
• Scheduling & management

Pricing

• Starter - €7/user/month
• Standard - €10/user/month
• Expert - €15/user/month

5. QVALON

QVALON stands out for its robust analytics and reporting capabilities, empowering businesses to monitor performance, discern trends, and base decisions on solid data. 

You can perform inspections, audits, and safety checks with peace of mind, knowing that your data can then be used for continuous improvement.

Key Features

• Inspections
• Tasks
• Surveys
• Merchandising
• Collaboration
• Analytics

Pricing

• Standard - $35/store/month
• Premium - $50/store/month
• Enterprise - Contact QVALON.

6. mQuest Audit

The mQuest Audit platform is one part of a suite offered by mQuest. It offers a blend of a mobile offline app and a web-based portal, providing a cost-effective and secure solution for digitizing various audits.

Their platform eliminates the need for laborious paper and Excel-driven processes, making them a thing of the past and allowing your business to really embrace a digital transformation. 

Given that pricing is unlisted, it’s safe to assume it isn’t cheap. Regardless, you can’t put a price on peace of mind.

Well, you definitely can, but it might be pretty expensive.

Key Features

• Record keeping
• Data visualization
• Offline mode
• Support for a variety of audits
• Action tracking
• Smart planning

Pricing

• Not publicly available.

7. Zeper Audits

Zeper Audits brings together the advantages of digitization while retaining the flexibility found in spreadsheets.

Its mobile tool is great for performing your different checks and tasks from the field as well.

The platform's unique strength lies in its ability to allow users to configure even the minutest details, ensuring a great match to each specific use case.

Key Features

• Desktop and mobile versions
• Support for a variety of checklists and audits
• Detailed history
• Excel and PDF report exports
• Traceability

Pricing

• Not publicly available.

8. Bindy

The next recommendation to be a part of our best restaurant checklist apps list is none other than Bindy.

It is a valuable tool for retail and hospitality brands, ensuring the accurate and complete execution of standards and programs at every location. 

Juice up performance through tailored checklists, photos, and signatures, supported by a closed-loop corrective workflow.

This software is designed to boost productivity by streamlining inspection workflows, eliminating the need for paper forms, Excel, and reducing delays. 

Key Features

• Audits
• Tasks
• Tickets
• Communication
• Dashboard
• Single Sign-On

Pricing

• SMB 1 - $119/month
• SMB 2 - $359/month
• Enterprise - $959+/month
• Feature availability and usage limits depend on the chosen plan.

9. Connecteam

Connecteam’s restaurant checklist app is a comprehensive solution, that is cost-effective and user-friendly and was designed for restaurants of all sizes by offering an easy-to-use program that can streamline any work process as well as digitize any previously manual processes that you might resort to.

An important part of how Connecteam can help restaurant businesses is with its checklist distribution feature.

Waiters and kitchen hands know when they're being expected to complete certain side work assignments versus when they're expected to clean and sweep the restaurant floors. You will not have employees asking what is supposed to be done after the shift is done for them to leave.

With Connecteam’s digital forms and checklists tool, checklists are digitized, leaving behind paper checklists with forgotten and lost tasks.

During each shift, employees receive notifications regarding their assigned tasks so nothing is forgotten. Simply check off tasks as they’re finished and send managers an update. Collaboration and accountability are immediately improved and there’s a guarantee that all tasks are completed by the end of a shift.

Connecteam takes checklist management to the next level by automating processes and reducing manual labor, increasing productivity.

Accessible via any desktop or mobile device, any form or list can be easily found and is connected to your team’s centralized knowledge base ensuring collaboration and consistency across your team.

For teams that handle critical tasks such as deep cleaning, food safety checks, or health inspection submissions, the tool has fully customizable mobile task management to create template checklists for all sorts of restaurant operations.

Not only to standardize procedures, but also it make amending forms quick and easy, to adapt to changes in regulations and to meet quality standards.

Key Features 

• Digital Onboarding Forms
• Safety checklists
• Advanced Scheduling
• Task assignment and inventory management
• Document Management

Pricing 

• Small Business plan – free
•  Basic -$29
•  Advance -$49
• Expert -$99

10. Hubl

Hubl positions itself as a hospitality checklist app with an acute focus on food safety and ardent tracking of food temperature recording.

In addition to this most crucial function, it also includes calendar features to facilitate the tracking of team responsibilities which lead to a higher level of overall operational efficiency.

While its affordability and clean interface can appeal to any restaurant, Hubl is particularly effective for those small restaurants looking to make their first move in the digital world. Hubl is relatively basic when compared to some of its more modern competitors, however, what it lacks in functionality, it makes up for in price.

It is a popular product given its low cost as more and more businesses take advantage of cut-price solutions with a one-size-fits-all solution.

But then again, it is important to note that Hubl may not have advanced features as in more comprehensive apps.

For instance, it does not have integrated team communication solutions and knowledge bases to store recipes and important health and safety protocol documents. As a result, larger restaurants may find Hubl to be insufficient in ensuring standardization collaboration and total compliance with regulations.

Key Features 

• Operational checklist
• Dashboards for issue resolution 
• Calendar management
• Cost-efficient solution 

 Pricing 

• Starts from $20/month 

11. Trail

Trail is a comprehensive end-to-end - multi-industry app ,designed for different niches. 

As a robust restaurant checklist app, It acts as a virtual handover book; a system that lists all the tasks that need to be done in a team that needs to be completed for a team in the hospitality sector to close down. 

From managing opening tasks, to carrying out essential food safety checks Trail is here to ensure you get it right.

What differentiates Trail from its competitors like Hubl is the broader range of what it can do. On top of core functions such as task creation etc, Trail boasts performance reviews and logs furthering their objective of helping businesses to systemise and CRM-proof their operations. 

Trail was designed to incorporate the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system so that food safety checks can be aligned with best practices across the industry, rather than having to resort to specific manual checking to avoid compliance issues that could affect customers of the restaurant or hotel.

Another thing to consider is the task management system for Trail. Even though it has an effective system it doesn’t give much visibility for managers or leaders. 

The only way to tell if a certain task has been completed is by checking if the user drafted, published, or archived a certain task, rather than seeing who has done what task.

Key Features

• Digital task checklist with performance log
• Template library for tasks
• Compliance with HACCP standards
• Robust notifications
• Customize checklists

Pricing

• Starts from $17 

12. MeazureUp

The MeazureUp Restaurant Checklist App provides for overall task management and operational performance excellence within the enterprise and at the location with customized templates that make doing quality assurance and field inspections a breeze even tasks like the kitchen cleaning checklist become reality and an attention point with smart checklists with scoring, actions, photo captures.

MeazureUp allows managers to use it from any device to report real-time results on how they’re doing.

This is pretty crucial since a manager can’t very well read about what’s happening in their stores from their office.

Being able to access their MeazureUp from anywhere using any device allows managers to make decisions regardless of where they are, ensuring they don’t have to waste time getting back to the office.

This one of a kind restaurant checklist app is, in a way, a real-time dashboard of how one location is doing no matter where a manager is.  The app also has built-in calendar software that allows owners to monitor task progress over time. 

Moreover, MeazureUp offers automated email alerts to notify appropriate users of when certain tasks are due or overdue.

With automatic notifications, MeazureUp helps teams remain on top of their work and ensure that things are completed on time.

Key Features

• Customizable and configurable checklists
• Audit planning
• Real-time progress tracking
• User-friendly interface
• Easy report generation

13. FusionPrep

FusionPrep is an all-in-one back-of-the-house platform that combines recipes, documents, and necessary checklists making the lives of operating more simple and effective.

Focused on three main components, managing inventory, recipes, and food safety, FusionPrep gives restaurant professionals a versatile tool kit to successfully run their operations.

The decision to go with FusionPrep comes from the vast amount of options you have that are specifically set up to run a restaurant, for example, it has built-in temperature logs, line checks, and any other essential checklist items that are needed to maintain compliance with food safety. Also, FusionPrep can be used as a place to store training materials and requires an employee to check through videos and answer questions to make sure that the employee can perform their job as effectively as they should be able to.

One of the unique features of FusionPrep is the insights dashboard.

The insights dashboard pulls data from several different places to give a quick overview of how the restaurant is performing and an opportunity to see what are the areas that can be improved.

Key Features 

• Pre-defined corrective actions
• Compliance and performance dashboard
• Recipe and inventory management
• Training management
• Robust food and safety for compliance standards

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14. FoodReady

FoodReady is an inventive digital checklist app for the restaurant industry that combines ready-to-use templates with a convenient drag-drop checklist builder to enable businesses to stay on top of their quality & operational tracking seamlessly on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis – without drowning in paperwork.

By embracing digital and automating elongated manual processes, Food Ready assists organizations to smoothly make the transition from using clunky traditional spreadsheets into a dynamic modern environment. 

FoodReady is the complete food safety and HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) software solution for all types of food-related businesses, such as food producers, service establishments, distributors, etc.

The software’s intelligent platform allows users to quickly and easily build strong food safety and HACCP programs, keeping all records together in one spot. In addition, FoodReady supports national and international certifications like GFSI, SQF, FSSC, BRC, HACCP, and many more to guarantee that you are up to the industry standards.

One highlight of Food Ready is its features often designed for food safety and boosting overall productivity.

The app has a dynamic checklist builder, which allows the App users to choose from a variety of templates and customize them to their specific needs. The user has an option to create or import checklist configuration saving them time and also provides the option to create group items saving more time.

The whole aim of the checklist is to reduce the time the food technologists, supervisors, or managers spend writing their reports.

Key Features

• Dynamic checklist builder
• Check alerts
• Access to customized checklists
• Auto signature
• Auto time and date stamp
• Real-time data analysis 

Pricing 

• Contact Vendor

15. DeviceMagic

A data collection mobile app, Device Magic, has been created to simply and quickly streamline the form creation and form management process of all types of businesses from restaurants to hospitals.

It is crafted with a ton of features, created with a handy ease of use, and built to save any business time and money as well as to grow their overall productivity.

Device Magic’s intuitive form builder has been honed to be quicker and easier to use than pen and paper, whilst seamlessly allowing you to create rich, professional forms without any technical experience. Device Magic also delivers a range of advanced form features including field types and intelligent fields to ensure that you always receive the most accurate and reliable data possible.

The offline access feature allows users to access the interface and complete form even in limited and despite environments without using the internet. This approach ensures continuous workflow and collects the data even in the absence of internet connectivity.

Another way, this tool can provide additional operational value is the use of the dispatch module for dispatchers to quickly send pre-populated forms to field employees and notify them of new tasks or jobs. This prevents time lapses in communication and task assignments by eliminating the need for one person to tell another person to do this or that.

Device Magic uses a Geomapping tool that allows businesses to integrate Google Maps and location data with any form allowing users to assign tasks to people based on their geographic area.

This is very beneficial to restaurant operations because there are many different type sof sub-level restaurant operations such as; delivery services or a multi-location franchise that would cause problems, and device magic helps maintain and manage these companies.

Key Features

• Form Builder
• Offline access
• Intelligent fields
• Dispatches
• Automated workflows
• Delivery formats

Pricing

• Contact Vendor

What Should I Look For In The Best Restaurant Checklist App?

This is always the most common, and perhaps most important question that comes up when beginning to evaluate restaurant task management software.

There are a multitude of variables to consider, from price to features and everything in between.

This post covers these consistently across our 15 vendors in the hopes of creating an even playing field, for the purpose of evaluation.

There’s no right or wrong answer here, by the way. Each app on this list is here because they have won customers over with its unique set of features, user experience, and more.

That being said, let’s go over a few typical factors that shoppers consider when looking for the right restaurant checklist app.

Cost Factor: You won’t find as crazy of a pricing range as with some other business tools, but it can get pricey depending on the size of your team and the pricing model of your selected restaurant checklist app. Some charge by user, as opposed to unlimited user counts available on a platform like Xenia.

Regulatory Compliance: There are a few levels to this; depending on your geographic region, you may have federal or nationwide regulatory requirements.

Then there are state, and even city laws to comply with, so getting some technological assistance here will go a long way in ensuring compliance (and avoiding fines).

Specificity: Are you a quick-service restaurant? Michelin-starred brasserie? Or perhaps somewhere in between - depending on your specific business, you’re going to have specific needs. Make sure your primary pain points are actually being addressed with your tool for restaurant task management.

User-Friendliness: Just like being the smartest doesn’t make you the best teacher, being able to technically do the most functions doesn’t make you the best restaurant checklist app.

It’s about how users  (read: you and your team) enjoy using the software. Otherwise, it’s gonna sit on the shelf (and become the aptly named shelfware).

Integration: You have a POS, inventory management platform, some back-office software - being able to have them speak to each other is a potential huge benefit. While not necessary for everyone, make sure you properly scope your needs so you know for certain if you need to connect a few of your existing tools.

Real-time Monitoring: If you’re using something like a temperature monitoring system then having real-time alerts could be the difference between catching an open freezer door before the long weekend, and coming back to five figures of spoilage.

You’ll also benefit from improved analytics if your restaurant checklist app can digest operational performance data in real-time.

Training and Onboarding: With turnover rates as high as we’ve seen in the last few years (just check out the data courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics) it’s more important than ever to get positive ROI from your employees.

That means quick, efficient training and onboarding, which is something that a strong restaurant checklist app has the means of doing.

Mobile Functionality: This is similar to user-friendliness, in a way. If you’re supposed to be completing AM/PM checklists it doesn’t make much sense to have to log the results on the computer back in the office, right?

Having a native mobile app is just about required these days if you want to be a serious player. 

Scalability: This one’s for all of our big dreamers out there. You want to see your concept go from one to three to ten locations, and beyond? You can’t be changing systems and processes every step of the way. Find something that works well in the present, and which can be adapted in the future too.

Putting It All Together

Folks, it’s been another great run through 15 of the best restaurant checklist apps available for your business in 2024.

We hope that you have enough information to take some serious next steps in your journey to acquire an operational tool that can help tighten the ship and make 2024 your best year in business.