Running a restaurant means juggling a variety of demanding tasks. Scheduling shifts, staying on top of inventory, preparing for payroll – the list goes on. It's safe to say that restaurant life is hectic, so why not try to streamline the day-to-day tasks to ease the ever-mounting workload for you?

The key to simplifying daily restaurant processes is to implement a restaurant management system. This system can lessen the burden of manually tracking everything and leveraging automation to make managing a restaurant vastly simpler. Your employees and managers will thank you for focusing on their roles rather than wasting time on antiquated processes.

MarketMan combines cutting-edge technology with an in-depth understanding of the restaurant industry. It understands your needs and how to best service them; that leaves you with more time in your restaurant and less time with labor-intensive paperwork that's susceptible to errors.

Finding the best restaurant management software is crucial for an effective and lasting transition in the restaurant world.

Cloud-Based Inventory

With MarketMan's cloud-based inventory technology, you now have options for how to streamline your inventory instead of the old pen and paper or spreadsheet methods. When we download invoices, we download them to our hard drive; the same when logging recipes.

Cloud-based technology allows your information to be stored in a 'cloud,' and automatically sync offline when you’re in storage areas where wifi cannot reach.

The cloud can be accessed from any device and updates as frequently as necessary without taking up any space in your device at all. Your system will run smoothly, no matter how much data is stored. It also means that your inventory can grow and deplete at its own pace.

Mobile App and Inventory Counts

MarketMan keeps track of your inventory, spending, and purchasing, and its alert system makes sure you never have to worry if you're running low. The app will tell you when it's time to purchase, what you need to purchase and which suppliers to order from.

The software can track delivery dates and alert you when there are any sudden price changes. Or, you can compare vendor rates with their competitors. You also can order from vendors and suppliers directly on the MarketMan app so you’re not wasting time calling, emailing, and texting over details.

Order reminders mean that you will always have your staff prepared for new orders, while cut-off times will keep everyone in check. Run your restaurant faster by switching to automated purchasing that will boost your productivity by 5x its previous function.

Recipe Costing and Cookbook

Recipe Costing

Using the same OCR (camera scanning) technology, you're able to get real-time analysis of where your inventory goes and how much your recipes are working for you. Which of your menu items are profitable and which are burning a hole in your inventory? When you've created a menu that you love, it can be challenging to consider the profit margin.

MarketMan alerts you when your food cost exceeds your indicated threshold (track prices over time) and makes sure there are no unexpected changes to your ingredients. Comparatively, people who don't have an inventory platform need to constantly check the price of each ingredient every time they do inventory. You can keep track of everything in real time.

All of this data is pooled with labor costs and gives you a practical overview of your inventory and menu options.

Cookbook

MarketMan's cookbook feature allows your recipes to be stored. The easy-to-read, cleanly designed layout means that you'll never have trouble sorting through your recipes, and your recipes are ready to be pulled up at any time for reference with the software’s responsive search system.

Multiple devices can access the cookbook at the same time. This means that not only is it available to kitchen staff, but servers can use it as a reference at any time. For those who like a hard copy, the cookbook feature also comes with an easy-to-use print option.

Another great feature of cookbook is the ability to find allergen information for each dish, which is dynamically tied to menu items. Each menu item is broken down into ingredients that are tracked by MarketMan. So, whenever your chef adds new menu items using a common allergen, it will automatically populate on the menu, keeping your staff and customers safe and informed.

Ordering and Reducing Food Costs

Ordering

If you're still filling out paper order forms and faxing them to your suppliers, you know how easy it is to make human error. A hard-to-read 6 on a form could be misinterpreted as 60…giving you 60 cases of pickles instead of the 6 that you wanted!

Ordering inventory is based on what supplies are used in your restaurant. A restaurant management system allows you to be accurate so you're ordering the right items in the right amounts. The accuracy will allow you to automate and optimize your supply chain since you'll have the data right in front of you, and ordering is as easy as a click of a button!

With restaurant management systems that connect the dots between your restaurant and your suppliers, you streamline the ordering process, eliminate potential for errors, and even check your orders' status at any time.

Receiving

Whenever an order comes in, you just need to scan your invoice with the mobile app and your on-hand inventory will automatically update. With MarketMan, you can also indicate any discrepancies on your order and ask your supplier for credit for missing or misplaced items.

Reducing Food Costs

The restaurant industry runs on razor-thin profit margins – 52% of restaurant professionals named high operating and food costs as a top challenge. That means it's essential to create precise forecasts based on seasonal inventory for your restaurant. The accurate projection of food costs will increase your bottom line and reduce food waste.

Food costs are some of the highest when it comes to running a restaurant, so you must stay on top of what each ingredient costs you and the food cost per dish that you serve on your menu.

A restaurant management system lets you view reports at any time on these costs. If the cost of avocados has risen, therefore cutting into your profit margin, you can decide: do you raise the price for that item as an add-on, or do you nix it from certain dishes? Staying on top of these expenses helps you keep costs down.

Accounting

Are you the type of restaurant owner who has a paper trail of invoices and receipts overflowing in your office? There's no judgment here, but there's an easier way to keep track of important documents about the business.

A restaurant management system will let you snap photos of paper documents and automatically upload them to the software. For example, the software will file invoices into your accounting system, where you can pay them before they are due—looking for a specific document? Search the interface to find what you're looking for instead of ruffling through haphazard filing cabinets. MarketMan works with these popular accounting platforms for easy integration.

Staff Management and Scheduling

Staff Management

In any restaurant environment, issues may arise with your staff members. These can relate to the need to alert employees on areas they need to improve on, or maybe you need to be better about recognizing employees for their hard work. To aid this process, we integrate with the most popular staff management software on the market.

A restaurant management system enables easy tracking, recording, and updating staff issues and is essential for performance management and employee motivation.

Scheduling

Creating and keeping shift schedules up to date is one of the biggest logistical challenges of running a restaurant. Balancing employee availability, maintaining labor law compliance, preventing double shifts, and ensuring you have the best mix of team members ready to work the busiest brunch and dinner rushes isn't the easiest of feats. MarketMan also integrates with labor management and scheduling software to help you stay organized.

Say goodbye to using rudimentary spreadsheets and take up hours of your week to accommodate shift requests and personal days. With a restaurant management system, you can schedule shifts in an accessible online user interface that you can edit at any time. You can then quickly email the schedules to your employees so they can easily keep track of their future shifts and the number of hours they've worked.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Restaurant Management System

While restaurant management systems all try to have the common goal to make running a restaurant easier, it's essential to have all the information you need to identify potential issues and ultimately choose the right now.

• Data Transparency: Be aware that the software you choose gives you real-time visibility into all of your data across the restaurant so that you can make decisions quickly.
• System Unification: The right software will cover your restaurant from end-to-end and cover all operations needs instead of interfacing multiple solutions.
• Software Flexibility: The ideal software will be feature-rich and work beautifully out of the box and support customizations and integrations.
• Choosing A Reliable Provider: Choose a provider with a trustworthy, consolidated presence in the industry that comes with dependable customer support in case you need any help at all.

Automate your inventory management, control food costs, and streamline back-of-house processes effortlessly with MarketMan's restaurant software. MarketMan enables restaurateurs to eliminate manual tasks, reduce waste, and drive success through strategic insights. Experience a new level of restaurant efficiency. Schedule a demo now to learn how MarketMan can revolutionize your operations!