Restaurant management is a complicated job. You have to manage your staff, schedule shifts, keep track of inventory and other expenses, improve customer service… the list goes on and on.
And managing all of that by yourself is nearly impossible. Luckily, there are plenty of apps out there that can help you do it.
Not sure where to start? No problem! We’ve put together this list of the best apps for restaurant managers, so you can find the perfect fit for your business needs.
Best Apps For Restaurant Managers
Restaurant management presents many challenges, from operational efficiency to guest satisfaction. Keeping up with your responsibilities is no small task, so staying up-to-date on the latest apps simplifies your job. While restaurant owners are always on the go, many useful tools are found right on your smartphone. Here are some of the best apps for restaurant owners to make life running your business a little easier.
Management Apps
We all need a little help sometimes. With the following apps for restaurant owners, you can perform many of your logistical tasks through your smart device. Below are a few of our favorites.
7shifts
This app allows you to manage employee schedules and labor costs. You can drag and drop employees into shifts based on their availability and shift requirements. Employees receive instant notifications about their shifts, and you can approve or decline employee requests with a click of a button. The labor cost savings calculator helps you make important scheduling decisions. Also, 7shifts can integrate with your POS.
Zenefits
A one-stop-shop HR portal, Zenefits, can be utilized by managers/owners, as well as your employees. You can access requested time off, benefits information, review paycheck stubs, and more.
FreshBooks
This cloud-based accounting solution allows you to manage your books away from your computer. Through FreshBooks, you can create invoices, accept online payments, record payments, track your expenses, and more.
Inventory Management
Another component of restaurant administration is inventory management. Keeping track of your stock is integral to protecting your bottom line, so let’s look at a few apps for restaurant owners designed to help.
Orderly
Orderly helps you with invoicing, accounting, and inventory all in one management app. Snap a picture of your invoices to help you avoid double payments, lost invoices, etc. You can easily export spend reports from the app to your accounting software. You can also follow price trends, monitor food spending and supplier pricing with the inventory management feature.
BlueCart
BlueCart is a web and mobile platform that lets you order all of your inventory from all your suppliers with one click. You can manage your inventory, check-in items when they arrive, return extra or damaged products, and more. This app is said to reduce food waste by 50 percent.
Bar Inventory Management
Alcohol sales can bring a restaurant between 20-25% of its revenue, with the potential or more. Liquor shrinkage — the loss due to theft or overpours on serves — can be incredibly costly. Fortunately, apps like Bevspot and Partender provide you with the tools to keep track of your stock.
Social Media Apps
With 4.57 billion users online, social media is critical for restaurants in connecting with their future guests. Around 72% of everyone on the internet uses some form of social media. Through social media, you can build brand awareness, promote specials, and develop a community around your business. Let’s look at a few apps for restaurant owners that you can use to put social media to work for you.
Social Media Scheduling Apps
The following apps allow you to manage your social media accounts from one place. Through either Hootsuite, Sprout, or Buffer, you can schedule posts, monitor trending topics, review analytics, run contests and campaigns, assign permission levels to employees (administrator, editor, etc.), and assign tasks and assignments. Plan costs vary per service and tier, so shop to find the option and interface that work best for you.
Snapseed
Great food photography can help drive sales by up to 30%. Fortunately, Instagram has built-in features to enhance your pictures, which is useful if you aren’t a professional. If you don’t use Instagram or are looking for more options to entice hunger, Snapseed has the filters you need to make up your food photography game.
MailChimp
While social media is an integral part of a successful marketing strategy, email marketing is still a powerful tool to get the word out. A marketing automation platform, Mailchimp, lets you build email campaigns to send to your customers. You can easily build a template that matches your restaurant brand identity and access analytics to see how your emails perform. Remember, you can use emails to build into an omnichannel marketing strategy.
Utility Apps
Below is a list of utility apps, the kind of applications that will benefit any entrepreneur. While these tools are useful to everyone, they’re potent apps for restaurant owners who have multiple locations and staff to manage. Likewise, these are the general utilities that will help make these responsibilities a little easier.
EverNote
Restaurant task management is an ongoing effort that requires time to do right. Use Evernote to keep all your notes in one place. You can add notes that are audio recordings, attachments, tables, links, and checklists. There is a team account available that allows collaboration. The basic plan is free and is an asset to managers on the move.
Feedly
With so much news shared every second of every hour, information overload has become a real problem and one that can affect your productivity. If you want to stay up-to-date on industry trends and updates specific to your restaurant or segment, try the Feedly app. You can choose publications, blogs, set up keyword alerts, etc. for content you’re interested in. The app has a minimalist design, making content easy to read.
Outlook/Gmail
In 2018, 4.03 billion people used email to communicate. You can check emails on the go with an Outlook or Gmail app. There, you can also schedule appointments and calendar reminders all from the app.
Everyone’s a Critic
Bad reviews aren’t fun, but they can provide valuable insights. You can turn negative reviews into part of your marketing strategy by learning from your mistakes and building on them. Let’s look at a few apps for restaurant owners to help you stay ahead of the critics.
ReviewTrackers
Monitor all your restaurant reviews from one place with the ReviewTrackers app. This app pulls reviews from websites like Google, Tripadvisor, Facebook, Fourspace, etc., collecting them all in one handy place.
Yelp
Criticism isn’t always something you might want, but it can help you understand what your guests think about you. If you aren’t willing to leap to Review Trackers, Yelp offers a free and easy way to get insight into what your customers like and dislike.
The Drink Menu
Now that you know what people think of your restaurant, you can work on the menu. Because we know that alcohol sales are important in today’s market, you can use the Taphunter app to see what’s on tap nearby and Untappd to determine what people might like the most. Since alcohol delivery is legalized in many places around the U.S., knowing what people want can help you stock accordingly.
Customer Loyalty
Fostering customer loyalty programs are a great way to generate consistent sales and an interested community around your brand. There are many ways to start your own customer loyalty program, but Incentivio is designed to streamline that process. Among its many functions, the Incentivio app allows users to receive points for purchases that can add to redeemable rewards later on.
More Apps for Restaurant Owners?
Working smarter and more connected is imperative to operational success. If you have the right KDS or restaurant management system, there are even more tools to help you manage your operations remotely. Are these apps for restaurant owners right for you? Let us know if we missed anything or if you hear of any fresh apps on the menu in the comments section below.
Note: This article was originally published on August 29, 2017 by Emily Wimpsett. We updated it on November 11, 2020 to keep it as contemporary as possible.
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About the Author
Syd is a content marketing specialist, which are fancy words for writing pretty to tell a good story. He likes writing things about food, drinks, and music. He’s a musician himself, a father of two, and loves his wife a whole lot. At home, like the rest of the world right now, he’s finding time to play with the kids and create art.
free apps for restaurant owners
From managing social media to scheduling shifts, apps for restaurant owners make it easier than ever to run a business on the go. But with all the apps to choose from, it’s difficult to narrow down exactly what you need. That’s why we compiled this list featuring the 7 best apps for restaurant owners who want to run a more efficient operation. As an added bonus, check out 3 apps that seem like they’re just for guests, but offer hidden benefits to you as an owner.
- Hootsuite
What It Does
This app for restaurant owners (and any social media manager in general) empowers you to manage multiple social media accounts – all in one app.
Why You Need It
According to PEW Research Center, 75% of high-income adults online use Facebook. And almost half use Instagram. Then there’s Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn (for recruiting) to consider. Although nearly all of these platforms can be managed on mobile devices, that’s a lot of social media apps for restaurant owners to keep track of. Fortunately, Hootsuite is one of the most effective apps for restaurant owners to manage their social media accounts.
The Benefits
Easily schedule posts: Instagram. Twitter. Facebook. You name it. Every major social media account can be integrated into your Hootsuite account. From there, you can schedule posts days, weeks, even months in advance! Apps for restaurant owners that empower advance planning…that’s a big win.
Gather data about your messaging: Apps for restaurant owners are most beneficial when they provide information that you can use to your advantage. And Hootsuite doesn’t disappoint. With analytics to track engagement and the ability to monitor conversations about your business, you can easily track information to guide future messaging for your restaurant.
Stay on brand (no matter who’s managing your account): It’s not uncommon for restaurant owners to pass social media responsibility to their staff members. Sometimes it’s a seasoned manager. Sometimes it’s a server that speaks fluent SnapChat. Whatever the case, Hootsuite allows you to view messages from multiple account managers to ensure posts are approved quickly and consistently on-brand.
- SnapSeed
What It Does
Some apps for restaurant owners, like SnapSeed, have very specific
purposes. This one is all about making your food photos pop!
Why You Need It
For restaurants, food photos on social media aren’t just for good looks. They’re for business…and the 86% of millennials who want to try a new restaurant after seeing food-related content online!
So you need apps for restaurant owners that can beef up your photography game. That’s why SnapSeed made this list. It’s a mobile photography app that showcases your signature dishes in their best light.
Benefits
More Features than Your Average Platform: Instagram is considered one of the main social media apps for restaurant owners who want to display their dishes like art. But while Instagram primarily provides filters and basic modification options, Snapseed offers 29 tools to get just the right settings for your photos.
Intuitive User Experience: Most people shy away from photo apps because they can be complicated. But with a simple design and user-friendly interface, Snapseed is easy to use for everyone – from professional photographers to your mid-shift line cooks.
Easy Sharing: You just adjusted your latest photo to perfection. Now what? With Snapseed, you can simply download the finished product and share it on multiple social media apps for restaurant owners – including Instagram and Facebook.
- ReviewTrackers
What It Does
The best apps for restaurant owners give you super-human powers,
like the ability to know what everyone is saying about you – at all times.
Why You Need It
In the restaurant world, reviews are kind of a big deal. After all, 92% of consumers read reviews before deciding where to dine. A lot is riding on how many stars your guests give you. However, there are so many sites where customers can leave their thoughts: from Yelp to Google, Reddit to Facebook. Are you supposed to track every review? Let apps for restaurant owners, like ReviewTrackers, do the work:
Benefits
Track all your reviews in one place: The name pretty much gives away this app’s biggest benefit. ReviewTrackers combines over 100 review sites into one, easy-to-digest platform so you can monitor review sites in one place.
Respond quickly to guests: With the ability to automate your review collection, you can easily check reviews and respond when necessary. Thank guests for their raving feedback. Address issues with a customer who had a less-than-stellar experience. Rather than chasing down different review apps for restaurant owners, you can do it all in ReviewTrackers
Better understand your customer experience: Using machine learning, ReviewTrackers can analyze the customer experience that’s trending for your restaurant. You can easily pull insights about what’s working for your business – and what’s not.
HOW TO CREATE A WINNING CUSTOMER REWARDS PROGRAM
The ultimate guide for owners & managers.
- 7Shifts
What It Does
Apps for restaurant owners that reduce the stress of scheduling? es, please! Introducing 7Shifts
Why You Need It
Juggling the schedules of 20+ people is enough to make any person go mad. But that’s just an average day for restaurant managers and owners. Wish things could be easier? So do the creators of several apps for restaurant owners. That leads us to 7Shifts – a scheduling tool that streamlines shift-making and staff communication.
Benefits
Factors in all the details: A lot goes into making a schedule. And some scheduling apps for restaurant owners don’t take all those variables into account. But 7Shifts can automate a schedule or allow users to implement custom templates that fit weekly shift requirements and staff availability, while also tracking overtime and regional labor laws.
Simplifies shift sharing and communication: It’s a fact. Staff schedules change. There are no apps for restaurant owners to solve that! But 7Shifts at least makes it easier to communicate about shift changes. Employees can receive their schedules via text, app, and/or email so they never miss a shift. And with a messaging and group chats, they can easily communicate if they need to switch or find a replacement.
Tracks employee engagement: Wish there were apps for restaurant owners that could track employee performance? 7Shifts can do that, too. heck the staff leaderboard, which showcases your most and least engaged employees. Track your staff no-shows and late arrivals. And send out automated surveys to get your team’s feedback on the regular.
- BevSpot
What It Does
Breeze through inventory like never before, thanks to inventory
apps for restaurant owners like BevSpot.
Why You Need It
Inventory isn’t easy. Whether you’re behind the bar or behind the line, you have to track everything from produce to bottles to garnishes. And it’s a major pain point for the 51% of restaurant owners who listed high operation and food costs as their biggest challenges. Fortunately, inventory apps for restaurant owners can be a real budget saver. We like BevSpot because it’s a solution that covers both the food and beverage portions of your restaurant.
Benefits
Interactive inventory calculator: Move over, paper and pen. BevSpot lets you take inventory directly to any mobile device. Can’t get a good mobile connection in your walk-in? No problem. Cloud-based apps for restaurant owners like Bevspot include an offline mode that let’s you keep counting, then uploads data when a connection is available.
Customized tracking options: Keep your data as accurate as possible with flexible units and settings that match your reporting needs.
Usage reports and analytics: BevSpot provides regular reports so you can see what ingredients are being used and where you’re wasting money.
- FreshBooks
What It Does
If you think this sounds similar to Quickbooks, you’re right. Like
Quickbooks, FreshBooks is one of the top accounting apps for restaurant owners…
Why You Need It
There is a lot to keep track of when it comes to restaurant expenses. Cashflow. Payment. Invoices. And to do it all manually could lead to costly errors. It helps to have financial apps for restaurant managers that automate most of your accounting tasks. Which is why we love FreshBooks.
Benefits
Save time with automated accounting: Mundane accounting tasks can take up a lot of your time. Fortunately, FreshBooks can automate most tasks, like tracking expenses, time, and reports. Just configure your settings and let the software do the hard work.
Track expenses on-the-go: Sync your business bank account and credit card to FreshBooks for more automated tracking. If you wind up paying for something with petty cash, just snap a pic of the receipt and upload it with a simple click.
Set up payments for employees: With the FreshBooks Gusto app, you can schedule regular staff payments that automatically deduct taxes on the federal, state, and local levels. That way your team doesn’t get any unpleasant surprises when tax season arrives.
- Feedly
What It Does
Know what’s up in the bar and restaurant industry at all times
with news-focused apps for restaurant owners.
Why You Need It
Gone are the days when you’d get an industry mag in the mail once
a month. Today, restaurant biz news is coming at you all day, every day on
thousands of websites and industry publications.
That’s why you need apps for restaurant owners like Feedly. It sorts
through the industry-related headlines, so you don’t have to. You get a
personalized digest emailed to you in an easy-to-read format.
Benefits
Monitor industry news: Set up keywords alerts to monitor the latest news about the restaurant industry, your business, or even your competitors.
Track your favorite publications: Keep all of your favorite industry news sources in one place by selecting the blogs and publications you read religiously.
Follow your favorite influencers: Add YouTube Channels and Twitter accounts of industry thought leaders so you can scroll through daily inspiration without having to switch between different apps for restaurant managers.
BONUS: 3 Apps for Restaurant Owners (Disguised as Apps for Guests)
Buzztime
Benefit for Guests: Once guests download the Buzztime Entertainment app, they can play trivia at thousands of bars, restaurants, and breweries nationwide. This app keeps guests entertained through every phase of their experience, and keeps ‘em coming back.
Benefit for Owners: While it may seem like pure fun and games to guests, Buzztime offers so much more than just entertainment apps for restaurant owners. You also get access to digital signage to promote specials on your own TVs, the ability to host your own live events, and more.
Open Table
Benefit for Guests: Streamline the reservation process for customers so they can more easily book a table at your restaurant, using one of the most popular reservation apps for restaurant owners.
Benefit for Owners: Give your team a heads up on big parties and your numbers for that night. Your team can take notes on guest preferences to elevate their experience for their next visit.
Tap Hunter
Benefit for Guests: If you offer a wide range of brews or wine, consider partnering with Tap Hunter. This app lets users track when and where their favorite boozy beverages are available – along with events and specials at their favorite spots.
Benefit for Owners: Promotional apps for restaurant owners can help put you on the radar for guests seeking specific brands or great deals. This app does even more: helping with back-end work, like updating your menu, taking inventory, and preventing loss.
…and that’s a wrap on apps for restaurant owners! Have a favorite
app you use? Let us know in the comments!
Conclusion
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