You may already know about the infrastructural needs of any modern restaurant: food storage containers, cooking equipment, and other commercial kitchen equipment for food preparation, but what about your restaurant’s tech stack?
In the modern restaurant industry, many businesses are starting to find it impossible to run a multi-location venture without a strong foundational tech stack to handle all of their administrative needs. The integration of these advanced tools has allowed many businesses to check and manage their costs and operations as they scale their business up to ever-increasing heights. Without the right technological support, restaurants often face several issues, such as inventory mismanagement, slow order processing, and financial discrepancies, all of which can impede growth and customer satisfaction.
Typically, the latest restaurant technology trends from the National Restaurant Association have declared that a robust tech stack is made up of the following three items:
At Supy, we offer a comprehensive suite of tools that integrate these technologies to create a single, unified, data-driven environment. Read on to learn about Supy’s tech stack and how it’s been designed to help restaurateurs like you!
A restaurant point of sale (POS) system is a combination of software and hardware that manages a restaurant’s sales transactions, processes payments, and tracks inventory. Beyond these basic functions, a modern point-of-sale system can also integrate with other operational components, such as your kitchen display system, making it an indispensable part of efficient restaurant management. The best restaurant POS systems keep track of ingredients in real-time, helping restaurants avoid overstocking or running out of essential items.
Ideally, your POS system should have the following features:
It’s also important to have a POS system that integrates with common inventory management and accounting software. Such integration ensures that sales data automatically updates inventory levels and financial records, reducing manual data entry and the risk of errors. At Supy, our solutions facilitate the automatic synchronization of sales data with platforms like Xero, MYOB AccountRight, and Microsoft Dynamics Navision to provide a unified view of your restaurant’s performance. You can check out the full list of integrations here.
Unsurprisingly, the next challenge many restaurants face is figuring out how to effectively manage their inventory. Investing in this kind of management is crucial for restaurants that are trying to minimize their waste, control food costs, and prevent shortages.
The key features of Supy’s inventory management tool include:
Case Study
Many restaurants have already experienced the transformative effects of Supy’s restaurant management software. With 13 branches across the country, Pinza! was experiencing large variance and profit losses due to an inconsistent recording of events. Supy’s solution was to bring them a full onboarding with data centralization and implementation of accurate recipes, items, suppliers, and first stock count for all kitchens.
“Implementing controls in our operation with Supy’s Back of House allowed us to have clear visibility on our cost,” says Tamer Elkhayat, managing partner at Pinza! With Supy’s help, this business managed to reduce its variance by a whopping 85%! All thanks to easy, regular updates of stock, wastage, and invoices with Supy’s mobile app.
Unsurprisingly, the next challenge many restaurants face is figuring out how to effectively manage their inventory. Investing in this kind of management is crucial for restaurants that are trying to minimize their waste, control food costs, and prevent shortages.
The key features of Supy’s inventory management tool include:
Case Study
Many restaurants have already experienced the transformative effects of Supy’s restaurant management software. With 13 branches across the country, Pinza! was experiencing large variance and profit losses due to an inconsistent recording of events. Supy’s solution was to bring them a full onboarding with data centralization and implementation of accurate recipes, items, suppliers, and first stock count for all kitchens.
“Implementing controls in our operation with Supy’s Back of House allowed us to have clear visibility on our cost,” says Tamer Elkhayat, managing partner at Pinza! With Supy’s help, this business managed to reduce its variance by a whopping 85%! All thanks to easy, regular updates of stock, wastage, and invoices with Supy’s mobile app.
It has often been seen that manual restaurant procurement processes can lead restaurant managers into issues like stock mismatches and supplier miscommunications. Automating your procurement processes can thus lead to several benefits:
Here’s why Supy’s procurement solutions might be right for you:
Identify Your Top Suppliers and Build Business Relationships: One underestimated but vital part of building a business is developing relationships! Supy makes it easy to track how each of your suppliers treats you. Is one giving you a higher discount than another? Now you can check to see which suppliers are increasing their prices or throwing you a freebie from time to time to find the best supplier worth your money!
As Geordy Murphy, President of Cypress Hospitality Group, notes, “The restaurant business is a business of pay, and there are a ton of pennies that you have to keep an eye on.” In an article by PRWeb, Geordie claims that collecting real-time data can boost a restaurant’s profits by up to 40%!
Effective accounting software is a crucial part of this process. By providing real-time financial tracking, these software are designed to help you manage your cash flow while simultaneously conducting several profitability analyses.
Some key features of Supy’s Reporting and Analytics tool include:
Supy also integrates with accounting platforms like Xero, MYOB AccountRight, and Microsoft Dynamics Nivision to provide a unified view of your restaurant’s performance. Click here for a full list of our integrations.
By integrating all three of these core restaurant technologies—Point of Sale (POS) systems, inventory management, and accounting software—restaurant owners and managers are paving the way toward a more cohesive, data-driven system of operations. This unification offers several advantages:
Case Study
Burger28, a renowned local burger chain based in the UAE, used to struggle to maintain operational excellence across its multiple locations. It was difficult to reduce variance and monitor key metrics across inventories, while also delivering insights to floor staff for data-driven decision-making. The owner, Alex Debarre, also wanted to grow his business sustainably, maximizing the productivity of employees without distracting them or having to hire more staff.
With Supy’s help, Burger28 has managed to successfully centralize its data, eliminating all paperwork from this small business and aggregating its entire inventory onto a central platform. Owner Alex Debarre is now happy to report a 6% profitability increase, and a hundred hours of manual labor saved every month!
In today’s restaurant industry, cloud-based solutions have become an indispensable tool for multi-location establishments. Managing multiple restaurant locations presents several unique challenges, including maintaining consistent operations, synchronizing data, and overseeing inventory across each branch location. With cloud-based systems, restaurants have real-time access to data from any of their locations. This centralization ensures uniformity and streamlines operations across all branches.
Although implementing a restaurant tech stack is a great way to enhance your restaurant operations, there are several common pitfalls that might be hindering your success:
Here are a few ways you can ensure a smoother tech implementation process:
Phased Implementation: It’s important to introduce new technologies in multiple phased stages before a full-scale rollout. This approach minimizes disruptions and allows for smoother transitions.
It is thus evident that in today’s fast-paced and competitive restaurant landscape, adopting the right tech stack is a crucial step towards streamlining your operations and improving customer relationship management. We have seen how POS systems, inventory management software, and accounting tools form the main backbone of any modern restaurant tech stack. When integrated effectively, these technologies provide restaurants with real-time data that allows for smarter decision-making and more efficient operations.
Supy’s comprehensive suite of solutions was designed specifically with these challenges in mind. From seamless inventory management tools that reduce waste to automated procurement methods, Supy is designed to enhance every aspect of restaurant management.
Don’t let outdated systems hold you back. Sign up for our newsletter or book a free demo today to discover how we can help you build a more efficient, data-driven restaurant tech stack and take your business to the next level!
To learn more about restaurant inventory management software, click here.
Supy is the best restaurant inventory management software platform tailored for multi-branch restaurants and franchises. With features like real-time inventory tracking, smart procurement systems, and advanced analytics, Supy helps restaurants manage their various demands effectively and provides the tools restaurants need to thrive in a dynamic industry.
For the latest expert insights, download Supy’s ebook: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Food Costs in Multi-Branch & Enterprise Restaurants.
Ready to find out more? Schedule a demo with Supy today and take the first step towards a streamlined, profitable future.
Reducing food costs is essential for maximizing profit margins, minimizing waste, and improving the overall financial health of a restaurant.
A sustainable food cost percentage typically falls between 28-35%, though it varies by restaurant type and pricing strategy.
Portion control prevents ingredient overuse, ensuring that food costs remain consistent and predictable across dishes.
Bulk purchasing often lowers the per-unit cost of ingredients, but it should be balanced with storage capacity to prevent waste.
An inventory system helps track ingredient usage, prevent over-ordering, and reduce waste, thereby lowering overall food costs.
Monitoring waste allows restaurants to identify sources of loss and implement waste-reduction practices to save on food expenses.
Menu engineering helps identify high-cost/low-profit items, allowing adjustments in pricing, ingredients, or portion sizes to improve profitability.
Training staff on portion control, waste reduction, and efficient food handling can significantly lower food costs by reducing errors and waste.
Local sourcing often reduces transportation costs and shortens the supply chain, potentially lowering food costs while supporting local economies.
Negotiating can secure better pricing, payment terms, or discounts, helping to reduce overall ingredient costs.
Monitoring variance identifies discrepancies between expected and actual costs, allowing adjustments to maintain budget targets.
Standardized recipes ensure consistency, control ingredient costs, and maintain portion sizes, which aids in food cost management.
Seasonal adjustments allow restaurants to use ingredients when they are most abundant and affordable, helping to lower food costs.
Reducing waste minimizes losses, helping restaurants save money by fully utilizing purchased ingredients.
Accurate forecasting helps align inventory with demand, minimizing waste and preventing overstocking of perishable goods.
Technology, such as Supy’s inventory management tools, enables real-time tracking, demand forecasting, and data analysis to optimize purchasing and reduce waste.
Best practices include using the FIFO method (First In, First Out), labeling expiration dates, and regularly checking inventory for spoilage.
Consistent suppliers reduce the risk of unexpected price changes, enabling more predictable food cost management.
Properly priced menu items ensure profitability by covering ingredient costs and contributing to overhead and labor expenses.
Cross-utilizing ingredients across multiple dishes minimizes waste and allows bulk purchasing of key ingredients, reducing overall costs.