By Varsha Solanki, Contributor

Between the daily kitchen hustle, employee scheduling, guest management, orders and invoice tracking, marketing and everything else that goes into running a restaurant, the daily grind for a restaurant manager can be intense.

But what if you took a little technological help to make your life easier and work manageable?

Through the right restaurant management app, you can handle your job much easier and save a lot of money (and sanity) in the long run. The right app can also ensure the growth and expansion of your restaurant’s business. So, to give you a head start, we have curated the best apps for restaurant owners and managers that will help in achieving your business goals and yield profit with seamless functioning.

Before diving into the restaurant management app developments, let’s go through some of its essential benefits, which will make your work systematic and on automation.

Core benefits of a restaurant management app:

Managing the workforce by atomizing employee scheduling and HR processes.
Inventory control to keep an overview of stock and predict in advance, the food consumption and purchase ratio.
Unlike the traditional cash register, the management software tracks sales.
The financial statement is prepared automatically.
Can monitor inventory usage, labor patterns, sales, and other processes from off-site control or from a remote location.

Now, let’s move on to the best restaurant management software for your startup or business.

#1 Ambur

Ambur is an easy-to-use Point of Sale management system that allows a user to run an unlimited number of open orders, securely process payments, manage employee’s payroll, menu customization using search filters and categories, and customer information.

Basically, the software manages everything from payment processing to taking orders. The app also has a virtual AI-based restaurant or bar layout with a sitting arrangement that allows the customers to book their seat in advance and avoid miscommunication with the restaurant management.

Whether you are a small cafe holder or a celebrity chef, the POS system can streamline your operations efficiently. In fact, there will be no late orders or missing orders, as you will be informed directly in your iOS or Android device about the menu curated by a particular diner at the restaurant. Thus, you will be serving the best and fastest service with the help of such tools.

#2 Waitlist Me

Yes, you have guessed it right! The name itself says it all. Waitlist Me is a management software that notifies guests via message or phone call when their table is ready at the restaurant. The major feature of this app is customer information. It keeps a track of age, gender, number of people, and most importantly any specific needs like seats for kids or other sitting arrangement factors. It’s great for building customer personas.

One of the most important features of this app development is the “public waitlist view.” It provides the waiting diners with the check-in status. This will keep your staff away from the unnecessary question bombarding and argument with the customers and thus, they will be able to achieve some other task.

#3 Crunch Time

Crunch Time is the most efficient food-cost management app. The system handles everything from inventory to stock to food management. This results in labor-management efficiency and avoids food wastage, saving time and money. The app is accessible anywhere, anytime on a computer or on a specific mobile device platform. It makes it easy for restaurant operators to handle their back-office whenever they want detailed information or check upon a certain task.

For even better user experience, the app integrates seamlessly with your POS so that your business can study its sales and labor costs. Such input can decide your business goals and cut down the cost or meet the system loopholes by analyzing it in real-time.

#4 Delaget

Delaget is an app easily manages and integrates with any other technology. There are many software management apps made for restaurants. These all are made with different management skills as there is no all-in-one tool made to justify every functionality. So the Delaget app can easily integrate with any of your technologies now or in the future without any restrictions.

Key offerings of this restaurant management app are as follows:

It can easily fetch details from your different restaurant outlets and you can review all the other branch’s work through this software. For instance, if you use Ambur software, Delaget can collect the data from the app and provide you with insights.
It advises on how to improve restaurant operations to maximize revenue and margins.
It can track employee performance metrics as well as handle accounting and payrolls.

The core of this app lies in its integration with other app world’s technology. It is like a safety locker, that can contain every data secured and saved for future use too.

#5 Open Table

Open Table software is an amalgamation of reservation, waitlist, and sales information. It is like a waitlist app when it comes to virtual seat monitoring and alter reservation needs in real-time. This app can handle over 600 integrations, and thus will never have a booking problem.

Your customer can book directly from the website or third-party sites like Google, Apple, TripAdvisor. It serves as your shift management tool and determines whether you need employees to cover specific shifts.

#6 Mixology

Do you ever get bored by offering the same, standard drinks in your pub or bar or restaurant? Then this app is for you. It suggests different recipes according to the available ingredients. It has a database of more than 8000 drink recipes and more than 1000 ingredients to choose for a signature drink in making.

Mixology makes it easy for the chefs and the bartenders to create special drinks on special requests and customer demand. This will, in turn, build goodwill for your business and a loyal consumer base. Your staff will be relieved as they will no longer have to think about the “special drinks of the week” as they will have ample resources to make one at their disposal.

#7 Bizimply

Have you decided to expand your restaurant business? Or already have certain outlets but are not able to manage it? We have a perfect solution in the form of the Bizimply app for you. This app for restaurant management helps in managing shift schedules, workforce attendance, HR issues, payroll, all from a smartphone device.

Some of the key benefits of this custom software management app:

Accurate shift scheduling and attendance in real-time.
It helps in the decision-making of adding or eliminating the employees according to their attendance and shift management.
The time is saved by not examining the “schedule shift” papers as the app does it automatically for you.
The HR team can easily find the loopholes in the employee management and can eliminate it in the meantime much faster than it used to be before the software,

#8 Buffer

We live in a digital age, which has a boon of digital marketing platforms. But, as the owner or manager of a restaurant, you don’t have enough time to brand your business on these platforms. But, to remain updated with Gen Z this has become an essential part of our business.

Buffer is a social media management app that allows scheduling social media posts in advance. All you need to do is prepare a post for each platform, upload photos, schedule the post and the software will start posting it automatically.

The app lets you analyze user engagement and interaction of each post with detailed insight. This also helps in knowing what kind of content appeals most to your audience and you can plan accordingly for future posts.

#9 Sling

Sling is for a restaurant business that is looking for a limited budget employee scheduling app. It helps you in scheduling your employees day-to-day work or a week’s work at once.

You can also edit the work and track employee availability accordingly. The employees can use the app for punch in- punch out that helps in comparing their actual working hours with respect to the given schedule. For payrolls, you just have to export the timesheets and the salaries are calculated in seconds.

#10 Chowbot

Chowbot integrates the point of sale menu to the online ordering platform so that the users can order food and opt for takeaway or delivery at their doorsteps. You need to choose a third-party online ordering business and set up a printer in your kitchen. When someone places the online order, it will directly notify your printer. This way you will never miss any order, and this software is very useful for home startups or small restaurants who are coping up with the online food delivery and ordering industry.

Conclusion

If you are planning to open a new restaurant or have an existing one, you need to streamline your procedures. Through the restaurant management app, you can make a major difference and save a lot of time and money for the future as well as other marketing purposes. These softwares will make your brick-and-mortar business perform seamless functions and tasks with timely goal achievements. Take your time in deciding the apt one that suits your business.

Author the Author:
Varsha Solanki is a Digital Marketing Strategist at Space-O Canada, a Custom software development company. She has 3 years of experience in the Information Technology industry. She spends her time reading about new trends in Digital Marketing and the latest technologies.