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Over the last two years consumer dining preferences and restaurant operations have quickly shifted, and restaurants have adapted and adjusted to a new way of doing business in a pandemic-affected world. Technology tools quickly emerged as the solution to the varying issues that restaurants are facing. Square’s 2022 Future of Restaurants report found that 62% of restaurants say automation would fill critical gaps in managing orders placed online, at the restaurant, and via delivery apps. But now restaurants are faced with the struggle of seeking out the right technology, onboarding it, and running a business, all at the same time.
Every business has unique needs. A centralized restaurant point of sale (POS) solution that integrates with a variety of tools and solutions can bring together orders made through different virtual and physical channels.
With restaurants facing labor shortages, rising cost of goods, and pandemic recovery, technology solutions that allow businesses to adapt and be flexible are more important than ever.
Retaining and managing staff
According to the Future of Restaurants survey, 73% of restaurants say they are experiencing a labor shortage and have an average of 21% of positions unfilled. As restaurants look to lessen the impact of the labor shortage on their business, automation tools for both back-of-house and front-of-house tasks allow them to be more efficient and intentional with how they manage their teams.
Square integrates with numerous apps and productivity tools that restaurant owners can use to find and manage staff.
7Shifts
7shifts provides a platform for restaurant owners and managers to schedule staff and manage requests on the go. The platform enables restaurant owners to spend 80% less time scheduling and save up to 3% on monthly labor costs. 7shifts integrates with Square POS sales data to build more accurate schedules and sales forecasts.
Additionally, integrated chat tools streamline workforce communications and make it convenient to manage time-off and shift-change requests.
Homebase
Homebase is a team management tool for hourly employees. With employee scheduling, time tracking, team communication, hiring, and HR, managers can spend less time on paperwork and more time on other business needs.
Restaurant managers and owners spend a large portion of their time managing staff and schedules, but with an automation tool, staff can view their most up-to-date work schedule, submit their availability, see who’s free to cover shifts, and request trades, all at their own convenience.
Homebase connects Square POS to get a real-time view of labor costs and sales and integrates with Square Payroll to sync hours.
TSheets
TSheets lets employees track their working time from the register, a text, or a smartphone app. Even from a distance, managers can view a “who’s working” window for real-time insight. Staff time tracked at the register using Square can be sent to TSheets for advanced use and reporting. For businesses with multiple locations, TSheets can sync across all locations into your Square Dashboard to view and assess profitability and productivity.
ZipRecruiter
ZipRecruiter matches candidates and delivers the highest number of qualified candidates as quickly and accurately as possible. Once candidates apply for jobs, easily organize, screen, and rank applicants on your Candidate Dashboard. ZipRecruiter connects with Square to enable business owners to manage multiple job postings through a centralized system.
Managing inventory
For restaurant owners, supply chain disruptions have brought a stronger need for automation and customization to fit the individual needs of each business. Ninety-one percent of restaurants say that inventory and item availability automation would help fill critical business gaps. Automated inventory and vendor tools save time, keep orders on budget, and help you stay one step ahead of supply chain disruptions.
Use these inventory apps to manage your food costs and menu items in real time.
Craftable
Craftable significantly lowers food, beverage, and labor costs by combining vendor purchases with sales and simplifying ordering, payments, inventory management, electronic invoicing, and recipe and menu costing while reducing back-office labor hours. Craftable pulls your Square sales ticket and labor data to give you visibility into your true costs to improve profits. By combining sales and purchases, restaurant operators can view real-time inventory and profit tracking.
MarketMan
MarketMan is a cloud-based inventory management and purchasing solution that simplifies back-of-house operations, streamlining everything from inventory to budgeting, reporting, and supplier management. When integrated with Square, all sales are synced with your POS to manage inventory and provide actionable data from reports on menu profitability, food cost forecasts and actuals, and gross profit.
Yellow Dog Inventory
Yellow Dog supports both single and multi-location enterprise inventory management. Mobile apps are available for fast and accurate physicals and quick item or recipe lookups. With POs, receipts, and automated invoices, purchasing is a breeze. Yellow Dog offers over 380 reports that allow you to fully manage your inventory.
BevSpot
BevSpot is a one-stop shop to manage all inventory, sales, order, and cost needs. The software connects all of your data to help you increase profits and cut inventory time in half, place orders with all your vendors, and gain valuable profitability insights by connecting real-time POS data with real-time inventory and cost data. BevSpot and Square integrate seamlessly to connect the dots between sales and inventory, giving you powerful data to make smarter business decisions.
PeachWorks
Controlling food costs can make or break a restaurant’s success. PeachWorks provides the tools to keep close tabs on where your food and beverages are going. Don’t let over-portioning, waste, and theft destroy your profits. Your menu items in Square are connected to recipes in PeachWorks, showing exactly how much of each ingredient you should have used based on sales. Doing quick, easy inventory counts highlights variances to be investigated. Get your key reports and charts on a configurable dashboard and have your key metrics front and center every day.
Expand your business with new ways to order
Streamlining your POS to handle orders from multiple sources can automatically save you time, enable you to focus more on growing your business, and improve your overall customer experience.
“I will punch this into the sky: Your digital experience is now just as important as your food experience.” Wally Sadat, CEO, The Kebab Shop.
These tools integrate with your Square POS to expand your ordering channels without adding a new system that has to be managed outside of your POS.
Chowly
Chowly connects third-party apps and menus to your Square POS, eliminating the need for manual updates and improving menu and order management for delivery and ordering partners, including DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Postmates.
Ritual
Ritual is a marketplace for local customers to browse restaurants for takeout, order-ahead, pre-payment on the app, and pickup in-store. Connect to your Square POS to import menus, prices, and operating hours, and when an order comes in you’ll see it in your POS alongside your other orders.
Kyoo
Kyoo enables mobile ordering, kiosks, and curbside pickup. If you’re already using Square, you can import items automatically from your Square menu and integrate with daily operations to reduce long lines and increase customer satisfaction with its smooth ordering experience.
Learn about more tools that integrate with your Square POS to help you manage your restaurant.
