6 Best Restaurant Forecasting Software for 2024

6 Best Restaurant Forecasting Software for 2024

1. Xenia - The Frontline Workforce Operations Platform

Power up your restaurant's performance with Xenia’s restaurant forecasting software. With our all-inclusive software, restaurant owners can bring their tech stack together in one place, and receive consolidated key insights on how to hit your KPIs and take your restaurant operations to the next level.

Our software is perfect for multi-unit restaurant businesses that require seamless management across locations, centralized data analytics, efficient inventory control, and streamlined operations.

Xenia enables restaurants to make data-driven decisions, ensuring that they are well-prepared for varying levels of demand and can minimize waste while maximizing efficiency.

With our proprietary forecasting algorithms, users can leverage historical data and real-time analytics, to forecast sales, manage inventory more efficiently, schedule staff, and many other factors to produce the most accurate model of your future sales. 

Key Features

Labour Demand Forecasting for Multi-unit Facilities

As you start your journey with Xenia by logging in your data, our industry-leading analytical system starts analyzing completed tasks, employee numbers, team task count, location, and more and delivers comprehensive insights that help in making accurate forecasting decisions. This goes beyond simply analyzing past demand.

As a result, you can get a bird’s eye view of all your units, organize rotas in advance, and avoid having to send employees home when business isn't as busy as you anticipated or scurry to locate substitutes when an unforeseen surge occurs.

Advanced Historical Data Analysis

Once you’ve logged enough information, Xenia analyzes past data to help forecast future demand and productivity This feature is crucial for refining your task strategies and resource allocation.

By incorporating the analysis, you can make your operations more streamlined and effective.

Real-Time Analytics and Tailored Reporting

As you keep operating your restaurant, Xenia's real-time analytics provide instant insights that facilitate prompt decision-making. Restaurant managers may act quickly in response to changing conditions, improving overall efficiency and optimizing operations through the use of dynamic data and actionable insights.

Managers can tailor reports with Xenia to ensure optimal clarity and relevance. This helps them base strategic decisions on the most relevant facts and helps them make well-informed judgments.

Mobile Accessibility with In-app Communication Tool

To make sure that you can make forecasting-related decisions on the go, we highly recommend getting Xenia’s mobile app. 

Through mobile phones, our platform gives you access to all your data and your team, keeping you in touch with them at all times - whether you are out on a trip or working from home. The built-in in-app chat enables you to communicate with your employees instantly, resolve issues in real-time, and make certain that everyone is on the same page, thereby enhancing overall efficiency and responsiveness to the needs of your customers.

Pricing

• Free Forever: Free trial for up to 5 users
• Starter: $99 / month for 15 users
• Premium: $199 / month for 15 users with unlimited access to all the core features
• Custom: Need something tailored to your organization? 

Book a call to get your quote.

2. 5-Out

5-Out's state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) technology for predictive analysis transforms the restaurant forecasting software market. This cutting-edge application aims to democratize access to AI forecasting for eateries of all shapes and sizes, not merely by providing real-time staff scheduling and purchase recommendations. 

Small restaurant businesses were previously frequently unable to afford sophisticated AI forecasting tools, but 5-Out changes that.

5-Out can assist you in estimating sales and streamlining your operations in crucial areas, regardless of the size of your business or the niche you operate in. This guarantees that every restaurant has the chance to prosper in the cutthroat market of today.

Key Features

• AI-Predictive Analysis: 5-Out uses cutting-edge machine learning algorithms to analyze past data and predict future trends. This study takes into account both internal elements like past sales data, reservations, and labor scheduling, as well as external impacts like weather, traffic, local events, and holidays. It covers predicted sales volumes, consumer foot traffic, and accurate inventory and staffing requirements.

• Real-Time Staffing Recommendations: With the use of 5-Out's predictive skills, restaurants can create the ideal staff plan by precisely predicting busy and calm hours. By doing this, it is ensured that ideal service levels are upheld without incurring the expense of excessive staffing.

• Purchasing and Inventory Management: 5-Out offers thorough suggestions for inventory control. Restaurants can control waste and have an ideal inventory to match anticipated demand by setting Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) targets and receiving item-by-item forecasting. 

Pricing

• Contact the vendor for pricing.

3. Zip Forecasting by Hubworks

With its smooth interaction with POS systems such as Plum POS, Zip Forecasting, a cloud-based restaurant forecasting software from Hubworks, is tailored to the restaurant industry and provides incredibly precise sales estimates. It makes real-time data analysis possible, which helps with labor scheduling and accurate inventory planning.

With Zip Forecasting, users can forecast revenues at intervals of 15, 30, and 60 minutes in addition to monitoring and analyzing data on a daily basis. The time range over which these projections should be created is selectable by the user.

Key Features

• Optimize Work Schedules: Staff projections can be generated every 15, 30, or 60 minutes. Additionally, you may avoid overscheduling by projecting the number of employees you'll require at each position throughout the day.

• Implement Automated Forecasting: Use Zip predicting Software to experience cutting-edge predicting algorithms based on historical data. Give up on labor-intensive manual sales forecasting and fully automate your forecasting.

• Forecast Sales and Transactions: With only a few clicks, create sales and transaction predictions. You may drill down to 15-minute intervals with precision thanks to detailed projections that guarantee exactness.

Pricing

• Zip Forecasting: $19 / per month

4. Restaurant365

Restaurant365 is a comprehensive restaurant demand forecasting software that combines accounting, inventory, and scheduling with superior forecasting capabilities. By consolidating various facets of restaurant management into a single, cohesive system, this platform seeks to improve productivity and transparency of finances.

Your POS provides detailed labor and sales data that is automatically extracted to create daily labor and sales accrual journal entries for your general ledger. Reduce time, improve accuracy, and maximize output.

Key Features

• Real-Time Insights: With a straightforward drag-and-drop interface that makes it simple to combine data to get relevant insights, you can centralize POS, sales, and labor data.

• Better Benchmarking: Develop a data-driven strategy to boost profits and enhance guest experiences by reducing CoGS and labor costs, identifying top-selling dishes, and pinpointing the dish and staff combinations that expedite table turnover.

• Data Visualization: With a dynamic UI and intuitive design, you can visualize important data with ease and accelerate your growth.

Pricing

• Core Accounting: Starting at $399/month per location
• Operations Management: Starting at $269/month per location
• Workforce Management: Starting at $199/month per location
• Advanced Reporting and Analytics: Custom pricing available

5. Actabl

Actabls’ restaurant forecasting software provides an intuitive user interface that makes data entry and modification simple. Hotel management may make well-informed decisions with the use of the software's comprehensive forecasting features, which offer comprehensive insights into income and expenses. 

Actabl's budgeting solutions also ensure accuracy and save time by streamlining the budget generation process. Overall, Actabl is a great option for hotel budgeting and forecasting needs due to its features and functionality.

With the platform's comprehensive historical data analysis, customers can base their decisions on prior results.

Key Features

• Business Intelligence: The business intelligence toolset from ProfitSword offers real-time data and forecasting that is essential for making immediate adjustments and managing a more successful and efficient company.

• Automated, Real-Time Insights: Acquire knowledge and make preemptive financial and operational choices to boost staff and visitor happiness and optimize portfolio profitability.

• Increase Accountability & Efficiency: By combining all of your property's systems into one platform, you can gain more insight into your teams and reduce manual labor and data entry.

Pricing

• Contact the vendor for pricing.

6. Syrve

With the use of artificial intelligence, Syrve enables you to forecast demand in the future and adjust your operations appropriately. You can prepare your kitchen staff, arrange purchases, organize rotas more efficiently, and make data-driven decisions with more precise and valuable predictions and less guessing.

Managing your inventory levels and creating precise projections with Syrve can help you lower the chance of overordering or missing sales opportunities.

Using Syrve eliminates the need to frantically try to remember the past, go through mountains of documentation, or make educated guesses. All of this is derived from reliable business data. 

Key Features

• Accurate Sales Forecasting: Predicts future sales trends based on historical data, helping to optimize inventory and staffing levels.

• Automated Stock Management: Adjusts inventory orders automatically according to forecasted demand, reducing waste and ensuring product availability.

• Labor Optimization: Aligns staffing schedules with predicted business volume, ensuring efficient labor use and reducing unnecessary labor costs.

Pricing

• Contact the vendor for pricing.

What is a Restaurant Forecasting Software?

A restaurant forecasting software coupled with the POS system offers entrepreneurs an extensive range of insights on sales and revenue, labor, customer demand patterns, discounts, customer footfall, and ordering density via the restaurant's website and third-party apps.

Some people may choose to estimate using visitor counts or even transaction counts rather than sales to reduce the revenue fluctuations that result from changing prices. Others might want to compare patterns from year to year (adjusting sales from the previous year based on current trends). 

The idea is that operators should be able to select the metrics that are most useful for their operation with ease from the forecasting system. Although straightforward, forecasting is not always simple. To create an accurate estimate of future sales, a great deal of number crunching is necessary, yet number crunching by itself is insufficient. 

A forecasting tool needs to be user-friendly, comprehensive, integrated with other labor and food planning applications, and support the metrics that matter most to the operator to plan for the best possible guest experience and extract the biggest cost savings. The road map to maximum efficiency is provided by a strong forecasting system.

Final Thoughts

In today's quickly changing hospitality market, the value of having reliable restaurant budgeting and forecasting software cannot be emphasized. From streamlining data entry to improving financial decision-making with sophisticated analytics, Xenia provides special capabilities to meet the different needs of restaurants. 

Remember that the correct restaurant forecasting software helps your business effectively navigate future market dynamics and guest expectations in addition to streamlining your budgeting and forecasting operations.