Technology in the restaurant industry should simplify operations rather than excessively complicate things, allowing owners to concentrate on growth while optimizing operations.
The introduction of mobile apps in restaurant management systems has been a game changer, taking convenience and engagement to a whole new level. A new manager can run up to $15,000, so it's no surprise that restaurant owners are anxious about turnover.
However, with the best free apps for restaurant managers in place, businesses can streamline the management process.
Notably, quick-service restaurants (QSRs) are profiting greatly from this transition, as mobile applications provide novel solutions to many difficulties they confront on a regular basis.
Gone are the days when QSR owners and managers had to physically visit each store to keep track of activity and assure compliance.
The time-consuming procedure of turning through pages of the "red book" for audits and inspections is being replaced with simplified and efficient mobile app solutions.
73% of diners agree that restaurant technology improves their guest experience. With the power of mobile applications, QSRs can now easily monitor and control their operations across many locations from a single dashboard, removing the need for a physical presence at each outlet.
Best Free Apps For Restaurant Managers
Here's a detailed run down on the best free apps for restaurant operators and managers, alike!
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1. Xenia - All Time Best App for Restaurant Managers
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With an all-inclusive suite of solutions, Xenia is one of the best free apps for restaurant managers that transforms restaurant management by integrating compliance, everyday end to end operations, and overall maintenance management to make up for a delightful customer experience.
On top of that, it's also an employee training and accountability program - dubbing it as one of the best restaurant training platform.
The platform maintains a dedicated Learning Center, covering a wide variety of industry use cases that aren't just restricted to restaurants only.
Moving on, restaurant owners and operators can easily develop customized checklists and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) using Xenia's integrated restaurant inspection checklist creation module, and then assign them to teams and individual staff with individual characteristics such as category, location, asset, and priority.
Furthermore, this restaurant app has a dedicated Bluetooth temperature monitoring system with added support for sensors concerning freezers, refrigerators, and temp-probes.
With a comprehensive tracking system for corrective actions, automated processes accelerate responses to out-of-range temperatures.
The platform also allows restaurant owners to take care of compliance and operations so they can concentrate on growing their business.
Key Features
- Custom Checklists: As part of your food quality audit, create your own checklists for temperature checks, food storage, and cleanliness inspections. These checklists help to standardize your audit process and ensure that all essential areas are covered effectively.
- Task and Work Order Management: Assign duties and work orders to staff to address any food safety violations discovered throughout the auditing process. This feature helps ensure that remedial steps are taken as soon as possible.
- Efficient Communication: The message and chat capabilities make it simple for team members to interact. This enables more effective audit coordination and speedier resolution of food safety concerns.
- Corrective Actions: Digital solutions assist in maintaining a thorough record of all food safety actions, guaranteeing constant adherence to standards and making compliance simpler to show during inspections.
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?
Available for up to 5 users
Premium for $99/month for the first 20 users (with free trial period)
Available on iOS, Android and Web
2. Upkeep
Restaurant management teams could profit greatly from the use of restaurant maintenance software.
A restaurant CMMS can ensure that procedures function properly across the establishment in addition to streamlining necessary activities pertaining to restaurant assets.
UpKeep's restaurant-centric features are frequently ranked under the category of the best free apps for restaurant managers in terms of value, simplicity of use, and customer service.
Key Features
- Managers can simply manage a full inventory of restaurant assets, monitor their use, and arrange repairs or replacements as needed.
- Keeping track of compliance requirements and arranging inspections to ensure restaurants adhere to all safety regulations.
- Customers will have a pleasant and comfortable experience if all systems are well-maintained and functional.
- Managers should utilize reporting and analytics to examine patterns, identify reoccurring problems, and make data-driven choices to help save money.
- Keeping track of service history, expenses, and vendor performance will assist restaurant management in developing excellent relationships with maintenance contractors and suppliers.
Pricing
- Free Trial: Yes
- Lite: $20 /month per user
- Starter: $45/month per user
- Professional: $75/month per user
- Business +: Request pricing for more information
3. SafetyCulture
SafetyCulture is a well-known and highly regarded digital solutions supplier that provides the finest restaurant management software that digitizes information and streamlines processes to enhance the overall performance of the restaurant personnel and assure the quality of goods and services.
Their extensive array of features eliminates the stress of paperwork and other administrative responsibilities, letting owners and their staff concentrate on the most vital issues of their day-to-day operations: providing exceptional dining and keeping their clients happy.
Key Features
- For opening and closing inspections, equipment maintenance checks, and personnel performance reviews, use customizable forms and templates. Relevant restaurant checklists may also be downloaded from the Public Library.
- For safe document storage, scan all papers and put them in a single location where users may access them according to their assigned roles.
- To increase operational efficiency, capture problems, and provide remedial measures.
- Produce reports with relevant analytics to guarantee that food safety regulations are met.
- Assist staff in developing their abilities in areas such as safe food handling, kitchen safety, hospitality management, and more.
Pricing
- Free version: Available for teams of up to 10
- Pricing: Premium plan $24/month
4. MarketMan
MarketMan is a cloud-based inventory management technology that works with restaurants of all sizes.
It includes capabilities such as menu planning, budgeting, supplier management, and system-suggested ordering. It assists in the optimization of restaurant inventory management and the reduction of food expenses.
Key Features
- Connect your POS and Accounting with SaaS software that interacts with your technological stack to control your restaurant inventory.
- In seconds, you can boost menu profitability, minimize COGS, and create data on real vs. theoretical COGS and gross profits.
- Use scanned invoices to power powerful analytics and reporting solutions that automatically monitor price swings and provide preemptive notifications for any price adjustments.
- Centralize reporting, communication, and consistency across all sites. Place orders, receive delivery, manage recipes, and grow inventory with ease.
- Assist staff in developing their abilities in areas such as safe food handling, kitchen safety, hospitality management, and more.
Pricing
- Operator: $179/Monthly for Control inventory, ordering, & receiving
- Professional: $249/Monthly for more tools and insights to lower COGs
- ULTIMATE: $399/Monthly for large multi-unit organizations
5. HotSchedules
HotSchedules combined with Fourth in 2019, and it has since been a part of its technology ecosystem.
It is a cloud-based software solution for the restaurant and hotel industries.
It offers extensive scheduling, labor management, and communication features. It aids in streamlining personnel management, improving communication among staff members, and optimizing operational efficiency and employee productivity.
Key Features
- User-friendly UI with drag-and-drop functionality
- Demand forecasting in 15-minute intervals allows for quicker scheduling and wiser deployment.
- Individual team member messaging and mass broadcasts to all workers
- Shift transactions are simple to approve.
- While scheduling, compliance notices and alerts
Pricing
- Free Trial: Yes
- Contact the vendor for pricing
6. Form
In the search for effective restaurant management operations, form emerges as an invaluable tool.
This software streamlines our approach to food safety compliance by facilitating the digital transition of conventional monitoring forms.
Their mobile restaurant employees will especially benefit from the integration of an offline mobile app, which will enable them to gather data easily and instantly, even in places with spotty internet.
Key Features
- With our Bluetooth thermometer IoT integration, you can ensure exact temperatures and initiate corrective action with simple workflows.
- Choose from 12 distinct job categories, such as temperature and picture, and utilize dynamic form logic to take the appropriate action from anywhere.
- Real-time measurement of critical aspects like as ingredients and equipment, as well as marketing, menus, and point-of-purchase materials.
Pricing
The company offers three plans
- Essential
- Pro
- Enterprise
The plans typically start at $5000 per year, but pricing will depend on your business needs. You can ask for a quotation
7. LimeTray
Up next on our best free apps for restaurant managers list, we've got LimeTray.
It is a centralized platform for all your restaurant's requirements, starting from A - Z!
LimeTray can reportedly assist you in growing your online company, managing your restaurant operations, and promoting your brand more effectively. Restaurant marketing and technology solutions from start to finish.
With an automated inventory management system, you can save time and money.
Within a few clicks, you may easily monitor inventories, regulate food expenses, and manage suppliers. Set up notifications to notify you when you run out of essential materials.
Key Features
- Automate the majority of back-end functions for a smooth workflow. Segregate orders based on cook time and the time of order.
- Keep track of everything that comes in and out of your restaurant kitchen. Receive quick notifications and updates whenever you are about to run out of an ingredient.
- A single dashboard with multiple integrations and tools for better management.
Pricing
- Free Trial: No
- Contact the vendor for pricing
8. 7Shifts
Our next Best free apps for restaurant managers keep your team on the same page.
Restaurants are busy and stressful places for employees to work. With demanding customers, long hours, and high expectations, you must try to limit any unneeded stressors.
A massive pain point in restaurant management is employee scheduling. You need to know who’s available, what shift to place them in, and who to call in if someone goes wrong.
7-shifts is all about making restaurant employee management a whole lot less complicated.
The scheduling software empowers your staff to change their availability, request time off, and trade shifts with one another.
As a manager, you can create schedules faster than ever before. With 7 shifts pumping out ready-to-go schedules save on labor costs, and help reduce no-shows with automated shift reminders.
In addition to generating and maintaining employee schedules, the app also comes loaded with an in-depth toolkit built to optimize its user’s day-to-day operations. It keeps an eye on employee hours, and task lists and even allows for tipping to be pooled and spread equally on each employee’s behalf.
Key Features
- Efficiently and effectively create and manage your staff scheduling while taking into account employee availability and preference
- Effortlessly keep track of time and submit payroll promptly with an integrated digital time clock that your employees and managers can access easily.
- Take control of your labor costs, and make sure your labor costs are associated with your sales by profitably scheduling employees. Drive sales by improving your productivity through reporting.
- Instant mobile notifications that will notify you of any scheduling changes, shift requests, and reminders.
- Easily integrate with your POS to ensure operational efficiency and automate sales tracking and labor costs.
- Assign, track, and rate-of-return / ROI tasks for your team to ensure the efficiency of their operations and accountability.
- Monitor staff work hours, pay rates, and efficiency ratios to schedule and prove employees to grow and reward the electronic chip card.
- Unrestricted accessibility of staff planning, trading routes, and internal communication channels to foster cooperation and transparency within the team.
Pricing
- Comp: Free
- Entrée: $34.99
- The Works: $76.99
9. Wisk
Wisk, a free app for restaurant owners, is a great way to help strengthen a business’ inventory management plan.
By using this invaluable tool, business owners can accurately monitor how much of the product they have in stock and order additional products when needed.
The app tracks the vendors plus it reminds you to reorder products. No more manually entering products and invoices.
You can also use the new iPhone app to take a photo of the barcode or invoice and all the data gets pulled into the app for you – even faster!
Wisk’s usage goes further than tracking your inventory, it lets you take real-time control of your costs.
By breaking down each dish into the components used in the dish you can calculate the exact cost of each dish when you were last invoiced.
With this information, you can then strategically re-price your menus to counteract any costs that have increased and that would take away from your profits.
In addition, the integration of POS systems gives you actionable insights using sales analysis. Practically, this means pulling up actionable insights like spotting food waste patterns, determining if things are getting stolen, and much more when combining sales data with inventory data.
This empowers restaurant owners to make informed decisions and reach peak efficiency in their operations.
Key Features
- Synchronize with popular POS systems such as Toast, Square, and more to keep sales and inventory data in one place.
- Keep tabs on inventory levels, ingredient costs, and procurement needs.
- Calculate dish profitability, and adjust menu prices based on updated cost data.
- Use robust reports and analytics to gain operational insights and make informed decisions.
- Interact with vendor invoices online for a more seamless transaction.
- Track orders and streamline fulfillment--all in one integrated procurement system.
Pricing
- Bar Essential: $249
- Professional: $399
- Elite: $799
10. BevSpot
From simple, fast inventory and ordering tools, to actionable analytics and tools for strategic planning, BevSpot helps restaurant and bar owners take control of their beverage program and run a better business.
It is a fully integrated free app for restaurant managers for your total beverage management needs.
It offers everything from inventory management to ordering to invoicing, and even core sales data. For multi-unit locations, the platform can act as your central dashboard, pulling data from all of your locations into one database to enable inventory management across locations.
Ultimately, BevSpot’s true value proposition is that it reduces time spent on inventory and ordering and allows time to be spent on the diner experience, not inventory. The inventory is more accurate, items are scanned and par levels can be set. Equipped with its intuitive recipe editor, BevSpot will allow for easy-to-access cost percentages to facilitate informed decision-making, financial prudence, and accurate pricing.
Key Features
- The CRM empowers you to manage customer interactions effectively ensuring a high quality of service at all times providing information at your fingertips to make quick, well-informed business decisions.
- Effectively track inventory levels, manage stock movement, and optimize your entire procurement process.
- Provide a convenient shopping experience to your customers by offering integrated online payment capabilities
- Simplify your billing and invoicing workflows ensuring timely and accurate financial transactions
- Streamline order processing and fulfillment, improving accuracy and speed.
- Restaurant managers can easily analyze their businesses' data, like comparing sales at different locations and tracking an itemized history of a particular beer, to adjust their management accordingly.
Pricing
- Free
- Standard: $249
- Pro: $299
What is Restaurant Management Software?
Restaurant management software is a system that includes all of the marketing and operational components needed to operate a restaurant.
While improving marketing and operations, the system is meant to handle order administration, payment processing (which is handled by payment processing software), and day-to-day issue handling.
Data security measures are included in standard restaurant management software to protect critical company information.
It will also link all workers to ensure the success of your business by monitoring labor, sales, and inventory data. This is critical to the overall success of the business.
Why Invest in The Best Free Apps for Restaurant Managers?
Businesses should invest in restaurant management software to increase their profit margins, sales, and satisfaction with customers.
At the same time, it will help reduce order processing mistakes, employee attrition, and wait times.
The following are additional reasons why you should invest in restaurant management software:
- Organized Operations: With a restaurant management system, you can improve inventory management and turnover, work on personnel scheduling, and make modifications to various kinds of menus.
- Quick Service: Such software provides quick turnaround with minimum chance of mistakes. Improved communication between front and back-of-house workers is also conceivable.
- Automatic Payments: Payment processing services, such as those offered by restaurant management systems, are fast, dependable, and secure.
- Improved Customer Loyalty: Some restaurant management systems can employ value features. These include coupons, promotions, discounts, and a variety of giving alternatives. Customers will often return knowing that they can take advantage of these perks.
Benefits of Restaurant Management Software
When starting a business such as a restaurant, you'll want to keep up with some of the most popular restaurant industry and restaurant technology trends. This is true whether you're operating a coffee shop, a bakery, a food truck, or a ghost kitchen.
Among these developments is the deployment of the best free apps for restaurant managers.
Restaurant management methods will differ depending on the kind of business. However, one element stays constant: the desire to earn a profit.
Such software will assist restaurant management since it minimizes expenses, enhances earnings, and delivers excellent customer service.
Improved Sales Tracking
When employing a restaurant management system, all transactions are routed via the system. This covers orders, payments, promotional discounts, gaps, and costs.
This indicates that your sales data is correct down to the last item.
Quick Access to Financial Information
All transactions are digitally recorded in a restaurant management system, which eliminates the majority of human mistakes. Transactions, for example, will contain a time stamp and order data, such as the identity of the employee who completed the transaction and the sold products.
Improved Customer Service
Customer satisfaction should always be a primary focus, particularly in the restaurant industry. Restaurant technology aids in the improvement of customer service. You will have a better understanding of your clients thanks to the CRM tools provided by restaurant management systems.
Remote Data Access
Most restaurant technology and management software is now cloud-based.
This enables a company owner to access their system and data from anywhere using a web browser. They will be able to monitor staff performance remotely and get real-time sales transaction statistics.
These features enable restaurants to have engaged management even while they are on the go. This information is also useful when presenting to an investor or a customer.
Efficient Staff Management
It's possible to create employee schedules with a restaurant management system easily.
The integrated employee scheduler will automatically allocate additional staff members, such as wait staff and bar staff, during peak hours and less during downtime.
Sales data can be aggregated with the employee schedule in order to match the demand with supply. This ensures that you’ll have fully optimized resources that are never under or over-utilized.
Improved Staff Communication
A restaurant's communication between the executive chef, wait staff, and cashiers is critical. The constant difficulty at restaurants is that information is lost somewhere between each of these groups of individuals. Customers are irritated as a result.
Restaurant management systems improve staff communication. Customers can make orders while waiting by using portable devices. That data is sent to the cashier so that it may be appropriately captured and billed.
Reduced Restaurant Expenses
Cost-cutting is essential in every business. When it comes to everyday operations, a well-managed inventory management procedure and personnel scheduling will assist a corporation in decreasing its losses.
Variances can be controlled or prevented entirely with a restaurant management system, resulting in greater savings.
Bottomline
When it comes to keeping things organized, boosting team efficiency, and ensuring customer satisfaction, the best free apps for restaurant managers provide some of the best possibilities.
With increased efficiency, insightful data, and smooth software connections, all of these technologies can improve your profit margin and the overall performance of your organization.
Even though you'll need an account and a subscription to use most of these apps to their fullest, you can try out a lot of them with a free trial or demo.
FAQs
What is a smart restaurant system?
A smart restaurant uses a wide range of cutting-edge technological tools to streamline its operations. Food tech firms are developing automated technologies to help restaurants run more smoothly and effectively. The recently popularized idea of opening a "smart restaurant" is shaking up the food service sector.
Is POS an RMS System?
The business and retail environment is incomplete without a Point of Sale (POS) system and a Retail Management System (RMS), which are connected but separate components. In order to simplify sales processing, payment acceptance, and receipt creation, a point-of-sale (POS) system integrates hardware and software solutions.
On the other hand, a Retail Management System covers greater ground and goes beyond only the transactional parts of retail operations.
In order to maximize the entire performance and efficiency of a company, an RMS would often include tools for managing inventories, customer relationships (CRM), and the supply chain.
What can I manage with an RMS?
A Restaurant Management System (RMS) enables businesses to manage all aspects of their operations.
You can effortlessly manage inventory with this powerful software system, which ensures correct monitoring of stock levels, movement, and automatic reordering operations. The technology also allows for smooth POS transactions, speeding sales processing and payment operations.
Streamline Food Safety, Maintenance and Daily Operations with Xenia
Xenia unifies food and beverage operations with tools to standardize, track and measure work across every team, asset and facility.
Our customers love Xenia's robust use cases including:
Food Safety Management
🌡️ Automatic Temperature Monitoring
Xenia leverages temperature sensors that utilize both Bluetooth and LoRaWAN technology to transmit data reliably to your Xenia account. The monitors work continuously in a range of 40°C to 125°C and an accuracy of +/- 0.4°C. When an temperature deviates from a pre-set acceptable range, management is notified to investigate and resolve.
🔎 Smart Inspection Workflows
Xenia's operations template builder has built in conditional logic into each step. This allows you to trigger actions based on a form response such as creating a corrective action on a failed inspection step, sending a notification to management for out of range meter readings, and much more.
✨ Corrective Actions
Operationalize inspections with fast work order assignment arising from a failed inspection step. All corrective data is stored in the checklist submission for auditing and accountability.
📋 Compliance Reports
View live dashboard summaries of tasks, employee performance, template submissions and more. Filter, organize and export compliance reports to PDF and Excel formats to simplify compliance management.
Maintenance Management
🛠️ Work Orders
Create work orders with associated team, asset, location, priority, category and due date. View live progress reports on each work order, chat with teams, and review resulting template submission, images and notes to improve operations.
🧰 Preventive Maintenance
Create a preventive maintenance calendar to ensure asset uptime is not compromised. Attach images, templates, videos and notes to every task and assign to a team or individual for completion.
📲 QR Codes
Generate and attach QR codes to equipment and facility locations to enable fast and accurate inspections and data logs.
📁 Equipment Work History
View work history for every asset and sub asset in Xenia. Review performance data and enable corrective actions to improve your operation.
Daily Operations
✔️ Checklists & SOPs
Create checklists, SOPs, Inspections and Data Logs to power accountability, training and staff clarity on every task.
📆 Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
💪 Team Accountability
Defeat pencil whipping and disorganized responsibility assessments by standardizing operations with Xenia. Track time, collect photos, send messages and ensure high quality work.
📊 Team Performance Reporting
Use Xenia's analytics dashboards to view staff work reports. Filter by asset, location, category or due date and export the report in PDF or Excel
Streamline Your Operations With The Best Restaurant Automation System
Xenia unifies BOH and front-ended food and beverage operations with tools to standardize, track and measure work across restaurants.
Our customers love Xenia's robust use cases including:
🌡️ Automatic Temperature Monitoring
Xenia leverages temperature sensors that utilize both Bluetooth and LoRaWAN technology to transmit data reliably to your Xenia account. The monitors work continuously in a range of 40°C to 125°C and an accuracy of +/- 0.4°C. When an temperature deviates from a pre-set acceptable range, management is notified to investigate and resolve.
✔️ Restaurant Checklists & SOPs
Create checklists, SOPs, Inspections and Data Logs to power accountability, training and staff clarity on every task.
🔎 Smart Inspection Workflows
Xenia's operations template builder has built in conditional logic into each step.
Doing so allows you to trigger actions based on a form response such as creating a corrective action on a failed inspection step, sending a notification to management for out of range meter readings, and much more.
🛠️ Work Orders
Create work orders with associated team, asset, location, priority, category and due date. View live progress reports on each work order, chat with teams, and review resulting template submission, images and notes to improve operations.
✨ Corrective Actions
Operationalize inspections with fast work order assignment arising from a failed inspection step. All corrective data is stored in the checklist submission for auditing and accountability.
📋 Compliance Reports
View live dashboard summaries of tasks, employee performance, template submissions and more. Filter, organize and export compliance reports to PDF and Excel formats to simplify compliance management.
📊 Team Performance Reporting
Use Xenia's analytics dashboards to view staff work reports. Filter by asset, location, category or due date and export the report in PDF or Excel
📆 Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
💪 Team Accountability
Defeat pencil whipping and disorganized responsibility assessments by standardizing operations with Xenia. Track time, collect photos, send messages and ensure high quality work.
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