In the restaurant industry, staying ahead of the pack demands innovative solutions that elevate operational efficiency and profitability. A Good Egg Dining Group, a thriving company dedicated to crafting exceptional dining experiences, discovered a game-changer in Restaurant365, a comprehensive restaurant management platform. Terry Buster, Director of IT at Good Egg, shared the transformative journey the restaurant group embarked on after adopting Restaurant365.
The Maze of Manual Processes
In early 2022, A Good Egg Dining Group found itself entangled in the limitations of its existing systems. With QuickBooks, backend operations were cumbersome, and leaned heavily on manual paperwork and daily spreadsheets, each confined to individual software silos. This decentralized approach hindered the seamless tracking of food and liquor costs, labor expenses, and overall accounting processes.
“We could see what we sold, and we could see what we bought, but there was no real way to tie those two together,” Buster said.
With eight restaurants under their belt at the time, consolidating information required physical visits to each establishment to gather invoices and other sales documents, followed by manual data entry at corporate. This time-consuming endeavor not only drained precious hours but also raised security concerns regarding sensitive financial documentation. Moreover, as Good Egg envisioned expansion, the existing model proved unsustainable, particularly when considering markets located hours away from their central office.
A Guiding Light in the Digital Wilderness
Recognizing the need for a more scalable and efficient solution, Buster and the Good Egg team embarked on a quest for alternatives. Their objective was to uncover a system that could streamline processes, provide real-time insights, and accommodate future growth without significantly increasing staffing requirements.
Restaurant365: The Catalyst for Change
The introduction of Restaurant365 marked a pivotal chapter in Good Egg’s story. One of the immediate benefits was that managers no longer needed to drive to the corporate office to deliver invoices. This returned invaluable hours to the team each week and enabled the corporate office to process invoices efficiently, while the centralized platform empowered accounting department to manage data effectively, saving time and reducing the need for additional personnel.
Real-Time Insights for Operational Excellence
Restaurant365 also provided Good Egg a gold standard source of data, extending its capabilities to scheduling, inventory management, and invoicing, offering a comprehensive solution for the restaurant group.
Good Egg’s approach to inventory management was revolutionized. Restaurant365 empowered the company to pinpoint inefficiencies in stock levels and adjust orders accordingly. This data-driven approach resulted in substantial cost savings, including a reduction in its beer stock from a 4-month supply to a more realistic level based on actual usage.
"From a hiring standpoint, Restaurant365 allows us to expand with the same number of people while getting more results."
Empowering Store Managers
Beyond cost savings, Restaurant365 played a pivotal role in enhancing the efficiency of Good Egg’s store managers. The platform fostered a more precise approach to inventory counting, encouraging managers to pay more attention to detail to continually, incrementally boost margins. With the help of Restaurant365’s recipes feature, Buster said, “we are teaching kitchen managers to pay attention to weights and volumes to help recipes be more consistent and their numbers be more accurate.” This precision not only optimized recipes but also contributed to the overall technological literacy of the managerial staff.
Accounting for Savings
The most notable impact was in the accounting department. Previously, entering weekly numbers consumed a significant number of days and hours each week. With Restaurant365, the process was streamlined to the point where weekly numbers were done in a day. This efficiency translated to substantial savings, enabling Good Egg to manage 35 entities with only two-and-a-half people, avoiding the need to hire additional personnel. “From a hiring standpoint, Restaurant365 allows us to expand with the same number of people while getting more results,” Buster said, noting that the financial savings in terms of salaries and benefits amounted to an estimated $100,000.
Poised for Growth
Buoyed by the success of Restaurant365 implementation, Good Egg Dining Group is now well-equipped to navigate the exciting path of future growth. Restaurant365 has not only saved costs but has also empowered Good Egg to focus on its core mission – delivering exceptional dining experiences to its valued customers. The restaurant group is confident in its ability to open one or two more restaurants in the coming year, with Restaurant365 providing a solid foundation for expansion.
