Restaurant accounting specialists People Serving People (PSP) today has a singular focus: Help restaurants successfully serve guests and boost profitability by implementing Restaurant365’s integrated, all-in-one restaurant accounting and management platform within 30 days.
The South Florida-based firm is dedicated to the restaurant industry and serves its unique needs with outsourced restaurant accounting and consulting that includes dedicated operations account managers, daily bookkeeping, reporting and insights, period-end accounting reconciliations, financial reporting, and year-end services, all revolving around rapid implementation and maximization of Restaurant365.
Founded in the neighborhood of Cambridge, MA, PSP began implementing Restaurant365 for clients in 2016. Now based in South Florida, PSP is dedicated to the restaurant industry and serves its unique needs with outsourced restaurant accounting and consulting that includes dedicated Restaurant365 accounting and operations, training, daily bookkeeping, reporting and insights, period-end accounting reconciliations, financial reporting, and year-end services, all revolving around white glove Restaurant365 implementation.
“It’s very important for restaurants as they work with tiny margins, and every month counts,” said PSP Chief Data Officer Reinier Venekamp. “The migration process is perceived as being easy because we do the majority of the work.”
Implementing on the Fly
Row34, a group of four comfortable-yet-sophisticated New England seafood restaurants spread across the region, knew that as the company grew, it needed to take a more sophisticated approach to how it approached finances, but after a decade with QuickBooks was concerned about making the switch.
PSP “was unbelievably helpful in guiding us through that and making it seamless for us,” said Row34 Co-Owner Shore Gregory. “We started working with (them) on Jan. 8 and were live on Feb. 1. They knew not only just the restaurant business but how to make Restaurant365 fit perfectly for our business.”
Between PSP’s understanding and insight into the industry and R365’s integration, centralization, and ease of use, more people within Row34 are accountable for day-to-day decision-making that drives profitability with accurate, near real-time data.
"We started working with PSP on Jan. 8 and were live on Feb. 1. They knew not only just the restaurant business but how to make Restaurant365 fit perfectly for our business.”
“Restaurant365 has everything in it,” said Suzy Hays-Bailey, beer director for Row34. “I can see all of the transactions, I can see the invoices, I can see my inventory accounts, and we can use those numbers to project and plan for what’s going to happen in the future without having to spend time in Excel or a spreadsheet.”
That ability to get granular, with confidence, within the wildly unpredictable, varied, and complex restaurant industry helps PSP and its clients find big savings in some of the smallest places.
Finding Extra Cheddar
The Pareto Principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 rule, argues that roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.
There are plenty of real-world examples. Roughly 20% of fundraising donors contribute 80% of total donations. We wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. Even Blockbuster once reported that 80% of rentals came from 20% of movies. Restaurants are no different, and often the vast majority of the cost in a restaurant comes from 20% or even as little as 10% of the raw ingredients it buys regularly.
PSP recently found significant savings in a small but mighty place for one of its clients with six locations.
Across a six-month period, PSP noticed the price of sharp cheddar cheese, one of the key ingredients in the client’s beloved mac-and-cheese, rose 13.9% from $2.95 to $3.36.
For this restaurant company, the increase translated into an excess cost of $2,740 per period for a single menu item. Combined with increases in other inventory items like meat, poultry, and eggs, it’s easy to see how quickly even the hardest-working, best-performing restaurant can slip into the red.
“When you spend $17,000 more than usual on shredded cheese over the year that should definitely be on your radar,” says James Simpkins, VP of Client Success at PSP. “This is the type of data PSP brings awareness to in the day-to-day challenges of operations. If you can’t see it, you can’t fix it.”
Reviewing inventory and P&L statements once per month or quarter can leave those kinds of unnoticed for months.
“With R365, you’re going to be able to get line-item detail across every item,” said Simpkins. “Purchase histories, for example, give you insight into costs and spend, and provide buying power for the future. When a client knows exactly how much money they’ve spent on an item, it can help in negotiations with vendors to stabilize costs, or obtain a contracted price.”
I didn’t get into the restaurant world to run a business, I got into it to cook, but if you really want to own your own restaurant you gotta do both.” "It’s been great (working with PSP and Restaurant365). It gives us a real chance to spend more time doing what we are supposed to be doing and has definitely saved us time, definitely saved us money.
Conclusion
Restaurant owners and operators have long known real-time access to detailed, accurate data is the key to preserving and growing margins through the ups and downs the industry regularly faces. However, getting that information proved nearly impossible with cumbersome, generic accounting solutions and partners that weren’t accustomed to the industry’s needs.
“We use Restaurant 365 because it’s built for restaurants by restaurant people,” PSP’s Venekamp said. “They know what issues you’re facing, and they’ve built the solutions to resolve them.”
