An independent restaurant usually runs on a point-of-sale system at the till, QuickBooks or Wave for the books, a clipboard or the chef's head for inventory, paper punch cards for loyalty, and a delivery app that takes a large cut of every online order.
The chef has to 86 the special at eight because nobody saw Thursday's count. A regular loses their punch card in the rain. Year-end takes a week because the point-of-sale exports don't match the supplier invoices.
We build custom software for independent restaurants, cafes, bakeries, breweries and retail shops. It sits beside your point-of-sale, and we'll tell you on the first call whether yours can be connected: most can be read from, and some can be written to.
Things we could build for restaurants and shops
- Your own ordering page, with your menu on it, that takes card payment and prints the order in the kitchen. Customers would order from their phones with nothing to download, and you could switch it off when you're slammed.
- A kitchen count that goes down as dishes go out, or a shop count that goes down as items sell, with a warning on the things that matter.
- A loyalty program that fits your offer, tracked by phone number or email instead of a card.
- Digital gift cards and store credit, bought online and redeemed at the till.
- A staff schedule that part-timers check from their phones, with shift swaps that don't go through you.
- Reports that answer your questions: bestsellers by hour, sales by shift, this year against last, and what each supplier is costing you.
The ordering page or the inventory make a natural first piece. An ordering page on its own is often a couple of weeks of work.
The till is good at the till
Point-of-sale systems handle the transaction well and charge you every month for the rest. The way your bakery prices day-old bread, or the loyalty offer you've been wanting to launch, are what you end up working around. A custom tool sits beside the till and does those things, with no monthly fee to us and no cut of your orders.
How payment works, and what's yours when it's done, is on the work with us page.
Common questions from restaurants and shops
Will this replace our point-of-sale?
Usually not, and usually you don't want it to. What we build pulls sales out of the till for reporting and, where your point-of-sale allows it, pushes menu changes back in. Nobody touches your till on a service night.
Who takes a cut of online orders?
Only the card company. Card payment on your own ordering page costs a small percentage to the card company, the same kind of fee as a card at the till. There's no delivery-app commission and no fee to us per order.
Our staff change all the time. Is it easy to learn?
The parts your staff touch are kept as simple as we can make them, and we walk your staff through it when it goes live.
Getting started
A short, free call about how your shop runs on a Friday night is the first step. Request a call and pick an afternoon slot, or fill in the estimate form.