The Top Mistakes in Restaurant365 Implementation | Global Shared Services
No matter how great a tool is, it’s only valuable if it’s set up and used well. In other words, buying a high-end guitar doesn’t make you a rock star.
Similarly, Restaurant365 is the leading back office solution for restaurants, but that doesn’t mean that empowering your restaurant business is as simple as purchasing the software. Capitalizing on the potential of this high-end restaurant accounting software requires a baseline of strategy and knowledge.
At Global Shared Services, we can help to ensure that you get the most out of Restaurant 365. To that end, here are the top mistakes that restaurant businesses make in Restaurant 365 implementation, presented to help your business avoid them.
1. Poor Communication
The most common barrier to a successful solution is poor communication – and, really, this is the foundation for many of the other issues we’ll discuss. Poor communication can undermine software solutions in nearly endless ways, but there are three issues that are especially common:
Poor internal communication of needs. It’s critical for businesses to accurately articulate for themselves what they hope to achieve with a software solution. Poor communication around needs can lead to overinvestment or the pursuit of an ill-fitted offering.
Poor communication with employees. Additionally, employees must have a clear understanding of how they’ll be expected to use a solution (and how to use the solution in the first place). If they don’t, implementation will fail.
Poor communication with vendors. Finally, successful implementation requires clear communication with vendors. This is especially true for any vendor partners that will be actively using the software.
2. Unclear Expectations
Unclear expectations are another common hurdle to successful implementation (unsurprisingly, often stemming from poor communication of needs upfront). For example, some businesses expect Restaurant365 to function as a plug-and-play solution – meaning that they expect it to start working from the outset, straight out of the box.
In reality, any powerful software system requires some set up. Yes, Restaurant365 is tailored to the operations of restaurants – it uses 13 periods, offers frameworks for dealing with multiple LLCs, makes weekly reporting easy, integrates with over 150 point-of-sale systems, and more – but its elements need to be set up based on the needs of each business so that data flows through the system correctly.
3. Lack of Buy-In
A lack of business-wide buy-in can sabotage an implementation. When a single department doesn’t adopt the system, it can ruin the system’s usefulness across all elements of the business.
For instance, if the kitchen isn’t using the system and instead opts to continue inventory management using the same disconnected spreadsheets they’ve been using for years, inventory won’t be tracked correctly. If inventory isn’t tracked correctly, it won’t be possible to accurately note expenses. At a bottom-line level, it won’t be possible to generate accurate leading prime profit.
If, however, everyone in the business buys into using the system to conduct operations, the data will be accurate and the integration between business functions will enable powerful insights.
Successful implementation depends on business-wide buy-in.
4. Inconsistent Usage
This point is in a similar vein, but it’s worth breaking out separately for its importance: in addition to getting full-scale buy-in, a successful system implementation requires consistent usage.
It’s not uncommon for businesses and their teams to use Restaurant365 (or any new system) for a few weeks, only to revert back to old systems or fail to input data when things get busy. In other words, you can’t just get buy-in across the organization once and for all. You have to get buy-in across the organization over time because data becomes more valuable and more insightful when it’s tracked consistently over longer intervals. Comparing reporting periods year-over-year is far more valuable than looking at data over a series of a few months.
Ultimately, commitment has to come from the top of the business. Making the most of Restaurant365 means powering through the onboarding process and continually ensuring accurate usage so that consistent data is achieved.
Capitalize on the Power of Restaurant365
Are you ready to make the most of Restaurant365? Let’s talk.
It’s a powerful tool. And while simply purchasing it won’t make you a leader in your industry, using it well will absolutely set you on that path.
At Global Shared Services, we help restaurant businesses to capitalize on the power of Restaurant365 by offering trusted outsourced accounting services through the software. We’ve walked with businesses through successful implementations. While we don’t offer comprehensive user training for every function of the system, we can provide a degree of introductory training – and, most importantly, we can offer guidance and consistent accounting services to empower success.
If you’re ready to make the most of a powerful tool, get in touch with us today.
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