Decreasing Restaurant Costs

1. Focus on Effective Scheduling

It takes an average of three hours to create restaurant employee schedules. With managers being among the highest paid employees within a restaurant, the task of employee scheduling accounts for a huge chunk of a restaurant’s labor costs.

Typically restaurant managers use multiple spreadsheets and excel to schedule their employees. Excel is for numbers, not for people. 

Managers have to regularly adjust these schedules when requests for time off and shift changes come in. This takes huge amounts of time, not to mention distributing the manager's already busy schedule.

This is where an online scheduling platform comes in. These types of platforms can save your managers multiple hours each week. Also, you can check out these 7 tips you can reduce costs through effective scheduling.

2. Start Inventory Tracking

This is an area where restaurants have a major problem. It isn’t the most popular task when it comes to restaurants. In fact - most restaurateurs find it to be arduous, time-consuming, and frustrating. Make no mistake, when inventory tracking is done wrong, that's exactly what it will be.

However, restaurant inventory management is critical when it comes to ensuring profitability. The main issue with inventory tracking in restaurants is the complete lack of structure and accurate data.

So, let's fix that!

This is where an inventory tracking system can help restaurants reduce waste, over-buying, and over-portioning. This will, in turn, reduce the restaurant's costs and increase profits.

3. Pay Attention to Employee Time & Attendance Tracking

Most businesses with hourly paid employees use pen and paper to ensure employees clock in and out for shifts and breaks.

This method is broken. 

With multiple timesheets, illegible handwriting, and employee time theft, it ends up costing restaurants thousands of dollars each year because of inaccurate or wrong data.

Let me hit you with some stats from the American Payroll Association:

• 74% of employers experience payroll losses related to buddy punching.
• Buddy punching losses average 2.2% of gross payroll, and that’s just one form of time theft.
• The average weekly “theft” of time long lunches and breaks, tardiness, early departures, etc.) is four hours and five minutes per employee per pay period.
• Inputting time cards manually can cost 1% to 8% of your annual gross payroll due to human error. This can come from keying in numbers incorrectly, transposing numbers, or misreading handwritten records.

Simple apps can be used to capture employee clock in, out, and break times. This along with image capture of employees, when they clock in, will save your restaurant thousands of dollars each year.

If you are searching for other ways to reduce your restaurant’s labor costs then look no further! Check out these simple, everyday tips to help lower labor costs in your restaurant.