Restaurant analytics software is designed to help any restaurant operate smarter and more efficiently.
Restaurants are known for having thin margins. It’s also a busy environment! It can be tricky to manage your restaurant's operations and profits without having access to the right information.
By using the right data analytics tools, your restaurant can make smarter, faster decisions that enhance every area of operations. Ultimately, this results in a better bottom line.
This guide explores what type of capabilities you can access from restaurant analytics software, and looks into some of the best restaurant analytics solutions available.
What is Restaurant Analytics Software?
Restaurant analytics software helps restaurants access and understand data across their different operations.
Utilizing restaurant analytics is the process of examining different areas of data to help you make more informed decisions to boost your restaurant’s performance. Data can come from many different areas of your restaurant operations.
Software for restaurant business analytics gathers information on your customers and restaurant performance from multiple sources. This data is then visualized in a way that makes it easy to understand and assess.
Restaurant owners can use restaurant analytics software for various tasks, like optimizing food costs, monitoring customer satisfaction, improving inventory management, and understanding overall business performance.
Restaurant data analytics software is usually part of a larger restaurant management software platform, as the data will generally come from other software tools your restaurant uses.
Best Restaurant Analytics Software Options
Various restaurant business intelligence software solutions exist, each with its own unique features, pros, and cons. Here are some of the best data analytics tools for the restaurant industry right now.
1. Craftable
Craftable is a complete hospitality platform that offers three main functions:
- Inventory and procurement
- Accounting and payments
- Business intelligence
The business intelligence component is a comprehensive restaurant analytics software solution. This solution provides analytics on sales, guests, labor, and more. The forecasting tool is highly detailed, helping restaurants prepare for the future and make more informed decisions with each service.
Because Craftable has an extensive accounting solution, the platform is also great for monitoring your restaurant's financial data. This streamlines accounting processes and can help restaurant owners identify areas to become more cost-efficient.
The platform syncs with your restaurant’s POS system every 15 minutes to provide a constant stream of up-to-date information.
Main Features
- Detailed sales tracking
- Automated reporting
- Sales forecasting
- Inventory and procurement
- Accounting and payment tools
2. MarginEdge
MarginEdge is a restaurant management software solution focused on managing food costs and automating back-office tasks. The platform gathers a wide range of data and uses this to generate detailed reports that restaurant owners can use to make smarter decisions.
MarginEdge’s solution covers invoice processing, cost management, inventory and food usage, menu analysis, and more. With all of these different areas, the platform helps restaurants gain meaningful insights to improve their operations and optimize their profit margins.
The restaurant analytics software offers real-time insights whenever you need them. You can integrate MarginEdge with your restaurant POS software and other tools to help you gain and share insights more efficiently.
Main Features
- Recipe and menu analysis
- Cost management tools
- Inventory and food usage analytics
- Back office efficiencies
3. Posist
Posist is an all-in-one restaurant management solution. The platform includes a wide range of tools for controlling every element of a restaurant business, including front-of-house, back-of-house, and out-of-house tools. Of course, Posist also offers detailed restaurant data analytics.
Posist’s restaurant analytics platform is designed to help restaurant owners make more informed decisions. The unified platform provides real-time analytics to help you spot trends, develop forecasts, and improve your restaurant operations.
Because Posist is an all-in-one solution, the restaurant technology platform provides visibility over every aspect of restaurant operations. This is available through detailed, on-demand reports.
Main Features
- Detailed sales data
- Menu optimization tools
- Inventory control functions
- Real-time pricing and promotions management
- Part of a larger restaurant management solution
4. Restaurant365
Restaurant365 is another popular restaurant management software platform designed to boost restaurant efficiency and profits. While the platform includes a fairly wide range of tools, one of the focal points of the software is restaurant data analytics. In this case, the restaurant data analytics software is called ‘Intelligence’.
Restaurant365 includes tools for accounting, store operations, and workforce management. The platform combines your restaurant POS system, bank information, and vendors to help you gain more control and insights over these areas.
This means that restaurants can use the platform to access detailed restaurant business analytics across various areas of operation. This helps any restaurant make smarter decisions for better results.
Main Features
- Real-time insights on restaurant performance
- Data visualization
- Data dashboards
- Collaborative reports
- Part of a larger restaurant software solution
5. MarketMan
MarketMan is an extensive restaurant management solution, offering a wide range of tools like inventory management, expense tracking, ordering management, and more. In each of the different modules, MarketMan provides useful restaurant data analytics to help you gain greater insight into your restaurant’s performance.
Overall, the platform has been designed to simplify order management, reduce waste, and help restaurants operate more profitably. Restaurant managers can achieve these things by accessing the detailed information presented in each of the software’s modules.
MarketMan is suitable for small businesses and enterprise restaurant operators. The platform is all cloud-based, allowing you to access and track data when you need it.
Main Features
- Restaurant management system
- Inventory management
- Expense tracking
- Purchasing and ordering management
- Recipe costing solution
6. Plate IQ
Plate IQ offers end-to-end automation software for a variety of different industries, including restaurants. The restaurant solution includes tools for invoice automation, vendor payments, document storage, and more. The main focus of the platform is to save time, eliminate paperwork, and streamline manual processes.
Within all of this, Plate IQ offers some excellent restaurant data analytics. Restaurants can access large pools of information on-demand, and gain insights into various aspects of their operations. And because all of this is automated, using Plate IQ makes it easy to save time and maximize restaurant efficiency.
While Plate IQ doesn't offer very detailed insights into areas like inventory management or staff efficiency, it is one of the better solutions for paying bills and processing invoices. This means you can get some great insights into your restaurant’s financial performance.
Main Features
- Invoice automation
- Payment approvals and processing
- Automated vendor payments
- Digital filing
- Virtual cards
Conclusion
Various restaurant data analytics software solutions exist, each one offering unique insights and capabilities.
Whatever solution you choose, it's important that it works with your existing restaurant software and integrates seamlessly with your POS. This is necessary for sharing the right sales data and making data transfer between your different platforms a breeze.
It’s also important that the software provides the kind of insights that your business needs to achieve its goals.
If your restaurant hosts events, then using the right event management platform will help you achieve even more with your data insights. With a solution like Perfect Venue, restaurants can save time, book more events, and maximize profits as an events space. Watch a demo to see how the software can help your business achieve more.
