Restaurant payroll software sounds like an easy enough solution right?
But not quite. When looking for restaurant payroll software, a cookie cutter solution isn't going to cut it. You need something that caters to the restaurant industry. A unique solution for a unique challenge.
Every business is unique in the way it functions, yet restaurants are one of the most complex and involved businesses around. With many moving parts it involved, it needs a payroll solution that fits the bill.
Restaurant payroll needs are extra complex due to employees working shifted schedules, hourly pay, staff who are paid differently for different roles during the same day, shift swaps, staff going into overtime, and navigating integrations between software systems like POS systems and workforce management.
And that is why restaurants need a unique payroll solution. But what are the most important features to look for, and why?
Restaurants are dynamic and contain many of variables like labor cost, overtime, and multi-wage positions. Off the shelf payroll software systems just don’t work.
You may have a staff member that has an averaging agreement where their hours structure (like overtime) is different than other staff. Employee setup, payroll processing, and adding earnings should be like second nature to you.
Software can only be as good as its user - if the system isn't flexible to your business and you're not getting any value from it, it's likely that the system does not suit you or your business' needs.
The type of payroll software you invest in should be flexible to the complex environment of your restaurant.
A system that is intuitive to send you useful information without spending hours analyzing data? Yes please!
Let’s be real - we’ve all had systems that collect a ton of data; except all it does is give you a big data dump. Data can't be valuable to you, if you can't decipher what you're looking at.
Having a rigid software that gives you ALL or nothing just won’t work without you spending HOURS making adjustments.
Find a system that gives your meaningful data without the heavy lifting on your end, is where the value can be found with restaurant payroll management software.
And alerts are always a bonus! They'll give you a nudge on things you need to flag such as an employees forgetting to clock out, reaching overtime, or staff working over certain number of hours for Affordable Care Act (ACA) tracking.
A system that has a time & attendance module or point-of-sale integration will help you eliminate the step of transferring hours.
If you're using a point-of-sales software to track time, integrations with your payroll provider can also aid in speeding up data transfers of hours and sales!
You’re busy enough. Introducing payroll software to your restaurant should allow you more time to grow your business - instead of working on tedious items (like data transfers).
Yes, your provider may be processing your payroll faster but payroll reports are RICH in data.
When it comes to compiling reports, your restaurant payroll management software provider should be doing all the heavy lifting.
With the ability to look at meaningful reports, that are tailored to your business' specific needs, you'll be able to properly analyze your business at face value.
The whole point of investing in restaurant payroll software is to make the process easier and faster.
In Canada alone, restaurants employee 520 000 people under the age of 25. Most restaurant employees are students who are hourly employees. And keeping track of cross trained employees who can hold 2-5 positions is a handful - or a headache if you have a retainer of 200+ employees. That's a lot of vacation time to track!
Restaurant payroll software should automate everything. Anything that is manually calculated, transferred, or tracked should be automated. That means no more statutory holiday and tip out calculations or vacation and benefit tracking!
“In the labor numbers, we were reporting about a $300 to $400 difference than what we were getting through Push!”
-Tara Hardie, ZZA Hospitality Group, 16 locations