Choosing restaurant software for a New Zealand venue
Good restaurant software keeps the front of house, the kitchen and the stock in one place. The wrong choice leaves you with a paper booking book, a menu in a word processor and stock counts that never match your sales. This guide covers the features to check, the rules for a food business and the costs to add up before you sign.
The essential checks (short answer)
- Check the four core modules: table bookings on a floor plan, a menu with recipe cards, table orders sent to the kitchen and ingredient stock.
- Ask how payments are taken. 4restaurants.net does not take payments, so your EFTPOS or POS stays separate.
- Test the whole flow during a busy Friday service: booking, seating, order, kitchen, payment, report.
- Ask for reports by day, by dish and by waiter. Without them you cannot fix the menu or the rosters.
- Work out the total cost, including hardware, your EFTPOS terminal and staff training.
The essential features
- Table bookings on a floor plan, showing reserved and free tables for each time slot.
- A QR digital menu, linked to recipe cards with portion weights and the food cost of each dish.
- Orders taken at the table and sent to the kitchen.
- Ingredient stock levels, counted against the recipes that use them.
- Shift clock-in for the team.
- Sales reports by day, by dish and by waiter.
Table: spreadsheets and paper vs. one system
Plenty of venues start with a paper book, a group chat for rosters and a spreadsheet for stock. The table compares that with one system.
Separate tools vs. one restaurant system
| Criterion | Separate tools | Dedicated restaurant software |
|---|---|---|
| Reservations | A paper book at the host stand and messages on the phone | A floor plan with the reserved tables |
| The menu | A printed menu, reprinted by hand at each price change | A QR digital menu, tied to recipe cards |
| The order | A handwritten docket carried to the kitchen | The order goes from the application to the kitchen |
| Stock | A stocktake in a spreadsheet, once a month | Ingredient stock levels, in the same application |
| Reports | Totals added by hand at close | Sales by day, by dish and by waiter |
What New Zealand law asks of a food business
- New Zealand has no special cash register rule. Keep sales records that meet Inland Revenue (IRD) requirements, and check with your accountant.
- Allergen information should follow the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (FSANZ). Check the detail with a food safety adviser.
- The Food Act 2014 applies. You will work under a food control plan or national programme, with records of your food safety controls.
- GST is 15%, with no reduced rate for restaurant meals. If menu prices include GST, divide by 1.15 to get the price excluding GST, and check with your accountant.
- Holiday pay under the Holidays Act 2003 depends on accurate hours, so keep reliable shift records. Check the detail with an employment adviser.
- Prices and portion sizes must be clear and not misleading. The Fair Trading Act 1986 covers what you tell customers about your food and prices.
Practical example
Example: a hypothetical 60-seat bistro in Wellington with eight staff. Bookings lived in a paper book and orders were written on dockets and carried to the kitchen. After moving to one system, the waiter sends the order from the application to the kitchen, and at close the report shows sales by day, by dish and by waiter.
What you can measure yourself: the time from taking an order to it reaching the kitchen, before and after the switch.
Common mistakes
- Buying a system for payments and keeping bookings in a paper book, so the two never line up.
- Assuming one system will take payments, and finding out after you sign that it does not.
- Not entering recipe cards with portion weights, so food cost stays a guess.
- Ignoring shift clock-in, even though staff cost is one of the largest costs in a restaurant.
- Deciding without seeing the full flow during a busy service, when the software matters most.
How 4restaurants.net helps
- Bookings, the floor plan, table orders, stock and shift clock-in sit in one application.
- The QR digital menu is based on recipe cards with weights, from which the food cost is calculated.
- Orders taken at the table reach the kitchen.
- Reports by day, by dish and by waiter are based on the sales recorded in the application.
- It does not take payments or connect to other software today, so payment stays on your EFTPOS terminal or POS.