Guide: how to choose restaurant management software
Good restaurant management software connects the table booking, the waiter's order, the kitchen and the kitchen stock into a single flow. The wrong choice leaves you with a paper reservation book, a menu in Word and a cash register that knows nothing about what you sold. This guide shows how to choose restaurant management software: the features that matter, the Romanian legal obligations and the cost components.
The essential criteria (short answer)
- Check the four core modules: reservations with a floor plan, a menu with recipe cards, orders sent to the kitchen and stock control.
- Keep the electronic fiscal cash register for the fiscal receipt: the management application complements it, it does not replace it.
- Check the whole flow during a busy service: booking, seating, order, send to kitchen, payment, report.
- Ask for reports by day, by dish and by waiter — without them you can fix neither the menu nor the shifts.
- Work out the total cost: subscription, floor and kitchen equipment, the fiscal register, staff training and the time to set up the menu.
The essential features
- Table reservations on a floor plan, showing the reserved and the free tables.
- A QR digital menu, linked to recipe cards with portion weights and the production cost of each dish.
- Orders taken at the table and sent to the kitchen.
- Ingredient stock levels, tracked in the same application as the menu.
- Shift clock-in for the team.
- Sales reports by day, by dish and by waiter.
Table: separate tools vs. dedicated restaurant software
Many venues start with a paper reservation book, a chat group for shifts and a standalone cash register. The table compares the fragmented approach with a single system, on the criteria you feel in every service.
Separate tools vs. dedicated restaurant software
| Criterion | Separate tools | Dedicated restaurant software |
|---|---|---|
| Reservations | A book at the host stand and messages on the phone | A floor plan with the reserved tables |
| The menu | A printed file, updated by hand at every price change | A QR digital menu, tied to recipe cards |
| The order | A handwritten ticket, physically carried to the kitchen | The order goes from the application to the kitchen |
| Stock | Inventory in a spreadsheet, once a month | Ingredient stock levels, in the same application |
| Reports | Recalculated by hand from the cash register's Z report | Sales by day, by dish and by waiter |
What Romanian law says
- A fiscal receipt is mandatory for every payment taken on site and must be issued by an electronic fiscal cash register (OUG 28/1999).
- Fiscal cash registers must be connected to the ANAF IT system, which periodically collects the fiscal reports.
- The 14 allergens must be communicated to the customer for non-prepacked food — on the menu or in a visible, available document (EU Reg. 1169/2011, art. 44).
- Every business that prepares and serves food must apply procedures based on HACCP principles (EC Reg. 852/2004).
- Restaurant and catering services carry the reduced 11% VAT rate, while alcoholic drinks and CN 2202 soft drinks fall under the 21% standard rate (rates applicable since August 2025 — check the current level).
- The D406 (SAF-T) informative return also applies to small companies, starting 1 January 2025.
- Prices and portion sizes must be fully displayed on the menu; the consumer protection authority (ANPC) checks that customers are correctly informed (OG 21/1992).
What matters, by type of venue
- À la carte restaurant: the floor plan, the reserved tables and orders sent to the kitchen.
- Café: a simple menu, with a recipe card for each drink, and reports by day and by dish.
- Bar: per-serving pour sizes in the recipe card and the stock levels of drinks.
- Pizzeria: the QR digital menu, a recipe card for each pizza and orders sent to the kitchen.
- Catering and food courts: recipe cards with the weight of each portion and the production cost of the dishes.
Practical example
Example: a 60-seat bistro with 8 employees. Before, reservations lived in a book and orders were handwritten and carried to the kitchen. After moving to a single system, the waiter sends the order from the application to the kitchen, and at closing the report shows sales by day, by dish and by waiter.
What you can measure yourself: the time between taking an order and sending it to the kitchen, before and after the switch. Note it for a few evenings, so you have a figure for your own venue, not an advertised one.
Common mistakes
- Buying a system just for payments and keeping reservations in a book — the two never line up again.
- Assuming the management application replaces the cash register, when the fiscal receipt is issued only through the cash register.
- Not entering recipe cards with portion weights, so production cost stays a guess.
- Ignoring shift clock-in, even though staff cost is one of a restaurant's largest expenses.
- Deciding without seeing the full flow during a busy evening — exactly when the system matters most.
How 4restaurants.net helps
- Reservations, the floor plan, orders, stock and shift clock-in sit in the same application.
- The QR digital menu is based on the recipe cards with weights, from which the production cost is computed.
- The waiter's order reaches the kitchen.
- Reports by day, by dish and by waiter are based on the recorded sales.
- It is part of the 4b2b ecosystem; other products, such as 4invoices or 4notify, are separate.