Sponsored: partner content from Dealgan Apps
Disclosure: this article was paid for by Dealgan Apps, the company behind the StaffRoom app. Free of Tie and StaffRoom share an owner, Colin Toner.
Start with what you’ve got
Most free houses are now running four or five systems that don’t always talk to each other.
There’s no single right answer. A wet-led corner local needs very different kit from a dining pub with rooms. But it’s worth knowing what each category does, and who the main players are, before a salesperson tells you.
EPOS: the till that does more
Your EPOS is the heart of the operation. These days it usually handles stock, reporting, card payments and sometimes ordering at the table.
- Zonal has been in UK hospitality for more than 45 years. It pitches itself mainly at larger, multi-site operators, offering EPOS alongside bookings, stock and loyalty tools.
- Lightspeed offers a cloud-based ePOS for bars, pubs and restaurants. Its site says the system keeps working offline and syncs back when the connection returns.
- Square for Restaurants and Epos Now are both widely used point-of-sale systems that independents often look at.
Tip: before you sign, ask what it costs to get your data out if you leave, and which other systems it connects to.
Stock and cellar
Wet stock is where margins leak. Some tools measure the beer itself; others handle ordering and stock counts.
- Vianet‘s Beverage Metrics platform uses flow meters to measure draught dispense, then compares it with your till sales to spot drinks that were “poured but not accounted for”. It also tracks line cleaning.
- Fourth offers workforce and inventory software built for hospitality.
- Procure Wizard, a purchasing and stock tool, is now part of Access Hospitality.
Plenty of independents still rely on a good independent stocktaker. Tech doesn’t replace that; it just shows you sooner where the problem is.
Table booking
If you do food, you need a booking system that won’t double-book Sunday lunch.
- ResDiary and OpenTable are two of the best-known booking platforms. OpenTable describes its software as covering reservations, tables, marketing and reviews.
- Zonal also offers bookings with walk-ins and waitlists, managed from one diary.
Rotas and staff comms
This is where most of us are still stuck in the past. There are established rota tools out there:
- Planday covers scheduling, time tracking and staff communication.
- RotaCloud covers rotas, leave requests and time and attendance, with free apps for staff.
- Bizimply covers rotas, clocking in and payroll integration.
But plenty of independents still run the week on a paper rota, a spreadsheet and the staff WhatsApp group. Swaps get buried, nobody knows who’s read the notice about the deep clean, and Monday morning disappears into adding up hours for the accountant.
Where StaffRoom fits
That’s the problem StaffRoom was built to fix. It was built after 28 years in the trade. Built by hospitality, for hospitality.
According to its App Store listing, StaffRoom offers:
- Rotas in minutes. Build the week, copy last week or use saved templates, then publish in one tap. Staff see their shifts straight away and can request swaps or pick up open shifts.
- GPS clock-in and out. Staff can only clock in at your venue, inside a geofence you set, and you can see who’s on shift.
- Payroll made simple. Hours worked out from actual clock-ins, with a weekly pre-tax total. Export it as a PDF or spreadsheet, or have it emailed to your accountant every week.
- A notice board and messaging. Pin notices, see who has read them, and message staff directly.
- Late finishes. Set when your business day ends, so a 2am finish counts towards the right night.
- The rest of the admin. Training videos with quizzes, opening and closing checklists, holiday requests, and staff profiles and documents.
No More WhatsApp Chaos. Getting your team on is simple. Each venue has a reusable team invite code you can drop in the group chat one last time.
Pricing: £10.99 a month or £110.99 a year, with a 14-day free trial, and free for staff. (Prices as listed on the App Store and dealganapps.com at the time of writing.)
StaffRoom UK is available now on the iOS App Store, and it’s coming soon to Android.
The honest bit
Don’t buy tech for its own sake. Pick the one job that eats most of your week and fix that first. Reclaim Your Mondays.
Sources (14)
- Zonal: https://www.zonal.co.uk/
- Lightspeed, POS System for Restaurants: https://www.lightspeedhq.co.uk/pos/restaurant/
- Square for Restaurants (UK): https://squareup.com/gb/en/point-of-sale/restaurants
- Epos Now (UK): https://www.eposnow.com/uk/
- Vianet, Beverage Metrics: https://vianetplc.com/beverage-metrics
- Fourth: https://www.fourth.com/
- Procure Wizard: https://www.procurewizard.com/
- ResDiary: https://www.resdiary.com/
- OpenTable for Restaurants (UK): https://www.opentable.co.uk/restaurant-solutions/
- Planday: https://www.planday.com/
- RotaCloud: https://rotacloud.com/
- Bizimply: https://www.bizimply.com/
- StaffRoom UK, Apple App Store listing (features, prices, version notes): https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/staffroom-uk/id6817310266
- Dealgan Apps (StaffRoom website, 28 years’ experience, prices): https://dealganapps.com/