Restaurant management app: run the restaurant from your phone

A restaurant management app puts the restaurant on the owner’s phone: live sales, orders by channel, staff on shift, reviews, and a short list of controls such as pausing online orders or marking an item sold out. It does not replace a manager on the floor. It tells you, from home or from your second site, whether tonight is running to plan and which decisions are waiting for you.

Most owner apps are windows into one system, usually the POS. That matters more than the design of the charts. If in-store orders go through one till, direct online orders through another platform and marketplace orders through three separate tablets, a POS owner app shows part of the night. Before you compare apps, list every place an order can come from and check which of them the app can see.

This page sets out the numbers an owner of an independent restaurant or takeaway in Ireland or the UK should check every day and every week, with worked examples in euro and sterling. It covers the alerts worth setting, the remote controls worth having, how to compare two sites, what the apps cost, a routine that takes ten minutes a day, and the mistakes that make owner apps useless. Eclyde’s mobile management is described near the end. Building detailed reports and dashboards is covered in the guide to restaurant analytics software.

Jobs of a restaurant management app

An owner app does three jobs.

• Show. Sales, orders, labour hours, order times and reviews, updated during service.
• Tell. Alerts when something needs a decision: a till offline, an order not accepted, a one-star review, a chef not clocked in.
• Act. Controls that change what happens at the site: pause ordering, mark an item unavailable, approve a shift swap, reply to a review.

An app that only shows numbers is a report you carry in your pocket. An app that also tells and acts lets you run the restaurant when you are not in it. The mix you need depends on how often you are away. An owner who works the pass five nights a week needs a clear end-of-day summary more than remote switches. An owner with two sites needs alerts and controls, because they can only stand in one kitchen at a time.

Types of owner app

Published details for three POS owner apps, checked on 10 September 2026:

• Lightspeed Pulse. Lightspeed’s UK Pulse page lists revenue and net sales, covers, average order value, table turn times, sales per labour hour, open and closed orders, and refunds, voids, comps and discounts. It says Pulse is included in all Lightspeed ePOS payment packages, runs on iOS and Android, and lets you switch between locations.
• Square Dashboard. Square’s UK help article on live sales says the live sales report shows open bills and total sales including closed bills, can be opened in the Square Dashboard app, needs a Square for Restaurants Plus or Premium subscription, and only covers sales made during the working hours you have set.
• Toast Now. The Toast Now UK App Store listing describes live sales with hour-by-hour totals, turning ordering channels on and off, managing item availability and editing shifts. It is for Toast customers and free to download.

If you already use one of these POS systems and most of your orders go through it, its owner app is the obvious first step. It costs little or nothing extra and reads from the till your staff already use.

Daily numbers for restaurant owners

Eleven lines. Check them at the same time each day, either after close or first thing the next morning. Compare each one with the same weekday last week. Tuesday against last Tuesday. A Tuesday compared with a Saturday tells you nothing.

Two set-up details decide whether these numbers can be trusted.

Trading day. An app that counts “today” from midnight splits a late Friday service across two days. Set the trading day to end after your last clean-down, for example at 4am, so Friday’s takings stay on Friday.

Channel names. “Online” should never be one line. Direct online orders and marketplace orders carry different costs, so the app must show them separately, with each marketplace on its own line.

Net sales and VAT

Many screens show sales including VAT. Your costs, your targets and your accountant all work in net figures, so read net sales.

• Ireland. The VAT rate on food and catering services fell from 13.5% to 9% on 1 July 2026, according to the Government of Ireland announcement.
• UK. Catering and hot takeaway food are standard-rated, according to HMRC guidance on VAT rates, and the standard rate is 20%.

Net sales = gross sales ÷ (1 + VAT rate).

• Example, Ireland: €1,090 gross ÷ 1.09 = €1,000 net.
• Example, UK: £1,200 gross ÷ 1.20 = £1,000 net.

Drinks and cold food can fall under different rates. Ask your accountant how your POS should split items, then confirm the owner app reports the net figure.

Worked example: a Friday check

Example: a pizzeria in Ireland doing collection, delivery and a few tables. The owner opens the app on Saturday morning.

Reading it:

1. The whole €400 fall is on marketplaces. Direct online rose €54 and in-store fell €54, so those two together are flat.
2. Marketplace order value also dropped: €1,680 ÷ 70 = €24.00 this week against €2,080 ÷ 80 = €26.00 last week.
3. The checks for the manager are specific: whether the store was closed or paused on a marketplace for part of the evening, whether a popular item was marked unavailable, and whether prep times were extended during the rush and never set back.
4. Labour went the other way: four extra hours on a quieter night. At an example rate of €15 an hour plus 9% employer PRSI, the Class A rate for weekly pay up to €552, those hours cost 4 × €15 × 1.09 = €65.40.

The same Friday in a UK takeaway: £4,800 gross ÷ 1.20 = £4,000 net. The channel and order value maths is identical. Four extra hours at the National Living Wage of £12.71 for staff aged 21 and over, plus 15% employer National Insurance for someone already earning above the £96 weekly threshold, cost 4 × £12.71 × 1.15 = £58.47.

Weekly numbers for restaurant owners

The daily check tells you about sales. The weekly check adds costs, which an owner app rarely knows on its own. Set aside 45 minutes on the same day each week, with the rota, the clock-in hours, supplier invoices and marketplace statements.

Marketplace fees differ by app, country and contract, and the rates are set out in the guide to Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats commission. Labour cost depends on how the rota is built, covered in restaurant staff management software. Repeat customer rate needs customer-level data, which you hold for direct orders; what to collect, and the limits on marketplace data, are covered in restaurant customer data.

Worked example: a week in an Irish takeaway

Example: a takeaway in Ireland with two full-time chefs and six part-time staff.

How each line is built:

• Wages. 2 chefs × 45 hours × €20 = €1,800. 6 staff × 25 hours × €15 = €2,250. Total €4,050 for 240 hours. Both rates are above the Irish national minimum wage of €14.15 an hour that applies from 1 January 2026 to workers aged 20 and over.
• Employer PRSI. Until 30 September 2026 employers pay 11.25% where weekly pay is above €552 and 9% where it is €552 or less, per the Department of Social Protection Class A table. Chefs earn €900 a week: €1,800 × 11.25% = €202.50. Staff earn €375 a week: €2,250 × 9% = €202.50. From 1 October 2026 the rates become 11.40% and 9.15%, which on the same wages gives €205.20 + €205.88 = €411.08 a week.
• Pension. MyFutureFund auto-enrolment started on 1 January 2026. Employers pay 1.5% of salary in the first year for eligible employees, who are aged 23 to 60 and earn €20,000 or more a year, or more than €5,000 over 13 weeks. The chefs qualify: €1,800 × 1.5% = €27.00. The part-time staff earn €19,500 a year and €4,875 over 13 weeks, so they fall under both thresholds in this example.
• Food and packaging used. Opening stock €2,100 + purchases €5,000 - closing stock €2,140 = €4,960.
• Marketplace fees. €1,500 is an example figure. Use the total from your own statements.

Reading it: prime cost is 59.0% of net sales. Your target should come from your own accounts, agreed with your accountant. The weekly movement is the signal. If next week’s net sales are the same and food used rises to €5,440, food cost becomes 34.0% and prime cost 62.0%. That extra €480 is waste, a supplier price rise, portions drifting or a stock count error, and the owner’s job is to find out which.

Repeat customer rate, same takeaway, example: over the last four weeks, 600 customers ordered direct and 210 of them ordered at least twice. 210 ÷ 600 = 35.0%. In the four weeks before, 190 of 590 customers ordered twice or more: 32.2%. The rate moved up 2.8 points.

Worked example: the same week in the UK

Example: a UK takeaway with the same staff pattern. Net sales £14,000, from £16,800 gross ÷ 1.20.

• Wages. 2 chefs × 45 hours × £15.50 = £1,395. 6 staff aged 21 or over × 25 hours × £12.71 = £1,906.50.
• Employer National Insurance. 15% on each employee’s pay above £96 a week, per HMRC rates and thresholds for 2026 to 2027. Chefs: (£697.50 - £96) × 15% = £90.23 each, £180.45 for both. Staff: (£317.75 - £96) × 15% = £33.26 each, £199.58 for six. Total £380.03.
• Employer pension. At least 3% of qualifying earnings, the band between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, for staff who earn at least £10,000 a year. The weekly equivalent of the lower limit is £120. Chefs: (£697.50 - £120) × 3% = £17.33 each, £34.65 for both. Staff earn £16,523 a year, so they qualify: (£317.75 - £120) × 3% = £5.93 each, £35.60 for six. Total £70.25.
• Employment Allowance. The same HMRC page sets the Employment Allowance at up to £10,500 a year for eligible employers. On £380.03 a week, annual employer National Insurance is £19,761.56, which an eligible employer would reduce to £9,261.56. Ask your accountant whether you qualify.

Monthly and seasonal checks

Some numbers need a longer view than a week.

• Month against the same month last year. A takeaway’s December and a café’s August are not comparable with the month before.
• Profit and loss with your accountant. Rent, energy, insurance, card fees, software and repairs never show in an owner app. Prime cost only covers the two biggest lines.
• Price review. When supplier prices rise, check the items that carry most of your sales first. Price changes belong at a desk, with the menu open across every channel; the method is in the guide to restaurant menu management.
• Rota pattern against sales by hour. A rota built in winter is often wrong by May.
• Order value trend. If average order value has drifted down for three months, look at meal deals, add-ons and minimum order values, set out in how to increase average order value.
• Software bills. List every subscription the restaurant pays for and what each one actually gets used for.

Alerts worth setting

An alert should lead to an action within ten minutes. If nobody would act on it that quickly, it belongs in the daily summary, not in a push notification. Too many alerts and the manager mutes them all, including the one that mattered.

The triggers above are examples. Set yours from your own normal nights. An outage plan is worth writing before you need it; the guide to an offline POS system covers what breaks when the internet drops and what to test. Screen and printer set-up in the kitchen is covered in the guide to a kitchen display system.

Worked example: the cost of a missed alert

Example: a marketplace store shows as closed for 90 minutes on a Friday and nobody notices until a regular calls.

• Last Friday’s marketplace net sales were €2,080 between 17:00 and 22:00.
• €2,080 ÷ 5 hours = €416 an hour.
• 1.5 hours × €416 = €624 of sales at risk, before marketplace fees. Some of those customers order from another restaurant.
• An alert at five minutes limits the gap to €416 × 5 ÷ 60 = €34.67.

In sterling the maths is the same: £2,080 over five hours is £416 an hour, and a 90-minute gap puts £624 at risk.

Remote control from your phone

Controls are useful only if the right people have them and every change is visible to the manager on site.

Some jobs stay with the person on site: counting cash, food safety and temperature checks, answering allergen questions at the counter, dealing with an unhappy customer face to face, and sending a driver back out. Your app should make it clear who is in charge tonight, not blur it.

How review replies fit into your Google Business Profile is set out in the guide to restaurant SEO. Consent for email and SMS campaigns is covered in the guide to restaurant marketing software.

Running more than one site

A second site doubles the number of things that can go wrong on a Friday and halves the time you spend in each kitchen. The app has to make the two sites comparable.

• Same definitions. Same trading day, net sales excluding VAT, labour counted the same way.
• Per-site access. Each manager sees and controls their own site. The owner sees both.
• Combined and side-by-side views. Totals for the business, and each site next to the other for the weekly review.
• Same menu structure. Items named and grouped the same way, so best and worst item lists line up.
• One weekly call. Both managers, the same table of numbers, one action each.

Worked example: two sites side by side

Example: two takeaways owned by the same person, one week, Ireland.

Reading it: Site B works 20 more hours for €3,500 less in sales, and still delivers late more often. More staff has not fixed lateness, which points to hours sitting in the wrong part of the day. The owner pulls Site B’s orders by hour and finds quiet afternoons fully staffed and a thin Friday and Saturday evening.

The change for next week: move 20 hours from Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons into Friday and Saturday between 18:00 and 21:00. If sales hold at €12,500 and hours fall to 240, sales per labour hour becomes €12,500 ÷ 240 = €52.08. The test is whether late deliveries fall too.

Owner routine, step by step

Daily check, ten minutes

1. Open yesterday’s end-of-day summary.
2. Compare net sales with the same weekday last week.
3. Look at the channel split and find the channel that moved.
4. Check discounts, refunds and voids by staff member.
5. Compare hours clocked with the rota.
6. Count late orders and note the hour they happened.
7. Read new reviews and reply to any that need it.
8. Check the cash variance.
9. Write one action and send it to the manager.

Weekly review, 45 minutes

1. Note the week’s net sales, orders and average order value by channel.
2. Work out labour cost from the rota, clock-in hours and payroll.
3. Work out food cost from the stock count and supplier invoices.
4. Add them for prime cost.
5. Total the marketplace fees from the statements.
6. Check direct share and the four-week repeat customer rate.
7. Look at the best and worst five items.
8. Set next week’s rota against sales by hour.
9. Pick one change for next week and one number that will show whether it worked.

Before a day off or a holiday

1. Name the person in charge for each shift, in writing.
2. Give that person the permissions they need and nothing more.
3. Agree what they can decide without calling you, such as refunds up to a set value or pausing orders for up to 30 minutes.
4. Set alert thresholds and send the urgent ones to them first.
5. Open the app on mobile data, away from the restaurant Wi-Fi, to check it loads.
6. Share the outage plan and the numbers for the router provider and the POS support line.
7. Agree a time for the daily summary message.

Restaurant management app checklist

• Net sales excluding VAT, with gross available
• Trading day that ends after close
• Comparison with the same weekday last week on every number
• Sales by channel, with direct online and each marketplace on separate lines
• Discounts, refunds and voids by staff member
• Hours clocked against the rota
• Prep times, delivery times and late orders
• New reviews
• Alerts with thresholds you set, sent by role
• Remote controls limited by role, with a record of who changed what
• Per-site and combined views
• Individual logins for every person, removed the day someone leaves
• Runs on the phones your managers actually carry
• Loads on mobile data
• Clear behaviour during an internet outage, including when the numbers catch up
• Your data available to take with you if you leave

Questions to ask before buying a restaurant management app

1. Which order channels does the app see, and which does it miss?
2. Does it show net sales excluding VAT, and can I set the trading day?
3. How quickly do sales appear after an order is taken?
4. What happens to the numbers when the site loses internet, and how do they catch up?
5. Which alerts can I set, and can I choose who receives each one?
6. Which controls are available on the phone, and which roles can use them?
7. Is there a record of who paused ordering, refunded an order or changed a price?
8. Can each manager be limited to one site?
9. Is the owner app included, or is it an extra monthly charge?
10. Which plan do I need for live sales, and what does that plan cost in writing?
11. How do I remove a leaver’s access, and how fast does it take effect?
12. What data can I export if I leave, and in what format?

Common mistakes

• Reading gross sales against net targets. VAT makes every week look better than it is.
• Comparing different weekdays. Only compare like with like.
• Setting too many alerts. Staff mute them, and the outage alert is lost with the rest.
• Sharing the owner login. Nobody can tell who refunded what, and a former manager keeps access.
• Treating marketplace and direct sales as equal. They carry different fees, so the same €1,000 is worth less on one channel than the other.
• Watching sales without labour. A busy night with four extra hours can earn less than a quiet one.
• Editing prices from a phone late at night. Mistakes go live on every channel at once.
• Trusting an app that sees one system. If it reads only the POS and half your orders come through tablets, it is showing half a restaurant.

Restaurant management app costs

The owner app itself is rarely the big cost. The cost is the stack underneath it. Example: a restaurant with 18 staff on Deputy’s Core plan at £4.25 per user per month pays 18 × £4.25 = £76.50 a month for rotas and time tracking, before the POS plan, the online ordering system, a marketing tool and any marketplace tablets, each with its own login and its own version of the week’s sales. Ask each provider for a written quote and add them up before comparing with a single platform.

Data access and security

• One login per person. Shared logins hide who did what and survive staff leaving.
• Remove leavers on their last day. Owner apps show sales, staff hours and customer details.
• Two-step sign-in on owner accounts. An owner account can close the store or refund orders.
• Lock and sign out lost phones. Ask the provider how to end a session on a lost device.
• Customer details stay private. Names, phone numbers and order histories should only be visible to roles that need them. The rules on customer data and consent are covered in the guide to restaurant customer data.

Eclyde mobile management

Eclyde is a restaurant growth platform for independent restaurants, starting in Ireland and the UK. It includes mobile management, so an owner can monitor and control the restaurant from anywhere. The numbers come from one system, because the same platform runs the POS, the branded online ordering website, the kitchen display, delivery and drivers, the staff app, customer data, loyalty and marketing.

What sits behind the owner’s view:

• POS. Table service, deals and discounts, modifiers and add-ons, incoming-order and live-order screens, driver assignment, caller ID on incoming phone calls, gift vouchers, role-based staff permissions and end-of-day reports. The Android POS app keeps taking orders during an internet outage and syncs to the cloud when the connection returns.
• Direct online ordering. Pickup and delivery on the restaurant’s own domain, with no Eclyde commission on direct orders. Online payments go through the restaurant’s own Stripe account.
• Kitchen and delivery. A kitchen display with real-time orders, order timers and status updates, and an own-driver app with live driver location.
• Staff. A staff web app on any iPhone or Android phone with shifts, open shifts, shift swaps, time-off requests, clock in and clock out, and team chat.
• Customers and reviews. Customer profiles with order history and insights, points-based loyalty, and a Google Business Profile connection that shows reviews with AI-drafted replies.
• Analytics. A sales dashboard and AI insights.

Where the numbers on this page come from with Eclyde:

What Eclyde does not do: stock or inventory control, recipe costing, payroll or accounting exports. Food cost and payroll numbers in the weekly review come from your stock sheet, supplier invoices and payroll provider. If you run Lightspeed, Square or Toast and take nearly all orders through that POS, its own owner app may be all you need.

Pricing is €499 to launch, covering menu build, website and ordering set-up, POS and printer configuration, customer import, staff onboarding, testing and go-live support, refunded in full within 30 days if Eclyde is not right for the restaurant. After that it is €99 a month for the whole platform, with no limits on orders or customers. Details are on the Eclyde pricing page.

Your restaurant’s numbers

Every number on this page starts with knowing where your orders come from: in-store, direct online and each marketplace. Write down last week’s net sales by channel, your labour hours and your food purchases before you pick any app, because those figures decide which screens you need on your phone. Eclyde offers a free audit for independent restaurants, and it is a sensible next step once those numbers are together. Request it on the free restaurant audit page.