Hospitality & food
Restaurants and caterers, without the back-office retyping
For independent restaurants, cafés, bars, and caterers
What do you want fixed first?
Add everything that applies. Each fix goes on your plan with how long it takes.
Add what you want fixed
Every fix shows how long it takes, and your plan shows how to start.
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Answer a few questions to finish it, then save it. It's free.
Get your price from a person
A person at LOJIK checks your plan within one business day and sends a price set for your business, with ways to pay.
The detail
Built for hospitality & food
For independent restaurants, small groups, cafés, bars, and caterers. LOJIK finds where back-office hours go: supplier invoices, daily sales, catering orders, and payroll prep. Then we build the fixes. We start from the register, back-office, and scheduling tools you already pay for. When one of them closes the gap, we say so.
What each fix includes
Supplier invoices entered without retyping
Produce, meat, liquor, and paper goods each come with their own invoice. It's on paper at the back door or a PDF in someone's inbox. A manager snaps a photo, and someone types it into accounting days later. Until then, food cost is a guess.
- If your back-office software already handles invoices, turn that on first
- Otherwise, list your suppliers, how each invoice arrives, and the categories your accountant uses
- Set it up so photos, PDFs, and emailed invoices become draft bills, sorted into those categories
- A person approves each bill before it's recorded, and short deliveries or credits are flagged
Daily sales that match the bank
Every morning someone pulls the sales summary from the register (POS). They type sales, tax, tips, comps, and gift cards into accounting. Then they work out why the card deposit doesn't match. Delivery-app payouts land separately, minus their fees, so month-end starts with a spreadsheet.
- Turn on the accounting link your register or back-office software already offers, and keep it where it does the job
- Agree with your bookkeeper which account sales, tax, tips, discounts, and gift cards go to
- Record each day's sales for what that link doesn't cover, matched to each bank deposit
- Put the days that don't match on a short list for a person to sort out
Catering orders from inquiry to kitchen
Catering and private-event inquiries arrive by web form, email, and text. Someone prices each quote by hand from the menu, chases the deposit, and retypes the order into a prep sheet. The inquiry nobody answered by Friday books somewhere else.
- If you use catering or events software, set up its inquiry forms, estimates, and deposits first
- Bring every inquiry into one list, with a person in charge and a reply deadline
- Draft quotes from your catering menu, minimums, and fees for a person to approve and send
- Once the deposit is paid, create the order and the kitchen sheet without retyping
Hours, tips, and payroll that match
The schedule lives in one app, clock-ins in the register, and tips on a closing report. Payroll sits with a provider that sees none of them. Before every payroll, a manager exports timesheets and fixes missed clock-ins. Then they work out tips in a spreadsheet and type it all in again.
- If one scheduling, register, or payroll tool can do all of it, we'll recommend that instead of building
- Write down where hours, tips, and pay rates go today, and who retypes them
- Link the schedule, the time clock, and payroll, with a readable record of every change
- A manager approves hours and tip amounts before anything reaches payroll
Food, drink and labor cost, weekly
Sales sit in the register, food and drink cost in invoices, and labor in the scheduling or payroll tool. The profit and loss report arrives weeks after the month ends. With more than one location, comparing them takes exports, a spreadsheet, and a late night.
- Check what your back-office software already reports before building anything
- Agree on the few numbers you run on, such as sales, food and drink cost, and labor, and how each is counted
- Pull them together each week from the tools that already hold them
- Show owners, and each location's manager, only the numbers they should see
Buy back-office software, or build?
You have spreadsheets and group texts that still mostly work, and your team keeps watching demos of all-in-one back-office software. The right answer is somewhere in between. From these answers alone, we can't honestly name it. That's a finding, not a failure.
- A guided walk through how an invoice, a day's sales, and a pay period move today
- A first written plan: what back-office, scheduling, or catering software would solve, what it wouldn't, and what LOJIK would build either way
- A fixed price for the first fix, or honest advice to buy an existing tool instead
How your tools fit together
Supplier invoices captured
Invoice photos, PDFs, and emails turned into draft bills a person approves. Restaurant back-office software already does this. MarginEdge lists invoice processing, bill payments, and links with accounting and registers. Restaurant365 describes making invoice capture, approvals, and payments easier (vendor site, 2026). xtraCHEF by Toast sends invoices as bills to QuickBooks Online (Toast Support, 2026). If one fits, use it. LOJIK builds this where none of those is in place and invoices go straight to your accounting software.
- Invoices gathered from photos, PDFs, and a forwarding inbox
- Lines and totals read and sorted into your categories
- A person approves before a bill is recorded
- Flags for short deliveries, credits, and price changes
Daily sales closed out
One checked daily entry of register sales in your accounting software, matched to the deposits that really land. Check the ready-made links first. xtraCHEF by Toast records Toast sales as a journal entry in QuickBooks Online (Toast Support, 2026). That link needs a QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, or Advanced subscription. Square's App Marketplace lists a QuickBooks Online app that imports Square transactions (vendor site, 2026). LOJIK builds what's left in your setup. That could be a register and accounting software with no link, delivery-app payouts, or deposit matching.
- The register's sales summary, pulled daily
- Which account each item goes to, approved by your bookkeeper
- Entries matched to each bank deposit
- A short list of days that don't match, with a record of every step
Catering orders in one place
Inquiries in one list, and quotes drafted from your menu for approval. Deposits are collected through links you already have, and the paid order becomes a kitchen sheet. Catering software covers much of this. Toast Catering & Events handles inquiry forms, banquet event orders, and estimates guests approve online. It also does invoices with deposits, and kitchen sheets (Toast Support, 2026). Tripleseat describes capturing inquiries, proposals, event orders (BEOs), and contracts with digital signature. It also handles deposits, with links to accounting (vendor site, 2026). If you use either, set it up first. LOJIK builds this for caterers who use neither.
- One inquiry list from web form, email, and text
- Draft quotes from your menu, minimums, and fees
- Deposit requests through the payment links you already have
- Kitchen sheet created from the confirmed order
Payroll ready from the schedule
Hours, tips, and pay rates moved from the schedule and time clock into payroll. A manager approves before anything is recorded. First, check what already connects. 7shifts lists scheduling, time clock, payroll, and tip management, with links to registers. Homebase says it connects scheduling, time tracking, and payroll in one process. Square lists payroll built into its point of sale. Restaurant365 describes hours and tips flowing into its payroll (vendor site, 2026). If one tool can do all of it, that's what we recommend. LOJIK builds the link when the schedule, clock, and payroll stay with companies whose tools don't connect.
- Links to the scheduling tool, time clock, and payroll provider
- Tip and pay rules applied as you set them
- A manager approves before payroll
- A record of every change you can read
Food and labor cost kept current
One weekly page of sales, food and drink cost, and labor for each location. It pulls from the tools that already hold them, and each person sees only their part. Back-office software reports on its own data. MarginEdge lists a daily profit and loss report of costs you control, including labor. Restaurant365 says its R365 AI links every transaction to the profit and loss report, and it sells reports across locations (vendor site, 2026). This is for numbers from tools those products don't cover.
- Agreed rules for sales, cost, and labor
- Regular updates from each tool
- Each location and person sees only their numbers
- A plain weekly page owners can read without an export
Questions
Asked and answered.
We already pay for Toast or Square. What's left to build?
Often less than you'd think, and sometimes nothing. Toast documents catering and events, and invoice and sales links to QuickBooks Online through xtraCHEF. It also has a direct Toast Web and Toast Payroll link to QuickBooks Online (Toast Support, 2026). Square lists payroll and a QuickBooks Online app (vendor site, 2026). Turn those on first. What's usually left are gaps between companies whose tools don't connect, and numbers that come from several of them. Your plan names which, if any, apply.
Should we just buy MarginEdge or Restaurant365?
Maybe. Both describe invoice processing, links to accounting, and cost reports built for restaurants (vendor site, 2026). If one fits, your plan will say so. Building makes sense for work outside them, such as catering orders, or for gaps between the tools you keep.
Do you set tip pooling or pay rules?
No. Tip policies, pay rules, and labor law compliance stay with you, your payroll provider, and your advisers. We apply the rules you give us, and a manager approves hours and tips before they reach payroll.
When do we get a price?
After a person at LOJIK reviews your plan and confirms the fix is a good fit. You then get what's included, the timeline and the price to approve.
Who owns what you build?
When we hand it over, your team can receive the code, logins, instructions, and the job of running it. If you want LOJIK to run it for you, that support is agreed separately before launch.
Next step
Not sure which fix comes first?
Answer a few questions and see your plan before you share contact details.