Restaurant365 Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives 2023
Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. He brings his expertise to Fit Small Business’s accounting content.
Eric is a staff writer at Fit Small Business and CPA focusing on accounting content. He spends most of his time researching and studying to give the best answer to everyone.
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
Restaurant365 is a robust software-as-a-service (SaaS) accounting and operations platform for restaurants. It integrates with third-party point-of-sale (POS), banks, and vendors to make Restaurant365 compatible and flexible to your restaurant’s existing setup. The Essential Plan starts at $444 per month if billed quarterly, but you can save if you choose annual billing.
Overall Score:
4.50 / 5
What We Like
- Multiple location capabilities
- Forecasting tool
- Powerful financial reporting
- Robust mobile app
- Direct integration with more than 90 POS systems
- Recipe costing in Essential and Professional plans
What's Missing
- Can be difficult to set up and navigate
- Lacks reservations and waitlist management
- Can’t print checks from within the platform
- Expensive for small restaurants
- Requires Core Operations plan for QuickBooks Online integration
Restaurant365 Deciding Factors
Supported Restaurants | Those needing accounting and restaurant management features in one place |
Pricing |
|
Free Trial | None |
Payroll | Through R365 Payroll (separately billed) |
Standout Features |
|
Customer Support | Live chat, email, phone, and self-help library |
If you think general bookkeeping software might meet your restaurant’s needs, check out our evaluation of the best small business accounting software.
Restaurant365 Alternatives
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
Best for: QuickBooks users that need a restaurant integration | Best for: Caterers that want project tracking | Best for: Mobile restaurants |
Cost: $300 per month, per location | Cost: Starting at $85 per month for project tracking | Cost: Quote-based, depending on number of locations and services needed |
Restaurant365 vs Competitors
Restaurant365 vs Competitors FSB Case Study
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Restaurant365 $444 per location, per month
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MarginEdge $300 per location, per month
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QuickBooks Online Plus $85 per month
We compared Restaurant365 with MarginEdge and QuickBooks Online. MarginEdge is a direct competitor of Restaurant365 because it’s a software that also caters to restaurants while QuickBooks Online is an indirect competitor because it’s mainly accounting software.
Our Restaurant365 review and evaluation reveals that there’s little difference in prices. In general, we base our evaluation on the most basic plan of each software provider, and entry-level prices don’t vary greatly. However, our study also uncovered that accounting isn’t Restaurant365’s strongest suit. We’d rather you go with MarginEdge or QuickBooks Online for accounting-focused software.
When it comes to restaurant features, Restaurant365 takes the win, with a perfect score of five points. During evaluation, it was clear that the platform deserves the marks because of the different kinds of restaurant features that restaurant owners, managers, and accountants will find useful.
Restaurant365 offers four plans. The Essential and Professional tiers focus on both restaurant management and accounting features, whereas Core Accounting and Operations subscriptions highlight only restaurant accounting features. Restaurant365 also has The Enterprise option, a custom-priced plan tailored to fit the needs of your business. All subscriptions are on a per-location basis, and you’ll need multiple subscriptions for different branches.
Essential | Professional | Core Accounting | Core Operations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Price (Billed Annually) | $399 | $489 | $289 | $289 |
Monthly Price (Billed Quarterly) | $444 | $539 | N/A | N/A |
General Ledger (GL), A/P & Accounts Receivable (A/R) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
POS Connect | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
Bank Connect & Bank Reconciliation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
Financial Reporting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
Approval Workflows | N/A | ✓ | N/A | N/A |
Fixed Asset Management | N/A | ✓ | N/A | N/A |
Invoice Capture | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
Payments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
Inventory Management & Vendor Connect | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
Recipe Management | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ |
Smart Prep & Smart Ordering | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ |
Online Scheduler | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ |
Mobile Employee Communication | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ |
Labor Matrix, Logbook & Task Management | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ |
Payroll Connect | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Support Portal, Chat, Live Phone, Online Training Academy, Live Webinars & Industry Insights | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Restaurant365 scored above average in the accounting features criterion of our evaluation, which included features that must be included in accounting software in general. But since Restaurant365 designed its accounting system for restaurants, the missing accounting features we’d like to see don’t matter a lot. We commend Restaurant365 for creating a restaurant-focused accounting system.
Accounting Dashboard (Source: Restaurant365)
Restaurant365 Dashboard shows essential information that every restaurant manager and owner needs to see right out the gate. In the image above, you’ll see the sales vs labor metric, cash balance, and gross profit margin. We find this information useful since it helps restaurant management get a snapshot of restaurant health without digging into detailed financial reports.
You can create one account that’s used by multiple locations, allowing you to view everything in one place. With a direct connection to your bank accounts, you can automate bank reconciliations and maintain an updated financial budget. The fixed asset management function allows you to track the lifetime costs of all your fixed assets, including kitchen equipment and furniture.
AP Automation is a fully integrated feature that streamlines your company’s A/P process. It also has an AP Capture feature that extracts information from bills automatically and reduces manual data entry time.
A/P Capture (Source: Restaurant365)
It also records vendor invoice details automatically to inventory and the general ledger. Once the expense passes through your customized approval process, R365 will pay the bill by check, automated clearing house (ACH), or virtual card, depending on your vendor’s preferences.
This allows you to set up approval workflows and create workflows for journal entries that are based on the user who created the entry. You can also set up multilevel approvals based on location, location category, or dollar amounts.
Restaurant365 has the basic financial reports that you’ll need for your restaurant, including the profit and loss (P&L) statement. You can generate a weekly P&L report with variance analysis, prior period data comparison, and year-to-date (YTD) comparison. We find this useful to detect trends in sales, costs, and profits.
Example of Restaurant365 Profit & Loss Statement (Source: Restaurant365)
Aside from standard reports, the Professional plan includes a report customization tool that lets users create custom reports and compile them into packages. This is useful for restaurant managers who want to manipulate data and transform them into intuitive reports that can reveal undetected restaurant problems and cost inefficiencies.
Custom Reports (Source: Restaurant365)
In terms of restaurant features, Restaurant365 is the best software we’ve reviewed. It deserves a 5-star rating for this criteria because it provides tools that every restaurant manager and owner will love to use. It also includes scheduling features, which is a cost-saver because restaurants need not get a separate time tracking system.
R365 Store Operations is the restaurant-focused component of Restaurant365. It includes inventory management, purchasing and receiving functions, scheduling, recipe management, logbook, and forecasting. If you get the Essentials plan, you can enjoy all the features of R365 Store Operations for your restaurant.
Example of Restaurant365 Inventory Reporting (Source: Restaurant365)
Restaurant365 integrates fully with more than 90 popular POS systems, including Square, Aloha, Toast, Digital Dining, and Revel. It pulls detailed data from your POS system, including sales tickets, payment types, tenders, and hours worked by job and employee.
Daily sales and labor accrual journal entries are created for your accounting general ledger automatically. The reports can be configured to run each night or on-demand automatically.
Predictive scheduling modules allow you to schedule staff so that you can serve customers quickly and maximize profits.
Example of Restaurant365 Scheduling module (Source: Restaurant365)
Many major food vendors integrate with Restaurant365, meaning you can update food costs automatically and import your invoices or credit memos, saving hours of data entry time.
Restaurant365’s iOS and Android mobile app gives you access to important features. You can manage your A/P by uploading invoices and approving transactions, communicating with staff, modifying shifts, approving or denying employee leave requests, keeping tabs on your inventory, and accessing the logbook to track your restaurant’s performance. The mobile app is ideal for catering events as it allows you to control workflows and view the catering calendar.
The Restaurant365 Franchising module allows franchises to track royalties. Programmable billing ensures that you receive precise royalty payments, and you can receive ACH payments directly from franchisee accounts. The module also lets your franchisees share selected data, which helps them become more profitable.
There are a variety of customer support options for all subscription levels. These include a support portal, live telephone and chat, an online training academy, ongoing live webinars, and a resources page that provides case studies, videos, guides, and calculators.
Restaurant365’s telephone support line is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time, and Sundays, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. If you have a system outage or another emergency after hours, you can still call the support line, and someone will get back to you within the hour.
There’s a bit of a learning curve with Restaurant365, and it may take some time to become familiar with all of its extensive features. Fortunately, it provides a web resource that has a series of training items available by user role―accountant or manager―or the module type.
Restaurant365 reviews from users who like the platform highlight its usefulness in managing restaurant operations and making decisions. Negative reviews are mostly problems with its stability, such as bugs and random crashes. Restaurant365 should fix these problems to improve user experience.
- Featured Customers: 4.7 out of 5 stars based on around 3,450 reviews
- Software Advice: 4.08 out of 5 stars based on around 30 reviews
- G2.com: 4.2 out of 5 stars based on around 100 reviews
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does Restaurant365 do?
Restaurant365 is a cloud-based software that has restaurant management and accounting features. It offers multiple solutions like employee scheduling, cost accounting, and payroll in one platform.
Does Restaurant365 do payroll?
Payroll is available under R365 Workforce, an add-on to the Essential or Professional plan. Upon getting a subscription, you may ask Restaurant365 for the additional cost of add-ons.
Bottom Line
Restaurant365 allows you to be completely connected to one single system while consolidating your reporting and operations in a mobile-friendly platform. It’s the ideal solution for franchises or restaurants with multiple locations because it integrates with your POS system, inventory, payroll, and vendors. Because it’s cloud-based and has a powerful mobile app, you can access all aspects of your business from anywhere.
