Food Cost + Labor = Your Two Biggest Levers
Restaurant operators live and die by two numbers: food cost and labor cost. Together, they represent 55–65% of total revenue. According to Connors Group research, 91% of QSR operators report higher food costs and 89% face higher labor costs — squeezing margins from both sides simultaneously.
When food cost runs 3–5 percentage points above target, the question is always the same: is it vendor pricing increases, legitimate waste and spoilage, or employee theft? Without daily food cost tracking — comparing actual food purchases against actual sales — there's no way to answer that question until month-end. By then, 30 days of losses are already baked in.
Internal employee theft accounts for 75% of restaurant inventory shortages, according to Clover research. That's not external shoplifting — it's off-ticket food production, closing-shift "take-home" behavior, unauthorized meals, and back-door product removal. Restaurants lose an estimated 4% of total sales to internal theft.
What We Handle Daily for Restaurant Operators
Daily Sales Reconciliation
Every register and POS terminal is reconciled against actual cash deposits and credit card settlements. Tips are separated, delivery platform revenue is matched, and the daily sales close is completed within 24 hours. No more week-old sales data sitting in unreconciled batches.
Food Cost Tracking
DohAssist reconciles food purchases against sales to provide a daily food cost percentage — not just a monthly average. This early warning system lets you identify food cost problems within 24 hours: vendor price increases, unusual waste patterns, or potential theft indicators all surface immediately instead of hiding in monthly aggregates.
Vendor Invoice Management
Food distributors, beverage vendors, paper goods suppliers, cleaning chemicals, and specialty ingredient vendors — the average restaurant works with 10+ vendors. DohAssist verifies every invoice against delivery receipts and contracted pricing. Pricing errors, short deliveries, and substitution charges are flagged and documented.
Tip Reconciliation & Compliance
Credit card tips, cash tips, tip pools, server tip-outs, and tip reporting compliance all require daily attention. DohAssist reconciles tip data across all POS terminals, calculates tip pool distributions according to your policy, verifies credit card tip settlements, and maintains the documentation required for tax compliance.
Third-Party Delivery Platform Reconciliation
DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and other platforms each have different commission structures, settlement schedules, promotional credits, and tip handling. DohAssist reconciles all third-party delivery revenue and fees against your POS records daily — catching commission overcharges, missing promotional credits, and settlement discrepancies.