2 Restaurant Systems are Better than 1: A Seamless Cost-Savings Success Story

7/16/2015
Are two restaurant system companies better than one? Florida Keys Restaurant Management (FKRM) is proof that they can be.

Since 1981, FKRM has served up award-winning dining experiences throughout South Florida. Each restaurant concept prides itself on being unique and with unique banners: Ballyhoo’s, Cactus Jacks Pub, Marker 88, SeÑor Frijoles, and Sundowners.

FKRM implemented Compeat Advantage back office and accounting software in 2006. It also utilizes Aloha as its POS system. Recently, FKRM’s Director of IT and CIO, Paul White, described the company’s positive experiences with Aloha and Compeat in a question and answer session:
 
You are using two restaurant system companies – Aloha for POS and Compeat for back office and accounting. How is that working out for you? 
Paul White:  Once everything is configured during installation, the integration between the two systems is seamless.
 
Are you getting all the information you need from your Aloha system into Compeat?  Are you experiencing reliable communication? 
PW:  Communication is reliable and the information is perfect.  If for some reason, we do not receive our data, it is easily and quickly retrieved.
 
Is Compeat making it easier for you to audit your Aloha POS financial information and post it directly to accounting?
PW:  Compeat makes it unbelievably easy to audit and reconcile daily sales information from Aloha and then post it automatically to the General Ledger.
 
What did you do prior to Compeat for back office and accounting?
PW:  Prior to Compeat, we used Coconut Code for accounting. 
 
Why did you choose Compeat over the competition?  
PW:  Compeat is a back office and accounting program specifically dedicated to the restaurant industry. You cannot get the level of features proprietary to our industry from any other software package that I am aware of.
Has Compeat allowed you to increase control over daily operations?
PW:  Absolutely. Inventory control and recipe maintenance are just two features that allow us to increase control over our daily operations.  
     
Since implementing Compeat, have you reduced food, beverage or labor costs?
PW:  Yes. We have reduced the dollars we spend for food by 2-3 percent, for beverage by 8 percent, and on labor by 14 percent.
 
Has Compeat allowed you to save time in your daily restaurant operations?  
PW:  Compeat saves us time in operations in many ways. Compeat polls our daily sales from Aloha and imports the information directly into Compeat for review posting on a daily basis. Employee time records are also automated with Compeat Payroll. Compeat Mobile has allowed us to cut inventory time dramatically at one of our properties with a large wine cellar.
 
Has Compeat allowed you to save time in your daily accounting operations?
PW:  Compeat also saves us time in accounting. Being able to receive invoices electronically from our largest suppliers and import them directly into Compeat for payment, as well as scanning them into the software has saved thousands of man hours and yards of paperwork filing. The same can be said for bank reconciliation. We handle eight restaurants with three employees.
 
Are there any other benefits you have gained from using Compeat?
PW:  The support staff is attentive and able to provide help very quickly. The flexibility of Compeat lets our business operate in the way we are comfortable, instead of being locked into a rigid hierarchy.
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