Insights/PLAYBOOK / 3 May 2026
What we would automate first in a 3-venue restaurant group
A sequencing note for group operators: start with reporting and enquiries, not the romantic stuff, and keep a human on anything that can hurt payroll or guests.
Three venues is the awkward size. Too much repetition for one owner to absorb. Too small for an internal systems person. Enough software that the gaps are now a second job.
First: the Monday morning reconstruction
If the group operator is logging into each POS, each book and Deputy to rebuild last week, start there. A weekly digest per venue plus a group roll-up is visible, low-risk, and immediately felt.
Second: function and group enquiries
Functions are lumpy revenue and lumpy admin. A missed follow-up is a missed Saturday. Extract the details, draft a reply for manager approval, and schedule routine follow-ups under venue-approved rules. Availability and booking terms stay with the manager.
Third: invoice intake
Three venues means three times the supplier PDFs. Get them out of inboxes and into Xero with exceptions flagged. Do not let a model post anything unsupervised.
Leave until later
- Anything that writes back into payroll
- Guest-facing chat that improvises outside venue-approved rules
- A grand internal “AI assistant” before the SOPs are even in one place
- Custom software when a workflow tool and an inbox rule would do
The test is not “is this impressive”. The test is: is it repetitive, is the input structured enough, is the cost real, and is failure acceptable. A wrong weekly report is annoying. A wrong pay run is a different category of mistake.