With everything getting more and more expensive, we wouldn’t blame you if you felt like your margins were being eaten away like it was an all-you-can-eat buffet. No thanks to rising food, energy and labour costs, it’s harder for restaurants, cafés, and other takeaway venues to make an honest dollar.
So what can you do to put a bit of fat back into those boney-looking margins? Well for starters there are some smart and practical ways to cut expenses without compromising on quality or the customer experience.
Here’s our guide with 8 tips to save money in your hospitality business. Everything from reducing waste and energy use to streamlining your tech.
1. Save time and money with integrated systems
Juggling multiple delivery apps and manually re-entering orders doesn’t just eat up time, it increases the risk of errors. With Doshii’s Order Manager, all your delivery app orders flow straight through to your POS.
Imagine how many hours your venue could save each week on order management if you or your staff could:
- Stop rekeying orders or tablet juggling, and instead have orders print or display directly on the kitchen display screen
- Sync menu changes directly from your POS to your delivery apps
- View real-time product availability for fewer cancelled orders
- Centralise reporting and stock control in the POS
By reducing the need for the above, your staff can spend less time on admin and more time on guests.
Remember, automation isn’t just about cutting costs. It’s also about a smoother, faster customer experience.
2. Optimise your menu with Menu Manager
We know what really eats up time for venues. Managing your menu across multiple apps. But Doshii’s Menu Manager makes it simple to:
- Update pricing in real time
- Manage item and option availability on the go
- Pause online delivery orders during busy service
- Use dynamic pricing to maximise revenue during peak times
- View channel insights to see which apps and menu items are performing best
- Track all delivery app revenue in one dashboard
With menus managed from one place, you’ll cut hours of manual updates and reduce the risk of errors.
🔥 Here’s a hot tip 🔥 Pair the above with Doshii’s Menu Temp Check, which analyses all different aspects of your menu from its overall structure, right down to the descriptions of dishes. Providing recommendations to help boost your menu’s success.
3. Keep energy costs under control
Energy bills are hungry things. And they’re not scared of eating away at your profits until there’s nothing left. Combine that with food waste and supplier costs, and you’re suddenly fending off an infestation from margin munchers.
Your kitchens, fridges, and equipment are running almost nonstop, so even small inefficiencies can add up to big dollars over time.
The good news is that by making a few smart changes, you can lower overheads while running a greener, more sustainable operation.
Here are some practical ways to cut down energy costs:
- Switch to energy-efficient appliances where possible
- Schedule equipment maintenance to make sure everything runs at peak efficiency
- Switch off or put appliances into eco-mode during downtime
- Consider solar solutions for long-term savings
To help you dig deeper, here are some excellent resources worth bookmarking:
- Energy.gov.au – business energy saving tips
- Hospitality Hub Guide: How to save energy in your commercial kitchen
- Australian Government energy rebate programmes
With the right tools and guidance, managing energy doesn’t have to feel overwhelming.
Venues that run smarter, leaner operations are better positioned to weather rising costs.
4. Cut food wastage
Food waste is a big hidden cost for venues. You’re literally binning money. But smarter stock management, portion control, and tracking expiry dates can make a huge difference.
With apps like Restoke.ai, venues can take a more proactive, tech-driven approach to minimising waste.
How Restoke.ai helps reduce food waste:
- Live stock tracking – update your inventory instantly by forwarding invoices, then connect to your POS for automatic adjustments with every sale
- Ordering confidence – know exactly what’s in stock, what’s running low, and order confidently to reduce waste
- Set & forget stock levels – automate procurement by defining optimal levels so you always have the right amount on hand
- Master your stocktakes – Schedule master stocktakes with simple checklists for full visibility
- Control costs – get alerts when supplier prices change and stay on top of food costs and margins
By combining Restoke.ai’s tech-driven waste reduction approach with practical, on-the-ground advice from OzHarvest, venues can tackle food waste from both sides: smarter systems in the back of house and smarter habits in day-to-day operations.
We’ve partnered with OzHarvest to share practical advice on reducing waste in your venue, check out their full list of tips here: OzHarvest’s Top Tips for Reducing Food Waste.
Not only does this help your bottom line, it’s also a win for sustainability and the community.
5. Efficient staff scheduling
Labour is one of the biggest expenses for any hospitality venue, and cutting staff isn’t always the best option. But smarter rostering is.
Doshii integrates with rostering apps like Deputy and Tanda, helping venues match staff hours more accurately to demand. That means no over-staffing during quiet times and no staff shortages when things get busy.
We’ve broken down practical strategies in this article: Five Ways to Optimise Venue Staffing. From using data to predict demand to making better use of part-timers, small changes can add up to big savings.
The right rostering app (available in the Doshii App Marketplace) can also save managers hours each week.
6. Negotiate better supplier contracts
Don’t ‘set and forget’ your suppliers. A healthy ongoing relationship with them could mean healthier margins – especially when regular reviews can unlock better deals.
Here are some quick tips for you:
- Regularly review contracts to make sure terms and prices are still competitive
- Compare offers and source locally where possible to cut delivery costs and strengthen community ties
- Bulk buy high-use items to cut costs to lower per-unit costs
- Build loyalty with suppliers by being consistent with your orders, this can earn you better terms or priority service
To make this process even easier, there are digital platforms that can help centralise and streamline supplier management. For example, with Ordermentum, you can browse hundreds of suppliers across 25 categories. Think Australia’s best suppliers for things like perishables, coffee, dry goods, packaging and much more.
Remember, suppliers want long-term partnerships too, so don’t be afraid to use that as leverage when negotiating.
7. Streamline payments with integrated EFTPOS
Payment delays, manual errors, and inefficient workflows are a recipe for disaster. They cost hospitality venues money they sometimes don’t have.
Integrated EFTPOS solutions can speed up service, reduce mistakes, and give customers more flexibility when paying.
With an app like Smart Hospitality (available in the Doshii app marketplace), venues can:
- Take payments anywhere – accept both over-the-counter and pay-at-table transactions, keeping service flowing and reducing the back and forth for staff
- Eliminate manual entry errors – payments sync directly with your POS, so staff don’t waste time rekeying amounts or fixing mistakes
- Offer customer-friendly options – Split bills by item, number of people, or amount, and provide digital receipts instantly, cutting paper waste and admin
- Boost tips and revenue – with built-in tipping prompts, you can encourage higher tips while giving customers a smooth checkout experience
- Access real-time data – get immediate visibility into transactions via the online portal, helping you track revenue and spot trends faster
The result? Faster table turnover, happier customers, less time spent fixing errors, and more money saved on operational inefficiencies.
8. Doshii’s Savings Calculator
Once you’ve explored these strategies, it’s time to see some real numbers. The Doshii Savings Calculator is a free online tool designed for venues.
- How it works: Slide the donut to set your monthly order volume, and the calculator shows your potential savings in labour, admin hours, and operations.
- Why it matters: Manually entering orders from apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash into your POS might not seem like much, until you do the math. With Doshii, orders sync directly to your POS in real-time, reducing costly mistakes that can lead to wasted food, unhappy customers, and lost revenue.
Try the Savings Calculator here
Stack it your way with the Doshii App Marketplace
Every venue is unique, which is why Doshii’s App Marketplace helps you build the perfect stack. Explore apps for:
- Ordering
- Rostering
- Reservations
- Payments
- Loyalty programs
- Inventory management
All apps sync directly with your POS through Doshii, giving you one connected solution that’s simple and efficient.
That’s a wrap
There are so many smart tools out there you can take advantage of to help protect your revenue. Doshii alone has its Savings Calculator, Menu Manager, and App Marketplace. But when combined with some of the others mentioned in this article, you suddenly get a delicious combination to better manage operations, energy, food, staffing, supplier management and more.
At the end of the day it all adds up.
Try the Doshii Savings Calculator today and see how much your venue could save.