Restaurant ERP Consultant, Australia

Coffee, milk and the hidden cost of modifiers

Coffee is central to Australian cafe trade, and its costing is deceptively complex. A single flat white can be ordered in several cup sizes, with an extra shot, decaf, a choice of dairy or plant milks and a syrup. Each option changes the cost, and some change the price. When the POS treats these as free text or untracked modifiers, the theoretical cost of coffee is wrong and the variance lands silently on milk.

I build beverage recipes the same way as food: a base recipe for each drink and size, with modifiers linked to their own ingredient quantities. Beans are costed per shot, milk per cup size and type, and cups, lids and sleeves per takeaway order. The POS mapping is checked item by item, because a misconfigured alternative milk can distort usage across a network.

With that structure, milk becomes a useful control. Theoretical milk usage from POS sales is compared with deliveries and counts each week, and large gaps usually point to wastage during steaming, over-pouring or unrecorded staff drinks. Food recipes follow the same discipline, with yields for proteins and produce and sub-recipes for sauces and bases. The wider costing and central kitchen model is described on ERP for restaurants.

Delivery platform statements, GST and the BAS

Delivery platforms pay Australian restaurants after deducting commission, service fees, restaurant-funded promotions, refunds and adjustments. Their fees generally carry GST, and the platform usually provides a tax invoice or statement showing it. If finance records only the net deposit, sales are understated, the cost of the channel disappears and GST credits on fees may be missed.

My reconciliation is driven by the platform's weekly statement. Each order is paired with its POS record, gross sales are recorded in full with their GST, fees and promotions are posted as expenses from the tax invoice, and the payout clears a control account. Unmatched orders and refunds are listed by site so managers can follow up while disputes are still accepted. The resulting figures give your accountant clean inputs for the BAS, and the GST treatment itself stays with them.

Many groups also take orders through their own app or website, with a separate delivery service or their own drivers. Those orders settle through the payment provider and any delivery fees are a separate cost, so the same matching logic applies with different sources. With every channel reconciled, owners can compare net margin by channel and decide where delivery promotions are worth funding. Venue-wide topics such as awards, surcharges and gaming sit on my Australian hospitality ERP page.

Franchise networks, marketing funds and supplier rebates

Franchising is a common growth path for Australian food brands, and it creates obligations on both sides. Franchisees pay royalties and marketing fund contributions based on sales definitions in their agreements, and franchisors are expected to account for how marketing funds are spent. Franchising in Australia is subject to an industry code and broader consumer law; the specific obligations should come from your franchise lawyer, not from an ERP consultant.

What I design is the data behind those obligations. For franchisors, that means collecting sales from every franchise site in a standard format, invoicing royalties and fund contributions, recording marketing fund spending in its own ledger, and producing the fund statements franchisees receive. For franchisees, it means checking royalty invoices against their own POS sales and tracking food cost against the network's targets.

Supplier rebates are another area that often goes untracked. Franchisors and larger groups negotiate volume rebates with food service wholesalers, packaging suppliers and beverage companies. Where those rebates are paid to the franchisor or the fund, the agreement and your advisors decide how they are treated; the ERP records what was earned, received and passed on. I build rebate agreements into supplier records so earned amounts can be estimated before payment arrives. Requirements like these are what I capture during ERP business analysis.

Cloud kitchens, virtual brands and food business registration

Some Australian operators run delivery-only brands from an existing restaurant kitchen after the dining room closes, or from shared kitchen sites in suburban areas. Several brands may come out of one kitchen, using the same staff and stock but listed separately on each delivery platform.

I keep stock at the kitchen location and tag each sale and recipe depletion with its brand, so food cost and contribution can be reported per brand without splitting inventory artificially. Packaging is costed inside each recipe because it differs sharply between brands. Shared costs, such as kitchen rent and labor, are allocated by an agreed rule so brand results are calculated consistently each month.

Every premises preparing food in Australia is subject to food business registration or licensing through the local council or state authority, and some states require a nominated food safety supervisor. These requirements vary by state and are interpreted by your food safety lead. In the ERP I record registration details, renewal dates, inspection outcomes and the responsible person on each site record, so a growing network can see compliance status at a glance. Producers of packaged meals or sauces for supermarkets should also see my Australian food and beverage ERP page.

From Xero and point solutions to a connected back office

Australian food businesses commonly run Xero or MYOB for accounts, a cloud POS, a rostering tool and sometimes a specialist inventory app. For a few sites, connecting those well may be all that is needed, and I say so when it is. A full ERP makes sense when there is a central kitchen, a franchise network to administer, several companies or a need for tighter purchasing and rebate control.

When an ERP is the right move, my shortlist of Zoho, Odoo, ERPNext and Dynamics 365 Business Central faces four Australian restaurant cases: a cafe day with complex coffee modifiers, a delivery statement with refunds and GST on fees, a marketing fund statement and a rebate claim. Labor arrives as journals from the rostering and payroll systems by site; the award interpretation stays with them. The integration design for each POS, platform and payroll source is agreed before configuration.

Delivery is entirely remote. Australia spans several time zones, so sessions are booked in the overlap that suits head office and sites from Perth to Brisbane, and recordings let managers on early or late shifts catch up. More Australian context, including BAS and payroll, is on my Australian ERP consultant page and the Australia hub.