Menu
Menu
You did not open a restaurant to spend your nights updating menus across
six different apps.
You did not get into this business to manually enter orders from tablets into your POS.
And you definitely did not sign up to spend Sundays reconciling delivery payouts line by line.
But here you are.
Restaurant automation fixes that. Not with robots or sci-fi technology, just smart software that handles the repetitive stuff so you can focus on food and people.
Total time you can save: 20-35 hours per week across menu management, order flow, marketing, and operations.
ROI: At $25/hour labor cost, that's $14,300-24,700/year in saved time.
Getting started: Most restaurants start with menu sync and order routing (highest immediate impact), then expand to marketing automation and analytics.
We are not talking about robot servers. Restaurant automation means using software to handle tasks that happen the same way every time, take time but do not need human judgment, and are easy to mess up when busy.
The goal is not to remove humans - it is to free them up for the work that actually matters: food quality, customer service, and running a profitable business.
Change your menu once, it updates everywhere automatically. No more logging into six different dashboards to change one item price or mark something 86'd.
Chowly syncs menus across all major delivery platforms and your direct ordering site from one dashboard. Update in one place, push everywhere in seconds.
Delivery orders flow directly into your POS - same ticket printer, same kitchen workflow, same receipt format your team already knows.
No manual entry, no lost tickets, no mistakes from re-typing order details.
Chowly integrates with Toast, Square, and 50+ POS systems with deep two-way sync. Orders come in, confirmations go back out, automatically.
Orders automatically dispatch to the best available driver from your delivery network. Fastest, cheapest option chosen automatically based on real-time availability and routing.
No more manually calling drivers or managing dispatch yourself. The system handles it.
Pre-built campaigns trigger automatically - welcome series for new customers, we-miss-you emails for lapsed guests, birthday promos, order reminders.
Chowly email marketing sets up flows that run without you touching them. You build it once, it runs forever.
Points sync automatically between online orders and in-store POS. Customers earn points when they order online, redeem them in-store (or vice versa), no manual tracking required.
Chowly two-way loyalty with Toast and Square means the system tracks everything. You never manually adjust point balances or reconcile discrepancies.
Chargebacks and delivery disputes filed and tracked automatically. Documentation pulled from order history, evidence submitted, resolution tracked.
You review results, not paperwork.
Chowly dispute management wins 70-80% of contested charges automatically by submitting proper documentation the first time.
AI drafts responses to Google and Yelp reviews based on your brand voice. You edit and post in seconds instead of writing from scratch or ignoring reviews entirely.
Responding to reviews helps local SEO. Automation makes it actually happen instead of staying on your to-do list.
Clear reports showing exactly what you earned from each platform, fees deducted, what hit your bank account. Discrepancies flagged automatically.
Chowly reconciliation breaks down every payout so you know what you actually keep - not what the app says you earned before mystery fees.
Low-stock alerts based on sales patterns. Suggested reorder quantities so you are not guessing.
Most modern POS systems offer this. If yours does not, it might be time to upgrade.
Templates, availability tracking, shift swapping, time-off requests - all handled in an app your team can access from their phones.
Tools like 7shifts, HotSchedules, and When I Work eliminate most scheduling headaches. Your staff manages availability, the system builds the schedule.
Sync your hours, menu updates, and posts to Google automatically. No more remembering to manually update Google when you change holiday hours or add a new menu item.
Chowly GBP management keeps your profile updated without manual work, which directly affects local search rankings and order volume.
Unified dashboards that pull data from all sources automatically - POS, delivery apps, direct orders, marketing performance, Google Ads results.
Instead of logging into six different platforms and exporting six different spreadsheets, you see everything in one place.
Key is finding one platform that connects all your systems. Otherwise you are just trading one set of manual work for another.
Most restaurants implement automation gradually, starting with order flow and menu management (the highest-impact, fastest-ROI items) before expanding into marketing automation and analytics.
Let's do the real math on what manual processes cost you:
Manual work (current state):
• Menu updates across platforms: 5 hours/week
• Re-entering delivery orders: 4 hours/week
• Reconciling payouts: 3 hours/week
• Marketing tasks: 3 hours/week
• Dispute resolution: 2 hours/week
• Scheduling adjustments: 3 hours/week
• Review responses: 1 hour/week
• GBP updates: 1 hour/week
• Reporting: 2 hours/week
Total manual time: 24 hours/week minimum
Automated time: 1-2 hours/week of oversight
Time saved: 22+ hours per week
At $25/hour labor cost (whether it's you or a manager), that is $550/week in labor. Or $28,600/year.
Automation does not cost money. Manual work costs money.
Restaurant automation makes the biggest impact if you:
• Use multiple delivery apps (more platforms = more manual work to eliminate)
• Update menus often (seasonal items, daily specials, price changes)
• Reconcile payouts manually (spreadsheets, highlighters, mystery deductions)
• Re-enter orders into your POS (tablets stacking up, staff typing orders)
• Spend nights answering the same operational questions (where's the report, what did we make, who's working tomorrow)
If any of those sound familiar, automation usually pays for itself in the first month.
Level 1 (Week 1): Menu sync, order routing, delivery dispatch
These directly affect revenue and customer experience. Start here. Get these running before anything else.
Level 2 (Month 1): Email marketing, dispute management, reconciliation
Easy ROI to measure. Email marketing drives repeat orders, dispute management recovers lost revenue, reconciliation catches fee errors.
Level 3 (Month 2-3): Loyalty sync, review responses, GBP management
These compound over time. Loyalty builds lifetime value, reviews improve rankings, GBP drives local search traffic.
Level 4 (When Ready): Inventory, scheduling, custom reporting
More setup required, higher learning curve. Add these once the foundational automation is working smoothly.
Watch out for these warning signs:
• Requires you to switch POS - if it cannot integrate with your current system, the migration hassle is not worth it
• Manual approval required for everything - that is not really automation, that's just notifications
• No reporting on what it did - you should see exactly what automation saved you (time, money, errors prevented)
• Long-term contract required - good tools prove value quickly, month-to-month contracts are better
• Point solution for one task - you will end up with ten different tools that do not talk to each other
Chowly is a complete 21-product platform built specifically for independent restaurants (1-5 locations). We're not a POS company or a delivery aggregator - we're a complete operating system for your online business.
Here's what we automate:
• Menu sync across all delivery platforms and your direct ordering site
• Order routing directly into Toast, Square, and 50+ POS systems
• Automatic delivery dispatch with optimized routing
• Email marketing campaigns that run automatically
• Two-way loyalty programs (earn in-store, redeem online, fully automated sync)
• Google Business Profile management
• Fully managed Google Ads with 7-21x proven ROAS and keyword-level attribution
• Automated dispute management (70-80% win rate)
• Payout reconciliation with discrepancy flagging
• Unified reporting dashboard (one login, all your data)
The Result: Restaurants using Chowly save 20+ hours per week on tasks that used to be manual.
This is a complete platform approach - not a patchwork of disconnected tools. Everything works together because it's built to work together.
• Liv's Juice Bar saved $121K per year in delivery fees and manual work
• Taqueria El Tapatio increased revenue 256% after automating their order flow and marketing
• Customers report Google Ads ROAS as high as 21x with Chowly's managed service
You got into restaurants because you love food and hospitality. Not data entry, paperwork, and reconciling spreadsheets at midnight.
Chowly's 21-product platform automates the operational work so you can focus on what actually matters: making great food and building a profitable business.
Get a demo to see exactly how much time you can save.
Point solutions (single-purpose tools) run $50-200/month each. If you use five different tools, that's $250-1,000/month.
Platforms like Chowly that bundle multiple automations typically run $200-500/month but replace several point solutions. Most restaurants save money by consolidating.
Chowly integrates with Toast, Square, Clover, Revel, Aloha, and 50+ other systems. Always verify integration compatibility before signing up for any automation platform.
If a tool requires you to switch POS, the migration pain usually is not worth it unless your current POS is holding you back in other ways.
Most Chowly customers are fully automated within 1-2 weeks. Menu sync and order routing can often be same-day setup.
Marketing automation (email flows, loyalty programs) takes a bit longer to configure properly, but once set up, it runs indefinitely.
Good automation platforms have monitoring and alerts. If an order does not flow through, you get notified immediately and it falls back to manual process until fixed.
Chowly includes 24/7 support for exactly this reason - restaurants cannot afford downtime.
Automation handles repetitive tasks. You still need humans for cooking, customer service, management, and decision-making.
The goal is not to eliminate staff - it's to free them up to do higher-value work that actually impacts your business.
