TLDR

You’ve got a lot on your plate as a restaurant owner. From keeping track of inventory to scheduling staff, it’s a juggling act to keep all the pieces moving. But what if technology could give you a hand? With Square App Week coming up from February 26th to March 1st, now is the time to take advantage of exclusive deals on some of the top restaurant apps out there. During this promotional period, you can score discounts on 7 must-have apps that will help you manage operations, understand your customers, and grow your profits.

Whether you need to streamline online ordering, scheduling, accounting, email marketing, or forecasting, these featured apps have you covered. Don’t miss out on getting special offers on the technology your restaurant needs. Read on to learn more about the capabilities of these apps and how to take your eatery to the next level this Square App Week.

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What Is Square App Week?

Square App Week is held annually between February 26 and March 1. During this week, Square promotes and showcases various apps that integrate with the Square payment system. Many of these Square partner apps offer special promotions and deals during this time to help business owners make the most of Square technology, save time, and simplify their workday. Below we have highlighted seven of the most useful Square apps for restaurants and coffee shops.

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Top 7 Must-Have Apps for Restaurants During Square App Week

7shifts

Simplify team management and drive better performance across your restaurant with 7shifts. The all-in-one solution offers employee scheduling, timekeeping, communication, and more. Seamlessly integrating with Square, 7shifts provides real-time sales reports and forecasts to optimize your labor and keep costs under control.

Gamsa IO

Gamsa.IO simplifies operations for Quick-Service Restaurants (QSRs) and restaurants dealing with crowded customer lines through a user-friendly kiosk app. It connects with a Square account, making order management and payment processing a breeze. Enjoy real-time updates on your kiosk for catalog and inventory changes, ensuring a smoother experience for both you and your customers.

Per Diem

Per Diem empowers restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops to boost their growth by building branded mobile apps. The white-label apps simplify ordering for customers, enabling them to order ahead, skip lines, or enjoy convenient delivery. The app also offers marketing tools such as push notifications, coupons, and subscriptions. With a smooth integration with Square POS, Per Diem enables seamless online and in-store sales management via your dedicated mobile app.

Stream

Stream, integrated with Square, ensures a seamless process for all your third-party orders by sending them directly to your Square POS and generating kitchen tickets—no need for tablets or manual order input. Stream also enables eateries to modify their third-party menus independently of the in-store menu. Businesses can effortlessly adjust prices, edit items, categories, modifiers, and more across third-party channels, instantly updating these changes for order providers in real-time.

QuickBooks Online

Small restaurant owners often grapple with managing accounts and data, but QuickBooks Online simplifies the process. Spend less time on bookkeeping and more time expanding your business. QuickBooks consolidates everything in one location, allowing you to effortlessly track income, expenses, and mileage, send invoices, pay employees, and optimize tax deductions. A single click provides a swift overview of your cash flow, balance sheet, and various reports, making financial management hassle-free.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp, a widely used email marketing and automation platform, empowers millions of entrepreneurs globally to enhance their brands. With Mailchimp, you get visually appealing, precisely targeted emails, valuable insights, and a robust marketing CRM—all the essentials for scaling your business. The app integrates with various Square services, including Square payments (both in-person and online), point of sale, eCommerce, Square for Restaurants, Loyalty Program, and subscriptions.

Lineup.ai

Lineup.ai utilizes AI to produce dynamic, automated forecasts for restaurant sales, labor, and menu items. Simply clicking a button, restaurants can import their historical sales data from Square POS into Lineup.ai, generating a real-time prediction feed for future demand. This forecasting capability enables managers to efficiently create schedules using the app's user-friendly interface and swiftly deploy them to staff.

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Streamline Operations With Gamsa, Per Diem, and Lineup.ai

Gamsa for Kiosk Orders and Payments

Gamsa is an iPad kiosk app integrated with Square POS to help you manage kiosk orders, payments, and reporting. Once you’ve set up your menu in Square, sync it to Gamsa, and your customers can place and pay for orders directly on the kiosk. Gamsa keeps things running smoothly by alerting the staff as soon as a new kiosk order comes in.

Per Diem for Branded Mobile Apps

Per Diem helps QSRs, bakeries, and coffee shops amplify growth by creating Starbucks-like mobile apps integrated with Square POS. The app lets the eateries send targeted notifications and allows in-app incentives for loyal customers. Per Diem offers a complimentary landing page, social media animation, and window decals to spread the word about your app.

Lineup.ai for Scheduling and Forecasting

Lineup.ai is an AI-based software solution that generates automated restaurant sales and labor forecasts. By predicting busy periods and staffing needs, Lineup.ai helps you optimize schedules to maximize profits and avoid overstaffing. Lineup.ai provides customized forecasts based on your historical data from Square, weather, events, and more. A special offer of 10% off for the first year exclusively for Square customers.

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Optimize Marketing and Payments With Mailchimp and QuickBooks

Sync Customer Data Seamlessly

QuickBooks Online integration allows you to sync real-time data between the platforms without manual entry. Connect your QuickBooks Online account to instantly import your customer contact information, orders, and payments into Mailchimp.

Gain Valuable Insights

With your customer data flowing freely between the platforms, you’ll gain access to powerful insights and reporting in one place. See how email campaigns through Mailchimp directly impact sales, find your most valuable customers, and discover new opportunities to market to your customers.

Reach More Customers

Mailchimp’s marketing automation and email tools help you design eye-catching email campaigns, newsletters, postcards, and more. Easily create segments to target customers based on their purchase history and preferences. Send the right message at the right time to boost sales and build customer loyalty.

Streamline Your Business

Processing customer payments and managing your accounting in QuickBooks Online paired with marketing through Mailchimp streamlines your operations. Everything works together in one place so you can spend less time on administrative work and more time growing your business.

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Enhance Team Management With 7Shifts

7shifts is an all-in-one restaurant management platform that helps streamline operations and improve performance. It offers real-time insights into sales, costs, and productivity to help you make data-driven decisions.

The Engage Dashboard provides real-time insights into team engagement and satisfaction levels. 7shifts integrates team communication, scheduling, task management, and labor compliance in one platform. This helps reduce confusion and frustration, leading to higher employee retention and better customer service.

Seamless Scheduling

7shifts scheduling tools optimize your labor based on forecasts and budgets. Easily create schedules, communicate with your team, track time off requests, and fill open shifts. Schedules can be created weeks or months in advance and are accessible anywhere on any device.

Integrated Communications

7shifts comes with an integrated team communication hub. Easily communicate with your whole team or specific groups. Share announcements, recognize employee achievements, and foster community. Messages can include images, links, and emojis to make communication more engaging.

Task Management

Create, assign, and track tasks to keep your team organized and efficient. Tasks can be assigned to individuals or groups with due dates and reminders. Get an overview of all open and completed tasks on the dashboard to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. An exclusive 90-day free trial is available for Square sellers.

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Final Thoughts

Though Square App Week only comes once a year, the apps showcased can bring tremendous value to your restaurant all year round. With powerful tools for everything from order management to accounting, marketing, forecasting, and staffing, you have an opportunity to streamline operations significantly. Don't let the deals pass you by without taking a close look at how these apps can help you work smarter, increase efficiency, and boost your bottom line. The restaurants that will thrive are those that embrace innovation, so be proactive in evaluating and implementing the latest technologies. The cost of ignoring progress is far higher than investing in it. 

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