In 2005 I built a custom MS Excel-VB driven Restaurant & Bar Manager app for a Lagos based outfit.
It was designed to help the owner (who today is serving a second term in the Lagos State House of Assembly) do the following:
1. Use the computer to very easily, and accurately record their restaurant and bar operations raw sales/expense data for data analysis, trending and report generation, without having to undergo the pains of acquiring elaborate PC/Software user skills.
2. Maintain an accurate inventory of all food products, prices and period ending totals(you get daily, monthly and Year Till Date/Annual totals and percentages; profit margins estimates etc).
You simply had to do daily posting of raw sales/expenses data using the automated custom data entry forms provided.
Improving on the first version: Between 2007 and 2009 I built 2 new variants for medium-large hotel clients
Each app has a restaurant module, incorporating the major features and functions of the Restaurant & Bar Manager.
1. The first one was called “Hotel Records Management System (HRMS)™”.
Built in November 2006.
It worked across an intranet (setup in the client hotel), allowing different hotel departments to post entries into seperate but interlinked workbook modules, which were all connected to a central reports generation workbook..
2. The second app version is called “Hotel Restaurant & Bars Manager (HRBM)™”
Built in April 2008.
It’s a single workbook application, like the Restaurant & Bar Manager.
This latest version has enjoyed greater acceptance by business owners.
This is mainly because I took the pains to incorporate key features from the first two apps, based on my observation of users, and evaluation of client feedback.
All my apps can be customised – or built from scratch – for other outfits to accommodate any peculiarities in their individual operations.
Over the past decade, I’ve learnt that most business owners and business users in my primary target market (Africa), often have widely varying preferences regarding their data handling and report generation needs.
This is why I’ve had great success offering “customizable” spreadsheet automation solutions to them.
Most recently, just over the weekend, two long term clients took up my promo offer of this newest version, and I’m now personalizing a copy using data emailed to me by one of them, who is starting up a Restaurant & Bar outfit with his spouse.
See screenshots of default interfaces below (Click the link below to request a copy):
