The floor runs like clockwork. The admin behind it is held together with sticky notes.
Owner-operated cafes and restaurants lose hours every week to reservation admin, chasing no-shows, placing supplier orders, and juggling rosters over text. The ones protecting their margin are not better cooks. They have better processes. Octawerks handles the admin using the booking, point-of-sale, and messaging tools you already run, with a first process live in two weeks.
Every owner-operator knows this grind.
A table of eight books for Friday through the website, another six by phone, two more by direct message. Someone copies them into the book, or means to. Friday night the eight does not show, nobody confirmed, and the table sat empty through the busiest two hours of the week.
The produce order needs to go in before the supplier cut-off, but you are on the floor. The Sunday roster is still a group chat with three people asking to swap. The card takings for the week are a stack of receipts you will reconcile when you get a minute, which is never.
This is not a service problem. It is a process problem. A cafe or restaurant cannot stay across bookings, confirmations, ordering, rostering, and the numbers with a paper diary and a group chat. Every no-show that was not confirmed is a table sold once instead of twice, and every hour on admin is an hour not on the floor or at home.
Six areas where cafes and restaurants lose the most time and margin.
We work with the booking, point-of-sale, and messaging tools you already use, and remove the manual steps around them. No new system to buy. No retraining your team.
Reservations from your website, phone, and social messages land in one book automatically, with covers, time, and contact details. No double-entry, no table that only existed in a message thread.
Automatic confirmation and reminder messages go out before each booking, with an easy way to cancel or rebook. Released tables get offered to the waitlist instead of sitting empty on your busiest night.
Standing orders and par levels trigger a draft order to each supplier ahead of their cut-off, ready for you to check and send in seconds rather than rebuild from memory every week.
Shifts go out to staff automatically, swap requests get logged in one place, and you approve with a tap. No more three separate conversations about the same Sunday.
A friendly review request goes to guests after a visit, pointed at the platforms that matter to you. More recent reviews, without anyone on the team having to remember to ask.
Covers, takings, average spend, and cost of goods pulled from your point-of-sale into a simple daily and weekly summary, so you see how trade is going without building a spreadsheet.
First process live in two weeks. No big projects.
A venue has a dozen moving parts and we do not try to fix all of them at once. We start with the one costing you the most, usually no-shows or supplier ordering, prove it works, then build from there.
The audit
Tell us how bookings, orders, rosters, and takings are handled today. We ask the right questions. No pitch, no obligation. You leave with a clear view of where the hours and the margin are going.
We map your tools and your service
We identify the one thing to fix first, usually no-show confirmations or the supplier order. You get a written plan showing exactly what we will build. No obligation to proceed.
We build it. And it runs itself
We connect the tools you already use and remove the manual steps around them. Most venues are up and running within two weeks and feel the difference on the next weekend service.
Built for owner-operated cafes and restaurants, from one site to a small group.
You run the venue. Maybe you are on the floor or in the kitchen most services, maybe you are managing a small team across a couple of sites. You are good at hospitality. The admin behind it is the part that eats your day off.
You already have a booking system, a point-of-sale, and a way to message your team. Those tools do far more than most venues have set them up to do. We connect them, automate the repetitive handoffs, and give you back the hours you spend confirming tables, rebuilding orders, and reconciling takings.
Every unconfirmed booking is a table you might sell once instead of twice. Every late supplier order is a scramble or a substitution. Every hour on the group chat is an hour off the floor. These are process problems, and process problems have process solutions.
See our services →What owners ask us first.
Do I have to change my booking system or point-of-sale?
No. We connect to what you already run. If we ever think a different tool would genuinely serve you better, we will tell you, explain why, and leave the decision with you.
We take a lot of bookings by phone and message. Does that still work?
Yes. Those still come to you the way they do now. We add the step that logs them into one book and sends the confirmation, so nothing depends on someone remembering to write it down.
Will this feel impersonal to guests?
The messages are short, in your venue's voice, and only cover confirmations, reminders, and a review request. The welcome, the service, and the judgement calls stay with your team.
What does it cost?
Start with the audit. You get a written report ranking your biggest time and margin leaks, and it comes off the build if you go ahead.
Do you only work with venues in one country?
No. We work with cafes and restaurants remotely, wherever you are. The process is the same, and it fits around your service hours.
Every unconfirmed table is one you might sell once instead of twice.
Book the audit. We map how bookings, orders, rosters, and takings are handled today, and hand you a written report ranking your biggest leaks. Yours to keep either way, and it comes off the build if you go ahead.
$1,250 USD founding rate, first 10 clients in New Zealand and Singapore. Normally $2,500 USD. All prices in USD. Credited against the build if you go ahead, and if we do not find leaks worth 3x the fee, you do not pay.
Start with the audit →