Most restaurant owners we talk to think going digital is a 6-month project. It isn't. Done right, you can move from paper tickets and shoebox receipts to a fully integrated digital stack in 30 days — without dropping a single service.
This is the playbook we walk new restaurant customers through. Keep it open as you go.
Week 1 — Audit and prep
Before you change anything, document what you have today.
Day 1–2 — Inventory your current tools
Walk through every step of your operation: the phone-in order, the till, the kitchen ticket, the supplier WhatsApp, the accountant's spreadsheet. List every tool involved. Most restaurants have 5–8.
Day 3–4 — Menu audit
Print your menu. Beside each item, write:
- Sale price
- Cost (raw ingredients)
- How often you 86 it (weekly? monthly?)
- Which supplier the inputs come from
You'll use this on Day 14 when you set up recipe-driven inventory.
Day 5–7 — Pick a stack
For most African restaurants, the answer is LettsPOS + Gula Marketplace (Gula Meals) + LettsOS. Three products, one platform, one bill, no integration tax.
Week 2 — Get the hardware ready
Day 8–9 — Hardware delivery
Order LettsPOS terminals. Most cities get next-day delivery; rural districts ship in 2–3 days.
Day 10–11 — Install and connect
The terminal pairs with your existing WiFi (or 4G if your spot is patchy). Print a test receipt. Run a test transaction.
Day 12–13 — Train one server
Don't onboard the whole team yet. Pick your most reliable server and let them learn the system on a quiet shift. They'll teach the rest.
Week 3 — Switch live
Day 14 — Set up recipe inventory
Take the menu audit from Day 3 and create recipes in LettsPOS. Each menu item maps to its raw ingredients with quantities. Now selling a burger automatically decrements flour, beef, and lettuce.
This is the moment shrinkage becomes visible.
Day 15–17 — First live shifts
Run lunch shift on the system. Then dinner. Then a full Saturday. Expect minor friction; that's normal. Most issues resolve themselves in week 2.
Day 18–21 — List on Letts Eat
Activate Letts Eat — your menu is already in the system. Customers in Lilongwe / Blantyre / Mzuzu can now order delivery. Orders flow directly into your kitchen display.
Week 4 — Operations overhaul
Day 22–24 — Daily P&L
Set up daily P&L in LettsOS. Every morning by 9 a.m. you'll see covers, average ticket, prime-cost percentage, and staff hours from the previous day.
Day 25–27 — Supplier setup
Connect your top 3 suppliers via Letts Marketplace. POs flow electronically; receipts auto-match against expected vs delivered. No more "did we get our flour delivery?" calls.
Day 28–29 — Promotion rules
Configure happy-hour pricing, day-of-week specials, member discounts. They run automatically — no cashier juggling pricelists.
Day 30 — Month-end review
You're now fully digital. Run your first month-end report:
- Top-selling items
- Theft / waste variance
- Server-by-server performance
- Net margin by day-of-week
- Prep schedule for next week informed by last week's actuals
“We were running three different tools before Letts. Now everything talks. Service is 30% faster, theft is down 80%, and I get a P&L every morning.”
What's next
You're 30 days in and the operation is digital. The real work starts now: using the data you're collecting to make better decisions.
A few places to focus:
- Prime cost percentage — the metric that actually predicts whether you'll be profitable. If it's >35%, you have a margin problem.
- Staff utilisation — see who runs the strongest shifts, schedule accordingly.
- Menu engineering — drop the items that don't sell. Promote the high-margin ones.
Letts Academy has a Restaurant Operations certification covering all of this in depth — free if you have a Business plan.
Ready to start? Sign up free and book a 30-minute onboarding call with our restaurant team.