When the team at Ashley Mac’s met their breaking point from frustration with their previous restaurant management platform, they knew they needed to make a change, fast.

Ashley Mac’s is a triple threat business, offering catering, gourmet-to-go options, and several cafes across Alabama. They focus on serving up comforting, homestyle dishes such as tender lemon rosemary chicken and creamy macaroni and cheese, as well as fresh sandwiches and salads. Since Ashley Mac’s largely functions as a commissary, they needed a platform that didn’t just cater to restaurants, but to stores producing items for their retail locations as well.

So Vice President, Chris Murchison, started shopping around for a new software they could use to support and scale their chain. When he discovered MarketMan, he knew he had found a comprehensive solution that could serve their business from all angles.

Data That Makes Sense

One of the biggest problems Ashley Mac’s faced with their previous restaurant platform was that the numbers never seemed to add up or even make sense, which made their accounting process a total nightmare. They were constantly spinning their wheels trying to manipulate the data to get something they could actually use. Worst of all, customer support was unhelpful, and didn’t even seem to understand how to use their own software!

Initially, they only wanted the basics – integrates with their current POS system, Toast, straightforward reports that made sense, the ability to create and update recipes, and a system that could keep track of their inventory and invoicing. They found all of that and more with MarketMan.

“The accounting side is taken care of,” Chris said.

“MarketMan has been very user-friendly for the general managers and their shift leaders to record waste, accept transfers, and place and receive orders.”

Chris appreciates that MarketMan is so intuitive to use. Any time he trains a general manager on how to use the platform, they never need further clarification post-training. Since MarketMan is so user-friendly, he saved time and money on the build-out and implementation process and instead has the freedom to focus on other pressing aspects of her role.

Ordering And Invoicing

Any restaurant owner knows that manually inputting and adjusting invoices is a huge headache, especially when you’re paying multiple per day. The team at Ashley Mac’s used to spend thirty minutes per day manually processing one or two invoices. Now, they can simply snap pictures of a stack of invoices in ten minutes, tops.

Ordering has become simplified at Ashley Mac’s as well. Before implementing MarketMan, they had to print out order sheets, walk around the store to figure out what they needed, and then enter the order information on the computer. With the MarketMan app, they can simply create an order as they walk around the store, which is much less time-consuming.

The team at Ashley Mac’s appreciates the ability to compare items and their prices while they’re ordering, too, as they can make decisions based on up-to-date pricing within the app. Then, if they make a recipe adjustment, they don’t have to start from scratch and add a totally new recipe – the app will simply adjust the recipe for them.

Inventory counts have also been vastly simplified. Previously, the team used to spend hours counting and inputting the information into the old software while using fifty pieces of paper during manual counting. Now, the process is completely streamlined through the app, and the hard work is done for them.

Chris raves about how the app can help them with counting, ordering, and invoicing, all on-the-go. “We’re finally in the current century,” he jokes.

Support For Scaling

Ashley Mac’s is a behemoth of a business, so they were happy to find an all-encompassing solution in the MarketMan platform. Their processes are large and complex, so finding a solution that could keep track of every side of their company was a huge relief.

Digging into data that MarketMan provides is also a huge lift to Ashley Mac’s as they analyze their operations and prepare to scale their business even more.

“I truly feel that we’ve learned more about our purchasing trends and cost of goods sold in the past three months than we have in the past 5 years,” Chris said. “I have no complaints.”