Founder POV: Spreadsheets FEEL comfortable, familiar and cheap………but for many chefs, they’re actually NOT the ideal solution.

This article is adapted from a LinkedIn post by Robbie Francis, Founder of Hops.

Spreadsheets FEEL comfortable, familiar and cheap………but for many chefs, they’re actually NOT the ideal solution.

They’re the default because the underlying systems are PAINFULLY fragmented.

The reality is, for most operations:

• Ordering isn't connected to goods receiving
• Which isn't connected to inventory
• Which isn't connected to financial control

Which forces chef to: 1️⃣ Reactively scramble to bridge the gap between siloed information 2️⃣ Fly blind without real-time visibility into costs, pricing or inventory

If you’re not raising POs, you’re not truly tracking cost of sales in-period. You just aren’t.

I’m seeing nine-figure groups with 10+ sites still pulling this off with manual processes and people power ALONE.

But there’s a better way, and it'd look a little something like:

Phase 1: Ordering (Weeks 0–2) Turn on POs for every order, every supplier Lock supplier catalogue + prices; no free-text items Metric: % of orders via PO (target 100%)

Phase 2: Receiving (Weeks 3–4) Receive against PO line-by-line (qty + price) Auto-flag delivery variances; review weekly with finance Metric: Variance rate and time-to-resolution (<7 days)

Phase 3: Inventory (Weeks 5–6) Standardise recipes with supplier-linked ingredients Count A items weekly, B bi-weekly, C monthly Metric: Theoretical vs actual usage variance (<2%)

Phase 4: Finance (Weeks 7–8) Map POs/invoices to GL codes Produce in-period COS: Opening + Purchases − Closing Metric: COS accuracy vs target; escalate >2% deviations in 24h

Phase 5: Scale (Weeks 9–12) Roll out the standard playbook to all sites Lock permissions and retire local spreadsheets Metric: % sites live, hours saved, price drift trend

Or, if you want the fast-lane, I might know a decent piece of kit to help you………….

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About Robbie Francis
Robbie Francis is the Founder of Hops. He has spent years building and implementing hospitality technology with operators, focused on simplifying back-of-house operations across inventory and finance.

Follow Robbie on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robbiefrancis

View the original LinkedIn post: Spreadsheets FEEL comfortable, familiar and cheap………but for many chefs, they’re actually NOT the ideal solution.