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When you’re running a busy venue, conducting a restaurant audit can feel like an admin nightmare that will take up lots of time and generate a pile of paperwork that needs to be reviewed and recorded.
At Trail, we’re passionate about ditching the printer and embracing a digital way of life. In this article, we’re going to show you how to make restaurant audits quicker and easier and tell you everything you need to know for your next audit.
Put simply, a restaurant audit is all about reviewing all of your facilities and procedures, including food safety and operational efficiency. The aim is ultimately to check you’re meeting all relevant industry regulations and internal standards, while spotting potential inefficiencies and areas for improvement.
Internal restaurant audits are a proactive way for you to ensure that your teams are up to date on the latest training, that all regulations are being followed, and that operations are as lean and efficient as possible.
Without regular audits, you’re forced to be reactive to issues as they arise, which can lead to any number of nightmare scenarios; from wasted money through inefficiencies, to fines for compliance issues, to a loss of reputation when you fall short of your customers’ expectations, reactive management of problems can cost you more than a good nights’ sleep. In the worst case scenarios, it could cost you your business.
Carrying out a full internal restaurant audit as part of your regular servicing processes can help you identify areas for cost savings, update inefficient processes, and maintain the highest possible standards across your brand.
When your business involves handling food, food safety and keeping your guests safe isn’t something you can afford to compromise on. Regular audits will help you analyse and optimise your processes for food storage, food handling and preparation and how it’s served to customers to make sure you don’t make a mistake that puts your customers’ health at risk.
You don’t just have an ethical obligation to maintain the highest possible hygiene standards when you’re serving food to the public; you’ll also need to make sure that you’re staying on top of all your legal obligations. It’s not enough to just think everything is ok; you’re going to need to document everything, to show you’re following the regulations.
As part of any audit you undertake, make sure you check that all necessary licences and permits are up to date, you’ve put the right staff training in place, and that your restaurant continues to meet all legal requirements.
Customers are more discerning than ever when it comes to choosing where to spend their money. It’s not just about food any more; customers want an experience when they go out to dine. That means that every touchpoint, from booking to paying, needs to deliver excellent customer service and quality. When you consider that one bad experience is enough to stop 82% of people from returning to your restaurant, it’s clear why customer satisfaction needs to be regularly reviewed and monitored.
Regular audits are an important way to make sure you’re consistently meeting your customers’ expectations. By systematically evaluating your restaurant’s cleanliness, food safety practices, and overall service quality, you create a reputation of reliability that your customers can trust.
When you prioritise customer well-being and satisfaction, they’re more likely to feel a sense of loyalty to your brand. This trust translates into repeat business, positive recommendations, and an overall boost in your restaurant's reputation.
When it comes to understanding the operational efficiency of your business, audits are an excellent way to not only identify areas of inefficiency, but also to see what works really well so that you can replicate that in other areas of the business. It helps you to develop SOPs that you can share with the entire team.
If your business needs to look at ways to cut back on expenses and save money, your restaurant audit can also help you here. By auditing your ordering processes, stock management and waste management you can identify opportunities to reduce waste and save costs.
The first step in making decisions about how to run an audit is to understand the different types of restaurant audit. Each one serves a specific purpose and focuses on different aspects of your operations, from food safety and health regulations to financial management and operational efficiency, so it's important to choose the one that meets your needs.
So, let’s dive into the various types of restaurant audits you should consider implementing to keep your establishment at its best:
Internal Audits: Internal restaurant audits, (also referred to as First Party Audits) are carried out by your inhouse team. These aren’t mandated audits; they’re a proactive step taken by restaurant teams who want to ensure that everything is working as it should. While internal restaurant audits aren’t a legal requirement, they can help you to stay compliant by identifying any issues where you are not following the correct procedures.
External Audits: Third party audits can be mandated audits undertaken by regulatory bodies, or they can be carried out by an external company at your instruction. While this obviously incurs a cost, many restaurant operators choose to engage an external auditor in order to get fresh eyes on their operations. An unbiased perspective can be incredibly helpful in identifying issues in your venues.
Also, the credibility of third-party restaurant audits can enhance your reputation by demonstrating that you’re committed to maintaining the highest standards.
Whether you choose to carry out a health and safety audit in house, or you decide to bring in an external auditor, a health and safety audit is something that you need to make sure is done properly. These checks are essential for ensuring your restaurant complies with the legal and ethical standards set by regulatory authorities. They specifically focus on areas like food safety, sanitation, and workplace safety standards.
In terms of food safety, you’ll need to assess your food handling practices, storage conditions, and preparation methods to confirm that they meet all relevant hygiene standards. This includes checking temperature controls and measures for preventing cross-contamination, to protect against foodborne illnesses.
Sanitation is another important area to evaluate; look at the cleanliness of dining areas, kitchens, and restrooms. Make sure you check cleaning schedules, and the effectiveness of sanitising agents to ensure you are achieving high standards of cleanliness.
Workplace safety standards are equally important, make sure you check adherence to protocols such as the use of PPE and training for handling specific equipment, in depth. By prioritising workplace safety, you create a secure environment that minimises the risk of accidents and injuries.
Financial audits are an important way to thoroughly review your restaurant's financial records to ensure accuracy and honesty. This process involves examining documents such as sales reports, expense statements, payroll records, and inventory logs. A key objective is to identify discrepancies that could indicate issues like financial mismanagement or accounting errors, allowing you to address problems before they escalate.
They also assess your restaurant's overall financial health by analysing key performance indicators, such as profit margins and cash flow, which will help you to make more informed decisions about budgeting, pricing, and investments, ultimately enhancing the profitability of the business. Regular financial audits also build credibility with stakeholders, demonstrating a commitment to transparency and accountability.
If your business operates above the audit exemption threshold, or HMRC decides to audit your taxes, internal audits can ensure that you have all the necessary records up to date and to hand, making the process much less stressful and time consuming.
In short, financial audits are vital for maintaining accurate records, identifying discrepancies, and supporting your restaurant's long-term success.
These audits dive deep into evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of your operations, covering everything from workflow processes to inventory management. By examining how tasks are executed from food preparation to service delivery, you can pinpoint any inefficiencies that might be slowing things down.
But it’s not just about finding problems; it’s also about discovering opportunities for improvement. Operational audits assess the effectiveness of your systems and processes to ensure they align with your restaurant’s goals. This includes analysing employee roles, communication practices, and even how you use technology. With these insights, you can make smart decisions that boost productivity, cut costs, and ultimately create a better dining experience for your customers.
But what should you cover in your audit? Where do you start? Who should run it? If you aren’t conducting regular restaurant audits already, it can be hard to know where to begin, and if you are, maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed by manual auditing processes producing lots of printing and paper, meaning it's being left at the bottom of your to-do list. Let’s look at the steps for conducting your own restaurant audit.
Talk about who owns the audit and decide who’s best placed to look at each different area. Larger organisations will have senior staff with different areas of expertise who can oversee individual elements of the audit; decide from the outset who these individuals will report to. This person will collate the findings and create an action plan from the results. Smaller businesses can have one or two senior members of the team overseeing the entire audit. Regardless of how you structure it, make sure that you have a clear plan for recording everything and a checklist for each area to make sure nothing gets missed.
Once you know who is going to be involved, the first place to start your audit should be the kitchen. A checklist will help to make sure you’ve covered everything; check for cleanliness, proper food handling and storage practices. You’ll also need to make sure that equipment is working properly, and clean. Make sure you record the date and time, and note the result of the audit. These records will be incredibly important when it comes to showing evidence that you are fully compliant with all relevant regulations.
When it comes to reviewing your food storage processes, pay close attention to temperature control, labelling, and shelf-life management. Proper food handling helps to prevent cross-contamination and the risk of foodborne illness. It’s also vital in protecting customers with allergies, so you want to know that it’s being followed diligently and consistently. Check that everyone understands not only how to follow the proper procedures, but also why it matters.
Cleanliness isn’t just important in the kitchen. When you’re carrying out your audit, check the state of every area of your restaurant, including dining areas, bars, restrooms, and staff areas. Make sure there’s a regular cleaning schedule in place, and everyone understands who is responsible for the upkeep of each area. A checklist can be great for making sure everyone understands what needs to be done, and when.
As part of a proper onboarding process, you will have identified any necessary training each staff member needs in order to be able to do their jobs properly. Make sure you review this regularly, as responsibilities can change, and some certifications need to be renewed regularly. Your restaurant audit should include clear oversight of everybody’s ability to do their job well, make sure they have access to the right training, and that everything is fully up to date.
Check that all necessary licences and permits are up to date, and that safety equipment like fire extinguishers and smoke alarms are readily available and maintained. You’ll need to make sure that the right equipment is in place to suit the size and layout of the venue, and that staff have been trained properly in its use. Make sure that all HVAC equipment has been properly serviced, and all necessary inspections of gas and electrical appliances are up to date. Record the dates that all servicing and maintenance have taken place.
Keeping proper financial records, and regularly auditing them to make sure they’re up to date will save you a huge amount of stress and admin in the long run. Check everything is in order, and make sure there’s a system in place to easily maintain financial records.
If your current audit process generates piles of paper that then need to be filed and stored, or conducting audits takes lots of time, going digital might be the answer. A digital checklist tool like Trail can help you standardise the audit process as well as keep a digital record of the audit that you can review as needed. This will make it easier to benchmark performance over time and across sites, and reduce the stress of mandatory external audits.
If the thought of a visit from the Local Authority to rate your food hygiene standards fills you with dread, or you feel slightly sick at the idea of a surprise tax audit from HMRC, this section is for you. Even if you’re exempt from mandatory annual financial audits, you may still be subject to a random tax audit at any time, and your local council will inspect your restaurant regularly to make sure you’re adhering to all food safety regulations (every six months to three years, depending on how you did at your last inspection).
We can’t help you prevent these things from happening, but we can give you some advice on how to be ready for if and when they do.
If you’ve been carrying out regular internal audits, and recording everything properly, you should have all the necessary documentation and records already. Make sure they’re all organised and readily available. This includes health and safety records, employee training logs, financial statements, and any previous audit reports. Simply knowing you have all of this to hand can help you to feel more relaxed about an external audit.
Make sure all of your staff have a clear idea of what to expect, and what they need to do during an external audit. If they are likely to be questioned by the auditor, make sure they’re prepared for this, as it can be intimidating for some people.
If you’ve got proper training in place and all of your staff have the correct knowledge for their role, this shouldn’t be a source of stress. Just make sure that everyone knows what’s happening in advance.
It might seem odd to have objectives and goals for an external audit, beyond surviving! But this is an opportunity for your brand to demonstrate its commitment to high standards across all areas of the business. It’s also a chance to identify and improve areas where you’re not quite meeting those standards. Make sure you communicate your ideal outcomes with all relevant team members, and work together to achieve these.
When preparing for an external audit, it’s best to create a schedule that can be shared with the entire team. If you have time to prepare, make sure everyone works together to gather the relevant evidence and have it ready to present. A checklist is a great way to make sure you are completely ready for your inspection and nothing is missed.
An audit isn’t a box-ticking exercise (although you may well find yourself ticking a lot of boxes whilst you’re carrying it out). A proper audit should be about identifying any areas for improvement, and following these up with actions. Once you’ve finished the audit, it’s time to put that information to work.
After the audit, analyse the findings to identify key issues and areas for improvement. Understanding the root causes of problems is essential for effective resolution.
Develop a comprehensive action plan to address the identified deficiencies. Assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and outline the steps needed to implement corrective measures.
Begin implementing the necessary changes and improvements. Ensure that all staff are informed and trained on new procedures and practices.
Regular follow-up audits are crucial to ensure that corrective actions have been effectively implemented and that improvements are sustained.
In this article, we’ve looked at why restaurant audits are so important. We’ve examined the different types of audits, what they cover, and how to prepare for them. We’ve talked through the most important steps to take when you’re carrying out an internal audit, and we’ve touched on how technology can make all of this easier. We’ve also looked at how you should follow up on your audits to ensure that you get the most value from them.
It’s clear that when you’re trying to make your restaurant audit more efficient, consistency and planning ahead is essential. By creating a clear action plan and keeping digital checklists, you will be able to conduct successful restaurant audits more easily.
By setting up a solid process, you can make it easier to stay compliant with regulations, keep your customers happy, and continuously improve your operations.
Trail’s app can make it simple to embrace regular restaurant audits across your business by helping you to streamline processes and eliminate inconsistencies. Using specialist software to improve your auditing processes can be a smart move for any restaurant operator serious about achieving operational excellence.
If you’d like to find out more about what our trusted software can do for you, book a demo now.
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