A Quick Look Back on 2020
Dear 2020, you will not be missed.
It goes without saying that 2020 has been a challenging year for humanity. It’s been especially difficult for the hospitality industry. This past year, our industry has endured hurdles that none of us could have anticipated. Yet, here we are. We’ve made it to the end of the year.
Despite the challenges, the team at xtraCHEF is grateful to the restaurant community, to our customers, to our partners and to our employees for sticking together and doing what we could to make the most of a difficult year.
Here are some of the actions, accomplishments and highlights of the past year…
We introduced Recipe Management – a recipe for restaurant profitability.
In January 2020, we launched our Recipe Management feature, giving our customers the ability to calculate plate costs easily, accurately and dynamically. By combining our industry-leading invoice line-item digitization and extraction technology with an intuitive, drag-and-drop interface, operators can monitor the fluctuating prime costs of every menu item without having to constantly update the ingredient prices.
Check out the launch video below:
We responded to cash flow concerns as a result of COVID.
Like most companies and individuals, when COVID emerged, we were temporarily struck with uncertainty about what to do and how to proceed. But, like many restaurant operators, we had to get creative and identify solutions.
Here’s how we showed our support…
We deferred billing for our customers. Â
We knew that cash flow would be an issue for our customers, and we didn’t want to be a burden in a difficult time. So, we told our customers that they could pay us later for March usage.
We paused billing for inactive customers.
If you weren’t going to be using xtraCHEF as a result of the pandemic, we stopped billing. No need to cancel or lose access to documents or data. No invoice scanning meant one less bill to pay.
We gave our best-in-class restaurant management software away for free.
For the restaurants that remained operational or those that wanted to improve their operations during the downtime, we offered Inventory Management and Recipe Management for free.
We offered free trials of xtraCHEF for any restaurant that wanted to try it.
And, we launched two products – xtraCASH & Sync. Read on to learn more about these revolutionary tools.
Recognizing that cash is critical, especially during down times, we launched xtraCASH. We know that having access to tools that make the most out of every dollar earned and every dollar spent was, is and will be critical for operators—and that’s how xtraCASH was born!
xtraCASH is a free food cost & purchase management tool. It’s also the restaurant industry’s only no-cost invoice processing solution that pays you use it. xtraCASH users can upload invoices and gain instant insights into spending habits and ingredient-level price fluctuations. By partnering with the Buyers Edge Platform, one of the foodservice industry’s largest Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO), customers to earn cash back in the form of manufacturer rebates.
Learn more about how restaurants can earn manufacturer rebates on your purchases.
We integrated two of the most common restaurant software solutions
This year, we launched Sync – a tool to integrate Toast and QuickBooks. Sync automatically syncs daily sales data from Toast’s point-of-sale (POS) software to create journal entries in QuickBooks – saving operators and bookkeepers time, frustration and money.
The launch of Sync represented a significant milestone in xtraCHEF’s preferred partnership with Toast.
You got to know us a bit better.
This year, we tried to show you more of who we are – as a company and a team.
We stood with the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. We donated to and matched employee donations that support causes that promote a more just society. We also launched an internal program called IDEA which stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access.
View this post on Instagram
We partnered with companies like 86Repairs and Toast to support restaurants by buying our employees restaurant gift cards and encouraged our employees to do the same.
This year, we introduced our #WorkflowWednesday blog series where we highlighted the awesome members of #teamxtraCHEF who deliver value and delight our customers every day. Check out some of those posts here.
We introduced a 401K for our employees – a milestone that we’re both proud and excited to offer.
Members of our team also experienced a number of personal highlights and milestones. From new hires, new pets and new homes to promotions, marriage proposals and births of sousCHEFs, our collective xtraCHEF family and hearts have grown.
Looking Ahead to 2021
In our company’s short history, we’ve never been more excited about the future. We’re excited to move beyond 2020 and move forward into 2021.
We’ve already cooked up a number of new initiatives, product releases and announcements that we’re excited to share, but you’ll have to wait until next year to know what they are. ?
The restaurant community is a hearty and resilient bunch. If we can make it through 2020, there’s very little that can stop us.
