UBC Law Review

UBC Law Review

& Franchise Law Review

Why You Need a Good Restaurant Operations Manual

The success of any restaurant franchise depends on the quality of its restaurant operations manual. Getting this fundamental document done is now easy – all you need to do is to find a quality Franchise Operations Manual Template.

Using such a template for your restaurant operations manual can save you a lot of time and money. All you will have to do is to customize the template to reflect your business specifics. Most of the top-quality franchise templates currently available on the market are written by franchise professionals and are designed in a way that they can be customized without any problems. There are several issues to pay attention to during the process of customization.

Restaurant Operations Manual Template Customization Tips

New restaurant franchisors will have to get familiar with restaurant business specifics prior to working on their operations manual. Restaurant owners who are franchising their business are likely to be better prepared with the information required for their franchise operations manual customization; normally they would have most of the operation procedures in place and will only need to list them in their operations manuals.

The heart of any restaurant is in its food and beverage services. This is why special consideration must be given to menu development, kitchen equipment, and dining room and bar management. Every restaurant operations manual must detail the rules regarding how the operations must be executed in all of these departments in order to assure smooth and high-standard service. For example, the section regarding menu development and management should provide information about how menus must be assembled, what products should be used, and from which suppliers they should be purchased, as well as food safety, kitchen inventory procedures and control, and the way each menu item should be presented in the menu list, if photos of food will be included, how they must look, etc.

Staff management is a common section present in any franchise operation manual. When we talk about restaurant management though, this is one of the areas that also need a unique approach. A great restaurant is one where high quality food is served and customer service is impeccable. This can only be achieved through recruiting skilled restaurant professionals of various specialties. Your exact requirements regarding the qualifications and the experience of the people that will be hired by each franchisee should also be detailed in your restaurant operations manual. In many cases, additional training will also be required, so make sure you have included specific instructions to when and how this must be done.

Restaurant franchisors should also pay special attention to the safety and security chapter of their operations manuals. It should include rules and procedures regarding general safety and security management, how emergency situations should be handled, fire protection rules, and first aid rules, etc.

The rest of any restaurant operations manual can be pretty much standard. It should include information about general business management, marketing and promotional requirements and management, general staff management, and financial management.