With the right software, managing payroll for your restaurant can be a piece of cake. Explore our guide to discover tools that align with your needs and simplify the process.
Running payroll can be a challenge for any restaurant, whether you’ve got a small team or a large staff. The right payroll software takes a lot off your plate by automating tasks, cutting down on errors, and keeping labor costs and compliance in check. But with so many options out there, it’s hard to know which one is the right fit. Read on to learn about some of the top payroll tools—what they do well, where they fall short, and how much they cost—so you can find the best match for your restaurant.
Good payroll software should take the stress out of managing your team’s pay. Here’s what to look for:
Restaurant365 provides payroll software designed just for the food service industry. It makes managing payroll simple by bringing together accounting, inventory, and scheduling all in one easy-to-use platform. This way, you can handle employee pay, track labor costs, and stay compliant without the hassle of juggling multiple systems.
Restaurant365 has a variety of plans and packages to suit your needs, with prices that change based on the features you select. Take a look at our pricing options or compare the different plans to find the one that’s the best fit for your restaurant.
RASI is a cloud-based payroll solution designed for restaurants, making it easier to manage employee pay and meet labor compliance. With its simple interface and features tailored for the food industry, it provides restaurant owners with the tools they need to handle payroll.
RASI pricing for payroll starts at $60 a month for processing, plus $6 per employee each month. Keep in mind, this service isn’t standalone—it’s an add-on to their packages, which could make costs unpredictable.
Paycor is a cloud-based platform that provides various features, including payroll processing, benefits administration, time tracking, and human resources (HR) management. However, it’s important to note that it isn’t specifically designed for the restaurant industry, which might make it less suitable for restaurant operators seeking specialized solutions.
Paycom’s pricing is structured on a per-paycheck basis, along with a per employee per month fee. Their packages include:
Paycom is a cloud-based HR and payroll software that provides a range of features to help businesses manage their workforce. It includes tools for payroll processing, benefits administration, time tracking, and talent management.
The payroll starter package has setup fees between $500 and $1,200, along with a monthly fee of $4 to $6 per employee. For a more complete solution, you might be looking at estimated costs of $22 to $31 per employee per month. Keep in mind that package prices aren’t displayed publicly, so the total costs could end up being much higher than expected.
ADP offers a range of solutions for businesses of all sizes, including payroll processing, HR management, tax compliance, and outsourcing services. Their goal is to help businesses simplify their operations and take care of the employee-related tasks.
ADP’s pricing for payroll begins at $79 per month, with an additional fee of $4 per employee per month.
7shifts is a workforce management platform tailored for the restaurant industry, focusing on payroll and scheduling solutions. It provides tools for employee scheduling, time tracking, and labor compliance, which help streamline the payroll process.
7shifts pricing ranges from $29.99 per month per location to $135 per month per location, depending on the features and services selected. If payroll is added, it costs an additional $39.99 per month per location, along with $6 per month for each employee paid.
Restaurant payroll software should be easy for managers to use without specialized payroll expertise, scale as you add staff or locations, and integrate directly with your POS, scheduling tools, and accounting platform. The most important restaurant-specific features to look for are native tip tracking and pooling, multi-rate pay support, real-time labor reporting, and built-in compliance monitoring for overtime and wage and hour rules.
Restaurant payroll is significantly more complex than standard business payroll because of tipped wages, tip credits, multi-rate pay, variable schedules, and state-specific labor compliance requirements. Generic platforms like ADP and Paycor were not built for these workflows and typically require manual workarounds for tip pooling, multi-rate pay, and POS-connected time tracking. Restaurant-specific payroll software handles all of these natively, reducing errors and the manual steps that produce them.
When payroll software connects to your POS, sales data, tip amounts, and labor hours flow directly into payroll without manual export or re-entry. That connection eliminates the reconciliation step that produces paycheck errors and ensures that tip calculations, multi-rate pay, and overtime are handled accurately based on actual POS data rather than manual input.
Tip pooling is the practice of distributing a portion of tip income from tipped employees to other team members, including back-of-house staff in operations that do not take a tip credit. Not all payroll platforms support tip pooling natively. Restaurant365 tip automation handles tip pool calculations, tip credits, and tip reporting automatically, eliminating the manual spreadsheet step that produces errors and compliance exposure.
Pricing varies significantly by platform and features. Restaurant365 pricing is based on the features and plan you select and is available at restaurant365.com/pricing. RASI starts at $60 per month plus $6 per employee. Paycor ranges from $99 to $199 per month plus a per-employee fee. ADP starts at $79 per month plus $4 per employee. The right comparison is total cost including any add-ons required for tip management, scheduling integration, and accounting connectivity, not just the base subscription price.
Restaurant365 is purpose-built for the restaurant industry with native tip automation, POS integration, scheduling connectivity, and direct accounting integration in one platform. ADP is a general business payroll platform that offers a restaurant option but lacks native tip sharing, tip pooling, advanced scheduling, and labor forecasting built for food service. Operators using ADP for restaurant payroll typically manage tip calculations manually and still require separate scheduling and accounting tools that do not connect natively to payroll.
Yes. Restaurant365 is specifically designed for multi-location operators with payroll, scheduling, and accounting connected across every location in one platform. Each location added does not require additional manual coordination because the platform handles multi-entity payroll, consolidated labor reporting, and compliance monitoring across every location natively. Generic platforms often require separate instances or manual data consolidation as operations grow.
Restaurant payroll software with built-in compliance monitoring flags overtime thresholds, break requirements, and state-specific wage and hour rules before they become payroll violations. Without built-in compliance monitoring, violations surface in audits after the exposure has already compounded. For operators managing locations across multiple states with different minimum wage and tip credit rules, automated compliance monitoring is the only practical way to stay current with requirements that vary by jurisdiction and change frequently.
Blog Menu
Choosing the right payroll software means looking at what your restaurant really needs and thinking about things like budget, scalability, and how easy it is to use. No matter if you run a small café or a big restaurant chain, there’s a solution out there for you. With a wide range of options available—from features that simplify payroll processing to tools designed specifically for the food industry—every restaurant can find the right fit to make payroll management easier and help the business grow.
Share this blog:
See why more than 40,000 restaurants use Restaurant365
Restaurant365 brings together accounting, operations, scheduling, and more in a flexible platform—empowering restaurants to choose the solutions they need and scale with confidence.
