Mitchell Management operates five Jimmy John’s locations and one Huey Magoo’s, including two high-volume concepts inside Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ). For co-owner Lauren Mitchell, that means overseeing daily performance in an environment where the pace is relentless and demand can shift hour by hour.
To keep up, Mitchell Management needed a better way to run the business, one that reduced busywork, improved accuracy, and gave leaders a clear, real-time view across all locations without adding complexity.
Before Restaurant365, Mitchell Management relied on a legacy back-of-house system paired with spreadsheets to manage inventory, scheduling, and invoices. Too much time was spent on manual data entry and tracking down information that should have been readily available. Visibility across locations was limited, and leadership often had to be on-site just to confirm that schedules and counts were handled correctly.
Those issues were amplified in airport environments. Unlike traditional restaurants, airport locations don’t follow predictable traffic patterns. Passenger volume can spike one week and drop sharply the next, making labor planning and inventory control far more difficult.
“We were using Excel spreadsheets to do our schedules alone… and it wasn’t giving us the proper data,” Mitchell said.
Inventory accuracy was another challenge. Without clear theoretical usage or variance visibility, the team struggled to understand why counts were off or where problems originated. “Our inventory was never correct… I couldn’t pinpoint where those issues were coming from,” she said.
Lauren Mitchell, Co-owner
Mitchell Management
Invoices added even more manual effort. Managers spent hours each week entering invoices by hand, then revisiting them later to fix errors. And without a centralized system connecting everything, Mitchell often had to visit locations in person to review schedules and workflows. “I had to go to each restaurant to check their schedules… go through each thing individually,” she said.
Together, these gaps made scaling harder and pulled leadership away from training teams and running strong shifts. Mitchell Management needed a better operating model to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and deliver real-time visibility without slowing the business down.
Lauren Mitchell, Co-owner
Mitchell Management
Mitchell Management was first introduced to Restaurant365 during Huey Magoo’s corporate training. After rolling it out for that concept, the impact was immediate. Workflows became easier to manage, visibility improved, and accuracy followed. Once Mitchell saw those results firsthand, expanding Restaurant365 to the Jimmy John’s locations was an easy call.
“I’m working with it every single day, and I’m like, why don’t I have this for Jimmy John’s?” Mitchell said.
Restaurant365 brought structure to core operational workflows across all locations, starting with inventory. With sheet-to-shelf counting, teams moved away from paper counts and manual checks. This was especially valuable in airport locations, where storage areas are often separate from the storefront. Managers now count directly on phones or tablets, which reduced missed items and rework.
Scheduling also became more effective once managers had access to hour-by-hour sales trends instead of building schedules in spreadsheets without context. That visibility made it easier to staff to demand and adjust labor during slower periods.
“They can see the sales based on the hours… and truly dig in deep to effectively use their labor budgets,” Mitchell said.
Invoice workflows changed just as dramatically. With EDI invoice automation in place, Restaurant365 eliminated manual invoice entry and reduced errors that previously required follow-up fixes. Managers spent less time on paperwork and more time focused on the floor.
To further improve inventory accuracy at Jimmy John’s, Mitchell built a comprehensive recipe foundation in Restaurant365. This ensured theoretical usage reflected reality and made it easier to manage updates when limited-time offers rolled out.
Within six months, Mitchell Management achieved meaningful gains in efficiency, accuracy, and cost control across locations. Invoice automation alone delivered a major win. By processing more than 800 invoices through EDI, the team eliminated manual entry and saved an estimated 96 hours of administrative time.
Inventory processes improved at the same time. Count times dropped by 50% to 65%, falling from roughly 90 minutes to as little as 30 to 45 minutes per location, depending on the store.
As workflows became more consistent, food cost performance followed. With recipe standardization in place, theoretical versus actual variance tightened to approximately 1%, giving the team far greater confidence in their numbers.
That visibility also led to real cost improvements. At one location, food cost dropped by two percentage points, moving from 28% to approximately 26% as issues were identified and addressed more quickly.
Scheduling became faster and more reliable as well. With sales-driven insights and copy-and-paste workflows, managers could build schedules in minutes rather than hours.
Most importantly, these gains gave leadership and managers something they hadn’t had before: time. With less energy spent on administrative work and troubleshooting, the team was able to focus more on training, coaching, and running stronger shifts.
“It’s given me a lot more time to spend training and teaching… doing the things that I need to do,” Mitchell said.
Restaurant365 has impacted us by making everything simpler and bringing it together into one task instead of multiple disconnected ones.
Lauren Mitchell, Co-owner
Mitchell Management
Mitchell Management implemented Restaurant365 to simplify operations, reduce manual work, and improve accuracy across a multi-unit business operating in complex airport environments. In just six months, the team saved 96 hours of administrative time, cut inventory count time in half, tightened theoretical-to-actual variance to approximately 1%, and reduced food cost from 28% to 26% at a key location.
Restaurant365 also gave leadership back the time needed to focus on people, culture, and execution, critical drivers of long-term performance in high-volume QSR operations.
“Restaurant365 has impacted us by making everything simpler and bringing it together into one task instead of multiple disconnected ones,” Mitchell said.
And for other operators considering the platform: “Get it. Get it today,” said Mitchell.
96 hours saved
from invoice entry in 6 months
50-60% reduction
in inventory count time across locations
~1% achieved
in theoretical vs. actual food variance
2 point reduction
in food costs at a key location
Discover how you can start achieving savings like these for your business
Restaurant365 brings together accounting, operations, scheduling, and more in a flexible platform—empowering restaurants to choose the solutions they need and scale with confidence.
