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How Commander’s Palace Operates Lean and Mean

9/24/2015
You don’t get to be a restaurant legend by operating sloppy. Since 1880, Commander’s Palace has been a New Orleans landmark known for its award-winning food and outstanding service. Today, it is one of the most recognizable restaurants in the nation, and its chef, Tony McPhail, recently won the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the South. Since 2002, Commander’s Palace has been operating lean and mean with Compeat, but it wasn’t always this way.
 
Challenge
Prior to Compeat, Commander’s used an old AS/400 system to manage accounting. The system was outdated and not Y2K compliant. It also outsourced its payroll to ADP. It knew it needed a change and began looking for a system that could not only handle the accounting side of the restaurant operation, but also the back office.
 
Solution
Commander’s researched Compeat along with three other accounting software companies. Compeat Advantage was the only solution that was restaurant specific and included a robust back office and payroll component. It was also the only software that seamlessly integrated with its POSitouch POS system. Commander’s implemented Compeat Advantage in May 2002.
 
Results
Commander’s immediately benefited from having all of its POSitouch POS information polled into Compeat Advantage for Daily Sales Reporting, thus, eliminating any  need for manual work. “All of our data is automatically polled over form POSitouch to Compeat,” said Arlene Nesser, CFO at Commander’s. “Once that data is in Compeat, we can drill down on virtually anything to quickly get the information we’re looking for. This is a huge time saver in our daily operations.”
 
Commander’s has been able to improve its daily accounting operations with Compeat’s scanning feature. Prior to Compeat, Commander’s spent a lot of time sorting through invoices and filing them away. Now they simply scan all accounts payables into Compeat and anybody who would like to pull an invoice can simply do so from any computer. “Compeat allows us to operate lean and mean,” Nesser said.
 
Commander’s has also been able to reduce costs and increase efficiency by switching from ADP to Compeat Payroll in 2009. Prior to the switch, Commander’s collected payroll information out of its POS system, reviewed it, and sent it to ADP. “We soon realized that these were the same tasks required to process payroll with Compeat; we were paying another company simply to print checks,” said Peggy Boutte, Human Resources Executive at Commander’s.
 
Going Forward
The history and philosophy that has sustained Commander’s Palace for over a century will continue to sustain it for years to come. They plan to utilize Compeat Advantage as their back office and accounting software as their legacy continues.
 
 
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