From Manual to Modern: Farmer Boys Streamlines Its Back-Office Operations With PAR Data Central

Delivering on the commitment to providing guests with fresh, high-quality food and an excellent experience requires Farmer Boys to leverage the right technology. The brand has been leveraging PAR Technology’s best-in-class solutions to address its back-office challenges and to help improve customer acquisition and retention efforts.

Farmer Boys implemented PAR Punchh’s Loyalty solution in 2014 to increase customers’ return frequency and boost their average spend. According to Daisy Alvarez, Senior Director of Marketing at Farmer Boys, “Punchh has played a key role in our communication strategy and our value offering for our guests. It’s one of the channels we heavily use to promote our brand messaging and system-wide launches as well as target our guests and provide personalized experiences.” 

In 2017, the brand implemented PAR Data Central, a maintenance-free back-office management solution. According to Julie Piconke, Director of New Restaurant Openings at Farmer Boys, before PAR Data Central, most of the brand's back-office processes were done manually, which was an incredibly time-consuming, laborious, and human-error-prone task. They were also missing essential reports and forecasts highlighting crucial areas of operation, like labor and food. 

By utilizing PAR Data Central, Farmer Boys is now enabled to manage inventory more efficiently, optimize labor costs and staffing, and gain better visibility into their operations. 

Automated Back-Office Processes Help Save Time and Money

Back-office management has drastically improved since implementing PAR Data Central across all locations. Farmer Boys employees now use the PAR Data Central portal from their phones, tablets, or computers for taking inventory counts and cash balancing, tasks that were previously fulfilled via pen-and-paper. “We would print out long spreadsheets for manually taking inventory and cash balancing,” said Piconke. “Inventory counts would take us anywhere from 3 to 4 hours.”  

By eliminating pen-and-paper procedures and completing these tasks via the portal, the brand has been able to save valuable time and costs and reduce human error. “It was phenomenal when we started managing the inventory on PAR Data Central,” said Piconke. “It has saved us so much time and we were able to see so many cost savings.”

Reducing Waste and Identifying Theft with Food Prep Sheets and Enterprise Reporting

With PAR Data Central, Farmer Boys has become a data-driven brand and leverages its digestible and actionable reports for crucial business decisions. The brand has been tapping into reports on their weekly variance to understand their shrinkage as well as product mix reports to track what menu items are in demand and which are not. 

Farmer Boys also continuously looks at hourly sales, their weekly DSR, and POS audit reports to not only help with cost savings but also help detect theft. “These reports really tell a story,” explained Piconke. “We can tell if somebody consistently voids out orders or uses a lot of discounts.” 

Additionally, the brand utilizes PAR Data Central’s Food Prep Sheets to have a comprehensive understanding of how much stock is required each day, ultimately helping them reduce waste and prevent over-prepping and over-portioning. “We use PAR’s Food Prep Sheets which really help our managers understand what is on hand and what needs to be prepped for the day. This has helped us reduce our food waste and ensure we have the perfect amount of stock at the ready for every order.”