Most restaurants go live on R365 and never get properly trained. We fix that with hands-on, operator-led sessions that turn your managers into confident R365 users so your data stays clean, your reports stay reliable, and your system actually gets used.
You got the software. Maybe someone even configured it. But your managers are still working off gut feel, your COGS reports do not match reality, and half your team has no idea how to use the system correctly. That is not an R365 problem. That is a training problem.
A system your team doesn’t understand is just expensive software. We sit down with your managers in the real environment they work in, walk through the workflows that actually matter to their role, and don’t leave until they can run it on their own. If the data underneath is messy, we clean it first — because training people on bad inputs doesn’t fix anything, it just makes the bad habits faster. For operators who want to go further, our Tier 3 Operational Bridge and Tier 4 Master Smith engagements take this a step further — embedding Restaurant Smith directly into your operation to standardize workflows, build SOPs your team will actually follow, and provide the kind of executive oversight that protects your margins long after the training is done.
Owners and the administrators get onboarding session & pass that knowledge down secondhand — filtered, incomplete, disconnected from the daily workflows that actually matter. Meanwhile, accounting teams control the AP process from the back office, pack sizes are entered incorrectly because no one in restaurant was involved in setup, and critical system decisions are being made by people who have never worked a shift. The in-store team is left managing the consequences of a system they had no hand in building and no training to correct. Restaurant Smith was that manager — we stumbled through the functions, figured it out the hard way, and learned exactly where the gaps are between how R365 is taught and how it actually gets used on a busy shift. Our training is practical, to the point, and built specifically for the general manager, head chef, and shift lead who need to understand not just how to use the system, but how every entry they make connects directly to the numbers that run their business.
The 5 C’s are the backbone of every effective restaurant onboarding program, and they apply directly to how we train managers inside R365.
Whether you are onboarding a new GM or getting your existing team up to speed on R365, these four stages map to how real learning happens inside a working restaurant environment.
Before anyone touches the system, we make sure every manager understands the why behind R365 — how it connects your purchasing, inventory, and financials into a single source of truth, and why every entry they make is as important as every ingredient on a recipe card. You can't cook a dish you've never read.
Hands-on training on the core daily functions — inventory counts, purchase orders, waste logs, recipe building, and shift-level reporting. Every task is practiced, not just demonstrated, the same way a cook doesn't work the line by watching someone else do it first.
Managers begin running their own workflows with decreasing supervision — the equivalent of working a live service with a chef nearby but not hovering. We observe, give specific feedback, and correct issues before they become the ingrained habits that quietly destroy your data quality over time.
Every good kitchen debriefs after a hard service. We do the same — weekly check-ins during the first 30 days to close gaps, answer questions, and make sure every manager across every unit is running R365 the same way, every shift, every day
The 30-60-90 framework gives your management team a structured, measurable path to full R365 proficiency with clear milestones at every stage.
We come in, assess the current state of your system, and establish what’s working and what isn’t. Recipes get built and corrected, the item catalog gets cleaned, and we identify every place where your team’s daily habits are producing data you can’t trust. No assumptions. We start from what’s actually in front of us.
Training is now live and role-specific. Every manager is being retrained on their exact workflows — inventory counts, receiving, waste logs, AP approvals, and reporting — with Restaurant Smith alongside them correcting bad habits in real time. COGS reports are being reviewed, recipe costing is being verified, and the data your leadership team relies on is finally starting to reflect reality.
Your team is now running R365 independently and accurately. We shift from active training into oversight mode — reviewing Theoretical vs. Actual reports, identifying operational inefficiencies, and locking in the processes that protect your margins going forward. For Tier 4 clients, this is where Restaurant Smith steps fully into the fractional Director of Operations role, providing the executive-level oversight your operation needs without the cost of a full-time hire.
Our R365 manager training is built around your daily workflows, not a generic software checklist. Here is what every session covers.
Most R365 implementations include a one-hour walkthrough, a link to some help articles, and a goodbye. Managers are left to figure it out on their own. Within weeks, they have reverted to spreadsheets, and the system data is worthless. This is one of the most common problems we see when restaurants come to
Restaurant Smith, after a failed implementation, is almost always fixable with the right approach. At Restaurant Smith, training is not an afterthought. It is part of every engagement from the first call, whether you are starting fresh with a new R365 implementation, cleaning up an existing mess through our Data Cleanup and COGS Repair service, or bringing on a new location manager mid-operation.
Four Services tier designed to meet you exactly where you are
Ideal for: Owners who have the data but lack the hours to type it in
Ideal for: Operators who have the software but don’t trust the numbers
Ideal for: Operators who need managers to take ownership
Ideal for: Growing brands needing executive oversight without full-time salary
Any restaurant operator who wants their team to actually use the system they are already paying for.
Precision cost tracking & recipe management for high-end operations
Streamlined inventory and efficient labor management for high-volume concepts
Complete operational oversight and manager training for consistent execution
Centralized reporting & standardized systems across all locations
Personalized setup and hands-on support for owner-operators
Most engagements run on our 30-60-90 day framework, but the actual training timeline depends on the state of your system when we arrive. If your item catalog, recipes, and AP workflows are already clean, your managers can reach independent operation in 30 to 45 days. If we are cleaning up bad data, broken recipes, and incorrect pack sizes first, expect the full 90-day cycle. We do not rush a manager onto the line before they are ready, and we do not stretch the timeline to pad hours.
Both. We are Colorado-based and work with operators nationwide, primarily through structured remote sessions that mirror how your managers actually use R365 from their phones, tablets, and back-office computers. For Tier 3 and Tier 4 engagements, on-site visits are built into the scope where they add real value, typically during the initial assessment phase and at key handoff points.
We can do either, but we recommend role-based training across your full management group. Training a single GM in isolation creates the same problem that broke your R365 rollout the first time, knowledge that lives in one person’s head and never reaches the line. Our pricing scales by scope, not by headcount, so adding your head chef, AP clerk, and shift leads to the same engagement is almost always the right call.
That is the most common situation we walk into. Training your team on a broken system reinforces the wrong habits, so we clean the foundation first. This is handled inside the Prep and Station Setup stages where we rebuild recipes, correct pack sizes, fix UOM mismatches, and audit your item catalog. Once the data underneath is reliable, the training actually sticks.
R365’s onboarding is software training. We do operator training. Their team teaches you how the buttons work. Our team teaches your managers how every entry they make connects to the COGS number on Friday, why a wrong pack size shows up as a margin problem two weeks later, and what to actually do when Theoretical vs. Actual reports do not line up. We have run the line, taken the counts, and stumbled through R365 the hard way ourselves, which is why our training holds up when service gets busy.
Most restaurants are leaving serious money on the table because their team does not know how to use the system they have. Restaurant Smith changes that. We bring real operator experience to every training session, not just software certification. If your managers are avoiding R365, guessing at inventory, or running reports they do not understand, let us fix it. Colorado-based. Remote Nationwide.
At Restaurant Smith, we build your R365 system through the lens of a multi-unit operator.