The restaurant’s numbers, finally talking to each other.

The business problem

Like most restaurants, Dive Bar runs on several systems that each hold part of the same story: the point of sale, the payment processor, the accounting software, the bank, and a stack of vendor invoices. None of them were connected. Every week the daily numbers were rekeyed by hand into accounting, and the executive manager carried the whole back office on her own.

“So many applications that are not aligned. Lots of behind-the-scenes manual work.”
The owner, at the first meeting

Clearing the hardest dependency first

Restaurant POS data is not handed out on request. Before the first discovery meeting, WRAG applied to the Shift4 Marketplace program and became an authorized Shift4 developer, with read-only access scoped to this one restaurant. The accounting side was harder: the restaurant’s Sage 50 has no simple connection point, so WRAG proved in a practice company that a robot could operate it the way a person does before committing to the project.

What WRAG built

1. A robot with its own deskDewey runs on a dedicated computer on the restaurant’s network, with its own email address and its own accounting user. Staff work with it by email, the same way they work with a coworker.
2. The weekly sales journal, approved by replyEvery Sunday Dewey builds the sales journal from the POS: sales by category, tax, card types, gift cards, paid-outs, tips, and cash. The manager approves with a one-word reply, or corrects a number in the reply. Only then does Dewey enter it, and it checks every line against what the books now show.
3. Morning bank checkDewey reads the daily bank file and sends a short list of what needs doing by hand: deposits to post, payments to mark, checks to clear, and the balance to hit. The first real file tied out to the penny.
4. Vendor invoices from anywhereA phone photo, a printer scan, or a forwarded vendor email are all read the same way. Dewey codes each invoice, catches duplicates, and lists them for approval. One reply approves the stack.
5. Payroll, off the general manager’s plateEvery pay period Dewey builds the payroll sheet straight from the POS time cards: regular and overtime hours, every job and rate, cash and card tips, in the exact order the payroll system expects. Checked against the restaurant’s own payroll report, every employee’s hours matched. A daily alert flags missed clock-outs while they are still easy to fix. Next, Dewey types the approved sheet into the payroll system itself, and a person reviews the preview and presses submit.
6. Reports the owners actually readA nightly sales report for the management team, a weekly summary, and an owners’ report with trends. A Sunday payroll check flags missing tips, hand-typed punches, and overtime, and a midweek warning arrives while there is still time to fix the schedule.

“Show me once, on video”

There was no requirements document. When it was time to automate a task like the bank reconcile, the manager simply recorded a short screen video of herself doing it. Dewey worked from that video, the narration and the screens, to learn exactly how she does the job. When a tips line came out nine cents off, the fix came from learning how she actually handles tips paid out in cash. The expert does her job once on camera, and the automation follows her method, not a guess.

Nothing goes into the books without a person saying yes. The robot does the typing and the checking. The people who know the business keep the judgment.

Where it stands

The weekly journal, nightly and weekly reports, payroll checks, morning bank check, and invoice reading are all live. Payroll is in its final stretch: the sheet already matches the restaurant’s payroll report, and Dewey entering it into the payroll system is the last step. Entering approved invoices into accounting has been proven in a practice company and is being switched on next. The system is documented and built for handoff: a developer in the owner’s family is being mentored to take it over, so the restaurant is not dependent on an outside vendor.