As a food truck owner in this technological age, having the right software and apps can take the stress out of managing and running your food truck. Have it in mind that today’s savvy food truck owner knows that managing a food truck is much more than good food in a good location – it requires the proper tools to help you manage inventory, take payment, track your spending and collaborate with staff.
According to reports, of over 180 million Smartphone users in the U.S., about 79 percent tend to reach for their phones within 15 minutes of waking up. What do you think they are reaching for? Email, games, movies and social media.
You can leverage the above statistics too and reach for something more productive. You can also reach for a software or mobile phone/tablet app to help you stay organized with your food truck business.
With so many to-do items on your daily list, it is imperative to manage your food truck with a few well – chosen digital apps and software. However, here are software and apps you should be using as a food trucker in the United States.
28 Best Food Truck Business Management Software & Apps and How Much They Cost
- Square
Square includes all the major features food truck businesses need, like the ability to take orders and payment at your window, in – line, or online. With this software, a Food Truck Business can create custom menu items, set taxing and tipping options, and customize receipts. Square can also take payments offline. By using Square POS, you also have access to the large library of Square features and add – on software like loyalty programs, email marketing, and payroll
Cost
The best part of Square is the price: a $0 monthly fee. Square payment processing is 2.60 percent + $0.10 for all card – present transactions — which is not super friendly to small transaction sizes, but it is not unreasonable either.
- Eat Fresh Tech
Trusted by good businesses all across the US since 2016, this software dedicated to providing the best, most flexible ecommerce solution for meal prep services. It helps you free up time by removing manual or repetitive tasks. Take orders, issue discounts, manage customers, and sell recurring subscriptions, prep with auto – totalled meals and ingredients, print labels, track deliveries, and more: all from a convenient, custom dashboard. Personalized on boarding with initial data import included with every signup!
Cost
Eat Fresh Tech pricing starts at $175.00 per month. They do not have a free version.
- Wholesum Food Calculator
This software is ideal for Outfitters, caterers, kitchens, camps, B&Bs, ranches and outdoor programming. This is an online software that lets users to accurately calculate food quantities
Cost
Wholesum Food Calculator pricing starts at $29.00 per month.
- Safefood 360
Web – based solution designed for food and beverage industries that helps manage food safety, quality, and compliance management via monitoring, document control, prerequisite programming and more. This software is best known as a Food safety and compliance management solution that enables food and beverage businesses to manage quality, pest control, suppliers, and more.
Cost
Not Available
- Checkit
From hospitality to food business management, Checkit can help business to take control over their daily tasks, creating alerts and reporting to keep you informed even when you are not on site. This Real – Time Operations Management Platform is used to power digital food safety systems, to deliver smart compliance services and to easily build tailored solutions that make operations more effective. Checkits smart cloud – based technology helps businesses of any size to manage people, processes and compliance.
Cost
Not Available
- Food Service Solution
Food Serve helps businesses in the food industry become more profitable by giving them a better understanding of everything going on in their operation through solutions, reports and analytics. This cloud – based POS software assists food businesses with customer account creation, order management and inventory tracking.
Cost
Pricing starts at $94.00 per month.
- Truckily
The food truck app, Truckily, makes it easy to share and update your location with your customers. Note that all it takes is one – click from your iPhone or Android Smartphone. You can also update Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare instantly with your Truckily app. They’ll also put your food truck on a map so diners can find you easily.
With this app, you can update your location immediately and even schedule your route weeks in advance. Even if you change your location at the last minute, Truckily updates their map as well as your Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts. Truckily saves you an immense amount of time.
Cost
Not Available
- Galley
This software was developed for Food operations that are committed to innovating and optimizing their internal processes. It helps put your kitchen on autopilot. Galley helps you master day – to – day operations with real – time inventory and food costing, empowering business intelligence, and a platform that scales with you.
Cost
Not Available
- Traverse
This software was developed by a company with more than 40 years of experience designing ERP solutions for businesses of all sizes and types – offering adaptable, scalable, and personalized software that grows with you as your business expands. Open Systems is continuously improving its services with new technologies to provide robust functionality to handle all your business operations – providing a total business solution.
Cost
Traverse pricing starts at $100.00 per month, per user.
- ShopKeep
This is a robust point – of – sale system that includes ingredient tracking so businesses can connect individual ingredients, like rolls or eggs, to a menu item to accurately track on – hand supplies based on sales data. Starting at $69 per month, ShopKeep is a great value for food trucks wanting accurate inventory reporting. ShopKeep has a mid – range price point and allows businesses to choose their own credit card processing providers. ShopKeep pricing details include:
Cost
ShopKeep does not publish prices, but based on reports, pricing starts at $69 per register, per month.
- ChefTec
This cloud – based food service management solution helps businesses of all sizes track inventory, manage recipe and menu costing, generate invoices, monitor sales, create reports, and compare bids and more. It is ideal for foodservice operations; it is a cloud – based tool that helps businesses manages costs, track inventory, monitor sales and more.
Cost
ChefTec pricing starts at $1, 090.00 per year, per user.
- Nutracoster
This software is specifically designed for bakeries, Restaurants, Food Manufacturers, Food service operators, Vending machine operators. It is more or less a Recipe / Formula costing and nutrition analysis solution for restaurants, bakeries and food manufacturers.
Cost
NutraCoster pricing starts at $399.00 as a one – time payment.
- MenuCalc
Designed for Food vendors and health professionals, it is a web – based solution that helps create menu, monitor food nutrition levels, automate allergen identification, analyze recipes, and more.
Cost
MenuCalc pricing starts at $99.00 per month.
- Google Apps: Google Drive
Google Drive lets you save electronic files in the cloud and access them from any device. It simply means that your documents, spreadsheets, etc. aren’t stored on one computer, but they are stored on a secure Internet server. You can access them from your phone, your tablet, and your desktop or laptop computer.
Note that as a food truck owner, you will find there are some documents you’d like to have easy access to. Since you don’t have a brick and mortar location, and it is hard to fit a filing cabinet in your truck, you can have a “virtual filing cabinet” in Google Drive.
Cost
Not Available
- Toast
This is a customizable, cloud – based point – of – sale and management system that runs on the Android operating system. Toast provides advanced features including inventory management, customer profiles, menu costing, and real – time analytics. Toast is pricier than other systems on our list, but offers a deeper level of reporting.
Cost
$79 per month per terminal: Features like online ordering, gift cards, and payroll are available for an additional monthly fee.
- Revel
Revel is an industry leader, known for its robust, feature – rich software and for developing specific apps for different facets of the foodservice industry, including pizza parlours, Grocery stores, fro – yo shops, cafes, and — of course — food trucks.
Note that this POS runs on a 4G iPads, which can stand alone or be supplemented with traditional hardware printers and card swipes. Revel is so unique that you can truly do just about anything you want with it, though you will have to pay extra for add – ons, such as online ordering, loyalty, and kiosk mode.
Cost
Revel packages start at $99/month, billed annually with a three – year contract.
- Cost Brain
This is a restaurant food cost management solution, taking invoices and turning them into real time costing data for restaurants.
Cost
Cost Brain pricing starts at $25.00 per month. There is a free version. Cost Brain offers a free trial.
- eZee iMenu
This software offers a complete package of features allowing good vendors to operate more efficiently and bring a new interactive experience for staff and customers alike. In addition, the features will allow food vendors to change menu according to the changing requirements. The next generation Solution for Food Management: Vibrant Menu Presentation, Real Time Menu Updates and Reports, Integrated with POS, Easy Up sell Increases Revenue, Engage Customers!
Cost
eZee iMenu pricing starts at $40.00 per month.
- WaitronMENU
This is a simple and easy – to – use online menu maker that helps users to create beautiful designs. The tool can be used by both non – designers and professionals. The platform provides a vast selection of professionally designed layouts, fonts, images, icons and other various elements. Users also can create custom designs that contain elements of their company by uploading own photos, illustrations and other branded details.
Cost
Not Available
- Ipro
This is a Food cost control solution for small to midsize food and beverage businesses that helps with inventory control, recipe management, theft detection, and more. A windows – based solution designed for food and beverage businesses that help manage inventory, cost, menu, profits, and more.
Cost
Ipro pricing starts at $49.95 as a one – time payment.
- Wunderlist
Indeed the life of a food trucker is a busy one. Wunderlist to the rescue! Note that this innovative app is a simple to – do list management application. You can manage a multitude of schedules and tasks synced on all of your devices. Wunderlist allows you to add items to your to – do list, add subtasks, recurring tasks and set reminders. Add Wunderlist to your phone, tablet, and computer, and watch your productivity soar.
Cost
Not Available
- JustFood ERP
This software helps food manufacturers and food vendors improve food safety, streamline operational efficiency and manage business growth. It is a complete software solution for food processors and distributors powered by Microsoft Business Central. This solution is an ideal fit for businesses that require functionality such as demand planning, sales forecasts, EDI, capacity planning, MRP, vendor performance management, warehouse management, logistics management, and quality auditing.
Cost
On Request
- PeachWorks
PeachWorks, formerly WhenToManage, is a frontrunner in solutions for managing back – of – house restaurant operations and quick food service businesses. This next – generation food vendor operating system with a host of apps (applications) and tools simplifies everything from reporting, inventory management, employee scheduling, and POS Intelligence to recipe management. Cloud – based anywhere, any device access makes daily tasks easier, simpler and faster for everyone from small independents to large corporate franchise restaurant groups
Cost
Not Available
- Restaurant Systems Pro
This software will easily provide a multiple ROI. There is a risk free 90 day money back guarantee. This is a comprehensive restaurant software for independent restaurant owners providing systems for the whole restaurant. It also connects to many POS systems.
RSP system provides more support than a franchisee will get from their franchiser. A spreadsheet can work but this is finally something you can delegate. RSP has multiple systems all connected and in one place. Unlimited users for your whole team!
Cost
Restaurant Systems Pro pricing starts at $99.00 per month.
- EGS CALCMENU
This intelligent culinary management software is designed to simplify recipe management, allowing you to encode and store all your recipes in one place and choose to share them with other sites and locations. It also makes it easy for you to accurately analyze nutritional information and allergens for all your dishes and instantly calculate and track your costs when creating recipes and track your profit margins.
Cost
EGS CALCMENU pricing starts at $1190.00 per year, per user. There is a free version
- CBORD’s Foodservice Suite®
This is a complete back – of – the – house management system for menu planning, production management, inventory control, purchasing, nutritional analysis, and more. Specifically designed to streamline your operations by simplifying and automating everyday tasks, Foodservice Suite helps you control costs, eliminate waste, and improve department P&L.
Cost
Not Available
- TouchBistro
This is an iPads – based POS solution designed specifically with food trucks in mind (as well as bars, restaurants, cafes, and other foodservice facilities). Currently, TouchBistro is the Apple App Store’s number one grossing food and drink application in over 28 countries and for good reason. This software is feature – rich, yet easy to use, and ideally designed for owners of food trucks.
Cost
It is also more affordable than Revel at just $69 / month (for a single register, billed annually).
- Lavu
This is a cloud – based POS for restaurants with standard features like menu customization, easy order taking, and employee management. What sets Lavu apart are the ToGo, Delivery, and Routing integrations. Note that all these features coordinate online orders, pickup orders, and delivery within the same POS platform, making Lavu our top choice for food trucks offering online ordering.
Cost
$69 per register, per month! Hardware kits start at $399: This includes an iPads stand and magstripe card reader. IPads are an additional $399 each.
These are just few apps and software you will find useful as a food trucker. However, always take time to enlarge your search since there are numerous options available in the food industry.