OpsAlo is your venue's operations assistant. It reads your menus, rosters, numbers and invoices, and helps you and your team get things done. Read the sections you need. Screenshots are from a real venue, with names hidden and figures changed.
Getting started
Do these once, in this order, and OpsAlo has what it needs to help your team.
- Fill in your venue. Tap your name at the bottom of the sidebar, then Settings → Venue. Add the address, hours, cuisine and phone. OpsAlo uses them for the weather, public holidays and your forecast.
- Invite your team. Settings → Team & access → Invite. Each invite link lasts 7 days, and you can re-send it.
- Connect your systems. Settings → Integrations. Deputy for rosters, Xero or your POS for sales. Everything else works without them.
- Add your documents. Menus, recipes, wine list and SOPs in Documents. The more OpsAlo can read, the better it answers your team.
- Get the app. OpsAlo is on the App Store. Turn on notifications for approvals, messages and reminders.
Access levels
Give everyone an access level and a position when you invite them.
Everything a manager can do, plus deleting the venue and changing who else is an owner.
Runs the venue day to day: team, rosters, reports, financials and settings.
Their own shifts, tasks, training, documents and team chats.
The position (Head Chef, Bar Manager, Waiter…) is the person's job title. Head chefs, executive chefs, bar managers and head bartenders can also see and upload invoices.
Settings → Team & access, with the guide to what each access level can do
Ask OpsAlo
The message box on the home screen is the fastest way to get anything done. Ask in plain words, in any language.
How did we go last Friday?
Pulls sales, covers, labour and comps from your nightly numbers and compares them with the weeks before.
The suggestions under the message box change with what's waiting for you, like nightly numbers to finish, invoices to check or draft shifts to publish.
The home screen: ask anything, or tap a suggestion
OpsAlo asks before it changes things
OpsAlo can create tasks, quizzes, documents and shifts, but anything important is shown to you first. Rosters are made as drafts and only go out to staff when you say publish.
Your chats
Every chat is saved in the sidebar under Recents. Pin the ones you come back to, or drag them into folders. Your chats are private: no one else at the venue can see them.
OpsAlo can make mistakes. Double-check anything important, especially figures and allergens.
Dashboard
Today at a glance. At the top is today's briefing: press Draft with AI and OpsAlo writes it from the roster, the weather, last night's check-ins and stock. You check it, add bookings, sections and allergies, then publish it to the team.
Below it are widgets: weather, Google reviews, labour %, sales today, training, public and school holidays, nearby events and who's on today.
It's made of widgets. Press Customize to choose which ones you see and how big they are.
The dashboard: today's briefing and your widgets
Team Chats
Messaging for your venue, from the chat icon at the top right. It opens beside whatever page you're on. Use the expand button to make it bigger.
- Groups are made for you: the whole venue, plus groups like kitchen, floor and bar. Managers can add or remove people and create new groups.
- Direct messages: anyone can message anyone at the venue.
- @mentions make sure someone sees a message.
- Turn a message into a task (managers): open the message menu and choose Make a task. OpsAlo fills in who and when from the message.
- Translate any message into your own language.
Team Chats opens beside the page you're on
OpsAlo's AI doesn't read your team chats.
Tasks
Give jobs to one person, several people or the whole team, with a due time and priority.
- One task for everyone is either done when anyone ticks it (like "restock the bar"), or each person ticks their own (like "read the new menu").
- Link a task to a quiz, a document or the end of shift check-in. Linked tasks tick themselves off when they're done.
- People only see the tasks given to them. You see everything.
Creating a task: who it's for, the list, priority and when it's due
Documents
Your venue's menus, recipes, SOPs and training material, and the source OpsAlo answers from.
- Upload PDFs, Word files and photos, and keep them in folders.
- Write documents in OpsAlo: checklists, procedures and guides your team can edit together. You can also ask OpsAlo to draft one.
- Quick edit a PDF menu: change a price or a few words and keep the exact layout. Open the PDF and press Quick edit, or just ask OpsAlo.
- Reports: your nightly and weekly report PDFs are kept here too.
Documents: folders for menus, recipes, SOPs, training and reports
Training
Courses and quizzes for your team, made from your own documents.
- Ask OpsAlo to make a quiz on the set menu allergens, or build one yourself.
- Assign it to people, with a due date if you want.
- See who has finished, their scores and who's behind.
Training: courses made from your documents, ready to assign
Reports: the end of the night
Everything about how the night went, in one place.
End of shift check-ins
Staff answer a few short questions when they finish: how it went, guest feedback, anything that ran out. You choose the questions in Settings → Venue. OpsAlo sums up the team's answers by topic for you.
Nightly numbers
Take photos of your POS close slips (long receipts are fine, and you can add several parts). OpsAlo reads sales, covers by service, payments, discounts and more. Check the figures, fix anything, and submit. You set how your nights work (services, discount codes, payment types, targets) in Settings → End of day setup.
Reports for tonight: staff check-ins, nightly numbers, then close the day
Reports by email
Each night a PDF report goes out, and every Monday a weekly report covering Monday to Sunday. Choose who gets them in Settings → Report emails. They don't need OpsAlo.
Financials
For owners and managers. Head chefs and bar managers see Invoices only.
Overview
Sales, covers, labour, and food and drinks cost, by day, week or month.
The Financials overview
Invoices
Upload photos or PDFs of supplier invoices (iPhone photos work too). OpsAlo reads the supplier, date, every line and GST, and files it under Kitchen, Bar or Other. Check each one and confirm it. You'll see food and drinks spend against sales as cost of goods %, with targets you set.
Invoices for the week, with food and drinks cost against sales
Forecast
Expected sales for the days ahead. Press Suggest from history and OpsAlo fills it in from the same weekday over the last 4 weeks, last year and public holidays.
Rosters
With Deputy connected, OpsAlo can read the roster and help build it.
- Ask "who's on tomorrow?" or "make next week's roster like this week".
- Shifts made from OpsAlo are drafts. Staff don't see them until you say "publish next week's roster".
- Staff can ask to swap or change a shift. It comes to you to approve.
- Staff can see who's working, but not other people's shift times.
Notifications and approvals
The bell at the top right holds reminders and updates. Approval requests from your team, like shift swaps or changes they've asked OpsAlo for, come to you to approve or decline.
Your account and settings
Tap your name at the bottom of the sidebar.
- Personalization: light or dark, your language, what OpsAlo remembers about you (private), and the shared venue memory.
- Profile: your name and password.
- Settings: venue, team and access, report emails, end of day setup, integrations and notifications.
- Help: watch the tour again, this guide, and report a problem.
The account menu, from your name at the bottom of the sidebar
Language: each person can use OpsAlo in their own language. OpsAlo answers in it, and the app is translated too. Reports and emails stay in English.
Stuck on something?
Ask OpsAlo in the app, or email hello@opsalo.com.