To Improve Your Restaurant’s Financial Performance, Monitor Your Equipment Data | Modern Restaurant Management

If multi-unit restaurant managers can’t sleep right now, it’s not because of too much coffee before bedtime. Instead, they’re tossing and turning because that coffee is so expensive. According to the National Restaurant Association, citing data from the Producer Price Index, the wholesale cost of unprocessed coffee, unprocessed finfish, beef, veal and other items has soared over 2024 levels.

Indeed, restaurant operators rank inflation as a top business pain point, and increasing profitability is their number-one goal, according to Toast’s 2025 Voice of the Restaurant Industry Survey. But how can they save money and improve their margins while maintaining their existing operations? 

Connected Equipment Makes a Financial Impact

Many restaurants connect their HVAC and kitchen equipment to the cloud using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to do just that. The data from this connected equipment empowers them to reduce costs and increase their efficiency while keeping diners happy.

One restaurant brand with over 1,000 locations experienced the financial savings firsthand. IoT technology uncovered issues managers didn’t know they had. They discovered failing compressors on rooftop air conditioning units (RTUs), RTUs that lacked sufficient coolant, walk-in refrigerators exceeding maximum temperature thresholds, and more. By taking remedial actions, the restaurant brand saved $20 million in energy costs and reduced electricity usage by 21 percent. The brand has since expanded its use of connected equipment data to achieve additional savings. 

Saving Money and Time

Other multi-unit restaurants also leverage their connected equipment to:

Maximize every batch of fryer oil: Fryer oil is among many restaurants’ largest expenses after food, labor, and energy. Its quality and freshness are fundamental to the taste, texture, and appearance of the foods that guests crave. But the price of this precious commodity has risen as much as 600 percent over the past two years. 

Connected fryers help staff optimize its usage and avoid wasting a drop. For example, individual restaurant locations monitor TPM (total polar material) levels to determine whether the oil quality is still sufficient to produce delicious food. Corporate managers monitor cross-enterprise usage patterns and identify teams that may need retraining on TPM standards and oil disposal protocols.

Optimize menus: Which foods will customers drive out of their way to enjoy, and which do they buy less frequently? By reviewing sales data on their most popular menu items, restaurants select the foods that should be menu staples, and those that should be limited-time-only specials.

Schedule “smarter” maintenance: No one expects a doctor to diagnose an illness based on one simple complaint like a headache. Similarly, the more detail restaurants can provide on an equipment-related issue, the likelier they are to achieve a quick resolution. Sharing fault diagnostics from a rooftop air conditioning unit is more productive than simply saying “Our restaurant is too cold.” It ensures that technicians will arrive on-site with the correct parts, eliminating multiple costly truck rolls.

The Power of Automation

Restaurants not only leverage the data from their connected equipment to save costs; they also capitalize on IoT technology to automate and streamline key operations. For instance, they automate menu distribution from corporate headquarters, which is much faster, easier and more reliable than the traditional practice of sharing thumb drives for uploading recipes to rapid cook ovens and beverage equipment.

Restaurants that automate HACCP refrigeration temperature logging not only ensure consistent compliance with health and safety regulations; they also free their people to focus on their most important priority, the guest experience.

In short, the latest connected equipment strategies help restaurant leaders to replace sleepless nights with peace of mind, as they harness data and automation to enhance their financial performance while paying close attention to their guests.