When we opened Cali BBQ back in 2008, I’ll be honest — our systems were a hot mess.

Schedules on paper, notes on whiteboards, updates yelled across the kitchen.

It worked sometimes… until it didn’t.

I’ll never forget walking into our break room one morning and realizing the printed schedule we’d posted the day before was gone.

Not moved — just gone. Torn down, misplaced, whatever.

And with it? Half our line cooks, who had no idea they were supposed to be working that day.

That was chaos: Stage 1.

According to a new report from our friends and sponsors at 7shifts, nearly 1 in 5 restaurants are still stuck in Stage 1 today — running everything on gut instinct, sticky notes, and crossed fingers.

That might have been normal 15 years ago. In 2026, it’ll be a liability.

The 4 Stages of Restaurant Tech

7shifts recently published the 2025 Restaurant Digital Prep List, a research-backed guide that breaks down how restaurants adopt and integrate technology.

It’s based on a survey of over 500 operators, from QSR to full service. More importantly, it offers a brutally honest snapshot of where most restaurants really stand.

Here’s the framework (which I also go over in the video at the top):

Stage 1: Paper Chaos

Manual schedules. Printed timecards. Verbal shift changes. You’re reacting, not managing.

* ~20% of restaurants are here

Stage 2: Disconnected Apps

You’ve got tools — maybe Excel, maybe three different apps for scheduling, payroll, and time-off — but none of them talk to each other.

* ~30% of restaurants are here

Stage 3: Some Integrations

You’ve connected at least some of your core systems. Scheduling ↔ POS. Payroll ↔ time clock. Things are clicking.

* ~33% of restaurants are here

Stage 4: Digital Control

Everything works together. One system, one source of truth. Scheduling, payroll, sales, labor forecasting — all integrated.

* Only ~14% of restaurants are here

Most Restaurants Are Stuck in the Middle

Here are some of the numbers that stood out to me:

* 47% of operators still use paper schedules or whiteboards

* 44% are missing their labor cost targets

* 57% still use group texts to coordinate with staff

* Only 1 in 7 are fully integrated (Stage 4)

And yet, 65% say they adopted new tech in the past year.

That disconnect says a lot: buying tech isn’t the hard part. Connecting it, using it consistently, and building processes around it — that’s the hard part.

➡️ Read the Report and Take the Quiz

Why Integration Actually Matters

7shifts found a direct link between restaurants that integrate their tools and those that:

* Control labor costs better

* Retain staff longer

* Give managers more bandwidth

* Improve team communication

At my restaurant, we hit a turning point when we connected our scheduling system with our POS (Toast). That one integration—just being able to see sales and labor data in the same place—saved our managers hours per week. More importantly, it helped us stop guessing.

In one example from the report, a Jeremiah’s Italian Ice location saved 27.3% on labor over two years just by leveling up to a more integrated tech stack.

If you’re in Stage 1 or 2, the biggest wins are simple:

* Replace paper schedules

* Connect your scheduling to your POS

* Centralize your team communication (get out of the group chat chaos)

If you’re in Stage 3, look at what’s still manual or double-entry. Where are your tools still siloed?

If you’re lucky enough to be in Stage 4, congrats — but stay curious. Tech doesn’t stop evolving. Neither should we.

WATCH: The Pre-Shift Podcast on AI for restaurants

This Isn’t About Tools. It’s About Teams.

At the end of the day, restaurant tech isn’t about screens or software. It’s about supporting your people — giving your GMs fewer headaches, your line cooks more predictability, your customers more consistency.

The restaurants that win in the next 5 years won’t be the ones with the most tools. They’ll be the ones that actually use them — together.

If you want to find out what stage you’re in (and how to level up), I recommend reading the full 2025 Digital Prep List from 7shifts. It’s free. No fluff. Just real data from people like us.

➡️ Read the Report and Take the Quiz

As always — stay curious, get involved, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

If you need help figuring this stuff out, you can DM me. I’ll get you connected to the right people at 7shifts.

Let’s build better restaurants together.

About 7shifts

7shifts believes that employees are the driving force behind the success of restaurants and they are committed to elevating the standards of what restaurant teams can accomplish together.

Born in the back office of a sandwich shop, 7shifts was founded in 2014 with the goal of building simple solutions to solve the most complex team management challenges.

7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to improve performance for restaurants. The easy-to-use app offers industry-specific features that help more than 50,000 restaurants save time, reduce errors, and keep labor costs in check.

➡️ 7shifts Report

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