The Savant Project is a 90 seat restaurant (55 inside and 35 outside) in Brigham Circle, near the Longwood Medical Area and Mission Hill, that serves lunch and dinner to a diverse, urban crowd.

The restaurant was started by Benny Kraines and Luis Sanchez. Both are veterans of the restaurant and lounge scene: Benny is a Babson MBA graduate and Luis is a graduate of UMass School of Hospitality and Tourism. They opened in August 2007 to a steady stream of positive publicity ranging from the Boston Globe’s Best of the New, to Boston Magazines top 100 Restaurants to praise from the Phantom Gourmet. Along with the great press, their sales have been steadily increasing.

Food Consulting Services

  • Financial Accounting Software Setup and Training

The Challenge

Benny opted for QuickBooks for his bookkeeping needs because all his restaurateur colleagues also use this accounting software package. QuickBooks has two major drawbacks for the restaurateur: it does not have an intuitive way to track inventory nor sales from a POS system. With the overwhelming amount of work involved in setting up and running a restaurant and lounge, Benny did not have the time to navigate QuickBooks. He recognizes the value of setting up the systems so that he can track the financial health of the business. As a small business owner, he opted for managing his own books rather than outsourcing.
Benny had spoken with several accountants to set up QuickBooks initially, but their primary concern was to have the QuickBooks set up for tax purposes, not analysis. They were not familiar with necessary restaurant operations nor the crucial metrics to measure a restaurant’s success.

The Process

Benny had already entered in eight months worth of bills and sales. We needed to reorganize the categories as well as set up an inventory measuring system.

After the accounts were properly set, we created templates so that he could enter in daily sales and monthly inventories.

The Outcome

Monthly reports accurately depict the financial status. At this time next year, The Savant Project can effectively compare year-over-year sales. But of more immediate importance to Benny is being able to identify problems in his operations as well as opportunities to save money in his first year of operations.