Budget technology by job, not by a percentage of sales. Sort spending into what you must run to take orders and payments, what saves labor or waste, and what grows sales. Add one-time costs and hidden time costs. Published benchmarks exist but need sources, so use your own last twelve months first.
Start with what you spend now
Gather twelve months of bills for every system: POS, payments, online ordering, kitchen display, printers, internet, Wi-Fi, loyalty, reservations, scheduling, accounting and any IT contractor. Add the hardware you bought or financed. Divide by twelve. That is your monthly technology run rate.
Then compare it with twelve months of sales, so you see it as a share. Do not compare it with anyone else's number until you know yours.
Three buckets
Must run. Taking orders, taking payments, printing tickets, and the internet that connects them. If these stop, you stop. Reliability is the main measure here.
Saves money. Tools that cut labor hours, waste or errors: scheduling, inventory counts, recipe costing, kitchen display. Judge each by the cost it removes. If a tool does not save at least what it costs, ask why you pay for it.
Grows sales. Online ordering, QR, kiosk, loyalty, reservations and campaigns. Judge them by orders, repeat visits and average check. Be careful with claims. A tool that brings new orders still has a cost to serve them.
Count one-time costs
Terminals, handhelds, printers, screens, routers and installation. Ask who owns the hardware, what happens at the end of the contract and whether you must return it. Spread one-time costs over their expected life to compare them with monthly fees.
Count time
Hours spent managing tools are a cost. Add the weekly minutes your team spends on menu updates in more than one place, calls to support and workarounds. See why five vendors cost more than the invoices show.
Benchmarks
Published surveys sometimes give technology as a share of sales. Treat them with care. Definitions differ, and some include payment processing while others do not [VERIFY the source and what it counts before you use any figure].
Make a decision rule
For each new tool, write down the job it does, the number it should move, the date you will check, and the cost. If the number does not move by the date, cancel or renegotiate.
Pricing for Zorveta One
This site lists no prices. Contact us for pricing, and see the pricing page for what each part of the platform covers. If you are planning a move, the migration checklist helps you count the one-time work.