Buyers Edge Buys Restaurant Finance Firm RASI

Two firms are combining their complementary offerings for the foodservice industry. 

Buyers Edge Platform, a digital procurement platform for the industry, has acquired Restaurant Accounting Services Inc. (RASI), a provider of accounting, payroll and finance software for the industry, the firms said in a Thursday (Dec. 8) press release. 

The acquisition adds RASI’s products to Buyers Edge Platform’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, which include solutions for ordering, accounting, payroll and food cost management, according to the press release. 

“Traditionally, restaurant software has been siloed into only performing one specific function, so the restaurants have been forced to piecemeal their tech stack with systems that don’t connect efficiently and are not truly built with foodservice operations in mind,” Buyers Edge Platform CEO John Davie said in the release. “The RASI software completes a major component in the Buyers Edge Back Office, which has been under development for many years.” 

RASI’s software and Buyers Edge Platform’s service offerings will be packaged alongside each other, furthering the latter’s ability to digitize restaurant operations processes that have traditionally been done manually, according to the press release. 

With the addition of the RASI offerings to Buyers Edge Platform, the company now offers accounts payable (AP), automation, inventory, recipe costing, accounting and payroll solutions for independent, multi-location, franchise and enterprise restaurant groups, the release said. 

“This coming together provides existing RASI clients with end-to-end, leading-edge technologies, industry expertise in procurement, financial and operational management tools and services, all dedicated to keeping our clients proactively focused on revenue-generating activities,” RASI CEO Matt Vannini said in the release. “As a fourth-generation restauranteur, I believe firmly that we’re delivering the highest value and savings for our clients.” 

PYMNTS research has found that apps and websites offered by restaurants have displaced the third-party food aggregators that had dominated digital ordering and fulfillment in the restaurant space. 

Just 8% of consumers used aggregators for at least half of their restaurant purchases in September, according to “The 2022 Restaurant Digital Divide: Restaurant Apps and Websites in the Spotlight.”