Toast Steps Into Restaurant Payroll

Restaurant technology firm Toast is stepping into the payroll sphere with its Toast Payroll & Team Management offering, it was announced on Tuesday (May 14).

The integrated payroll and human resources management solution automates payroll and streamlines employee onboarding, while maintaining compliance, tracking hours and promoting accuracy in employee compensation. Its connectivity with Toast Point of Sale allows employees to clock in at the point of sale and verify that time tracking data is reflected in their wages.

Toast noted that the solution also supports talent recruitment, enabling restaurants to track applicants and the performance of existing employees. In a statement, Toast President and Co-founder Steve Fredette said this is particularly important in today’s jobs market.

“In an increasingly tight labor market, workforce management is a key challenge that keeps the collective restaurant industry up at night,” he said. “In fact, almost two-thirds of Toast customers listed this as their top challenge in the 2018 Toast Restaurant Success Report. Building on our deep knowledge of the restaurant industry, Toast Payroll & Team Management provides a single system for recruiting, onboarding, managing and paying teams.”

The launch of its payroll and HR management tool follows just weeks after Toast announced a $250 million fundraise, which valued the company at $2.7 billion. TCV and Tiger Global Management reportedly led the round, while Bessemer Venture Partners and T. Rowe Price Associates also participated. While Toast CFO Tim Barash declined to tell reporters at the time whether the company was profitable yet, he noted that Toast has seen a 148 percent increase in revenue. Barash added that the company plans to use the investment to enhance existing features on its platform and add new tools to address pain points like guest engagement and retention. At the time, Barash had also alluded to plans for Toast to focus on employee recruitment and talent retention.