Free restaurant management resources
Run the Shift
Free Tools
See the condition of the operation. Assign ownership. Act before small problems become expensive ones.
Five practical tools for restaurant owners, chefs, managers, and supervisors. The free companion toolkit to Run the Shift Before It Runs You: The Restaurant Manager’s Daily Control System by Chef David Arnold.
Download the free toolkitZIP download · 49 KB
Five printable forms, a how-to-use guide, and an editable Excel workbook.
Inside the toolkit
The right information.
While there is still time to act.
Use these tools together to identify exceptions, make decisions, and leave a clear record of who owns the next action.
01 / DAILY CONTROL
Daily Manager Control Sheet
The central tool from the book: a one-page management dashboard that brings the condition of the shift into view.
Use it alongside your temperature logs, prep sheets, schedules, waste records, and POS reports. It brings management attention to the exceptions without replacing those operating records.
- Readiness before service
- Food-safety and prep exceptions
- Labor and business conditions
- Guest and service issues
- Waste and financial exceptions
- Closing priorities, ownership, and follow-up
One page. The condition of the shift. The things that require management attention.
02 / BEFORE SERVICE
Manager Walk Checklist
Understand the restaurant’s actual condition before the shift gets away from you.
- Guest areas and front-of-house readiness
- Kitchen and food-safety conditions
- Prep and product readiness
- Labor and staffing
- Equipment, maintenance, and outstanding issues
What could hurt this shift later if we ignore it now?
03 / AT CLOSING
Closing Control and Tomorrow Readiness
Closing is more than cleaning. Leave the next shift a restaurant that is ready to operate.
- Carryover, rotation, overproduction, and waste
- Tomorrow’s prep requirements
- Pars and purchasing needs
- Equipment and maintenance
- Cash controls and open priorities
The next manager should not have to rediscover what your restaurant already knows.
04 / BETWEEN MANAGERS
Manager Handoff Log
About fifteen thoughtful minutes can give the incoming manager the information that matters.
- What changed and what action was taken
- Staffing issues and product shortages
- Guest recovery still in progress
- Equipment concerns and financial exceptions
- What happens next and who owns it
What would the incoming manager be angry to discover by accident?
05 / EACH WEEK
Weekly Control Review
The same problem three, four, or five times is information. Use the week’s observations to find the recurring causes.
- Prep, production, waste, and overproduction
- Guest recovery, remakes, and comps
- Voids and discounts
- Labor, staffing, equipment, and maintenance
- Unresolved handoff items
Identify the cause, assign corrective action, and verify that the correction worked.
Built for working managers
Print it. Use it. Make it part of the shift.
The toolkit includes both paper and digital formats, with a detailed guide to putting the system into practice.
Printable PDF forms
Print the five forms, put them on a clipboard, and use them during the shift.
Editable Excel workbook
Keep digital management records with editable worksheets for all five tools.
Use the original versions first. Once your managers understand the system, adapt the forms to your operation without turning them into giant documents nobody wants to use.
How the system works
A routine that carries through the week.
- 1. Walk the restaurant.Understand its actual condition before service.
- 2. Run the shift.Record exceptions and assign ownership on one dashboard.
- 3. Close for tomorrow.Control carryover, prep, equipment, and unfinished work.
- 4. Hand off what matters.Pass progress and clear next actions to the incoming manager.
- 5. Review the patterns.Find recurring problems and correct their causes.
Start with your next shift.
All five tools, the how-to-use guide, and the Excel workbook in one free package.
Save the ZIP file, then extract it to open the tools.
The companion book
Run the Shift
Before It Runs You
The Restaurant Manager’s Daily Control System
By Chef David Arnold
Most restaurant problems do not suddenly appear. The prep was falling behind. Labor was in the wrong place. A guest problem was growing. An unresolved maintenance issue was waiting for the dinner rush.
The book shows managers how to build a simple system for seeing the condition of the operation early enough to do something about it.
Practical experience behind the tools
About Chef David Arnold
Chef David Arnold is an international culinary and foodservice operations consultant, author, executive chef, instructor, and mentor with 40+ years of experience.
His work spans restaurants, central kitchens, catering, food production, institutional foodservice, schools, and multi-unit operations in the United States and international markets. His resources follow a simple standard: the system has to work after the meeting ends and the shift begins.
Meet Chef David → · Explore more free tools → · Training and operational support →