Rancho Relaxo operations app
A back-office app concept for a Toronto restaurant and food truck operation, putting invoices, receipts, staff and events in one place.
- places the team was running the business from
- 5
- kitchens the prototype covers
- 2
The problem
The team was running the business across five places at once. Invoices lived in email, receipts in WhatsApp chats, staff details in JotForm, and event notes on scraps of paper. Staff sent invoices and then waited for someone to find them and send the e-transfer. The same steps were repeated by hand every week.
What we built
A clickable working prototype covering the three biggest pain points, shared across both of the group’s kitchens:
- Invoice and payment tracking, so staff can see where their invoice is and owners see what’s owed in one list
- Receipt collection that replaces digging through WhatsApp
- A staff roster replacing JotForm: role, which business they work for, rate, phone and weekly availability
- An event log for catering and truck bookings: date, business, truck, event type, payment method and vending details
- Built as a prototype first so the owners could see exactly what visibility they’d get before committing to anything
Use cases
- A cook submits an invoice from their phone and can see when it’s approved and paid
- A manager pulls every receipt for a festival weekend without scrolling a group chat
- The owner sees which trucks are booked, where, and how each event was paid
Outcome
The owners didn’t move forward with it, so it stayed a prototype. It’s here because it shows how we work: find the repeated manual steps, then design the tool around the people who’ll use it.
Stack
- React prototype
