Client case study · 4 months Illustrative

74→9

Manual compliance and menu hours per month, over 4 months.

Elapsed: 4 months
How it was measured: Hours logged by the compliance lead and one floor manager.
Running alongside: The organic search programme ran in parallel; these hours are operational only.
Published with permission: Anonymised at client request

The constraint

Two manual jobs, both of them expensive to get wrong

Every sale required a compliance record, entered by hand. Every menu channel needed the same stock and price, also by hand.

One is a regulatory risk and the other is a revenue leak, and both were absorbing a full-time equivalent between them.

Compliance entries re-keyed from the point of sale
Three menu channels updated separately
Stock disagreements between channels most weeks

What we found

The audit, including the unflattering parts

Two weeks of shadowing the compliance lead and the floor manager.

74 hours a month across the two roles
6 menu discrepancies found in a single spot check
Compliance entries lagging sales by up to two days

The plan

The 90-day roadmap as it was actually written

Compliance first, menu second, and never the other way round.

Point of sale posts the compliance record automatically
Menu publishes only for products with a valid compliance record
One stock source pushing to all channels
Daily reconciliation with alerting on disagreement

Month by month

What shipped, and what it moved

The line extends as you scroll. Every step below is a real month, including the one where nothing happened.

01Month 1

Baseline

74 hours a month, six menu discrepancies in one spot check, compliance lagging by two days.

Baseline: 74h/mo

02Month 2

Compliance automated

Records post from the point of sale as sales happen.

-30%

03Month 3

Dependency corrected

After the incident below, nothing publishes without a compliance record.

-55%

04Month 4

Menu synced

One stock source, three channels, daily reconciliation.

-63%

What went wrong

The part most case studies leave out

Our menu sync pushed a product live before its compliance record existed, which is the wrong order in a licensed category. We reversed the dependency so nothing publishes without a compliance record attached.

We built the menu sync before the compliance dependency, and a product went live ahead of its record.

In a licensed category that ordering is simply wrong, regardless of how small the window is. We reversed the dependency so publication is blocked until a valid compliance record exists.

In regulated work, build the constraint first and the convenience second.

The numbers

Where it landed, and how we know

Manual compliance and menu hours per month: 74 → 9 over 4 months. Hours logged by the compliance lead and one floor manager.

Hours as logged by the two roles doing the work. Separate from the organic search engagement.

Manual hours: 74 to 9 a month
Menu discrepancies: 6 per spot check to zero
Compliance lag: up to 2 days to real time

Results reflect this client's market, licence status and starting position. We publish the method alongside the number so you can judge whether it transfers to yours.

In hindsight

What we'd do differently next time

Build the regulatory constraint before the convenience feature
Spot check weekly for the first month, not monthly
Give the compliance lead a kill switch on the publish path

Before you ask us to do this for you

Does this actually apply to your situation?

This worked because of specific conditions. If yours don't match, say so on the first call and we'll tell you what would change.

Market: Licensed operators where every transaction carries a reporting obligation.
Starting point: A point of sale with an API or export.
Timeline: Three to five months.

Start with the audit. It's free and it's specific.

Send us a URL. You'll get back the technical issues, your AI-search readiness score, what competitors are doing that you aren't, and what we'd fix in the first ninety days.

Get a free audit → WhatsApp us instead