Real businesses. Real kitchens. Real numbers.
From soul food chaos to clean, automated systems.
These case studies show how we help restaurants, food trucks, ghost kitchens, catering teams, and small businesses move from “barely holding it together” to running on systems that print profit.
Case Studies at a Glance
Every engagement follows the path we use across Net Profits and Carolyn’s Soul Food: Clean Up → Streamline → Automate → Grow.
Case 1 — Soul Food Restaurant & Food Brand System Overhaul
From overwhelmed tickets, shaky food costs, and delivery chaos to a tighter, more predictable operation with clear numbers.
Tools used: QuickBooks, MRPeasy, DoorDash Partner, Gusto.
Read the full caseCase 2 — QuickBooks Cleanup & Financial Clarity for a Growing Business
A small business with years of messy books, late reporting, and tax anxiety — turned into clean data, clear dashboards, and a repeatable monthly close.
Tools used: QuickBooks, Shoeboxed, Synder, Refresh.me.
Read the full caseCase 3 — Business Automation & Workflow Build for a Small Team
A service business drowning in email, manual proposals, and “who’s doing what?” — rebuilt around a simple monday.com + PandaDoc system.
Tools used: monday.com, PandaDoc, Gusto, Close, Passpack.
Read the full caseSoul Food Restaurant & Food Brand System Overhaul
A busy soul food restaurant with catering, food truck days, and third-party delivery was burning out the team: tickets backed up, food costs drifted, and no one trusted the numbers coming out of the books.
The Situation (Before)
- Manual receipts, handwritten notes, and multiple delivery tablets competing for attention.
- Food truck, catering, ghost kitchen experiments — but no clear view of which channel was winning.
- Food costs felt “too high,” but no consistent way to measure them.
- Books in QuickBooks were behind, and month-end close took 10+ days when it happened at all.
What We Did
- Rebuilt the Chart of Accounts to separate dine-in, takeout, catering, food truck, and delivery revenue.
- Set up consistent coding for COGS, delivery fees, and marketing across channels.
- Implemented better vendor and inventory tracking using tools like MRPeasy (or similar) for key items.
- Connected delivery performance to the accounting system so each channel’s margin could be seen.
- Installed a monthly close rhythm and playbook so the books were clean within a few days of month-end.
Tools in the Stack
Results (After)
“Once we could see dine-in versus delivery versus catering on one page, decisions got easier. We stopped guessing which days and channels were worth the extra work.”
Clean Up → Streamline → Automate → Grow
This restaurant followed the same path we use with food trucks, ghost kitchens, and catering brands that feel like they’re always one rush away from chaos.
- Clean Up: Chart of Accounts, revenue channels, and vendor/COGS mapping cleaned and standardized.
- Streamline: Better menu and channel tracking, with simple reports the owner could read in minutes.
- Automate: Data flows from delivery and POS into books with less manual work.
- Grow: Decisions about food truck days and catering were made with real numbers, not gut feel.
Where this applies beyond soul food.
The same approach works for food trucks rotating locations, ghost kitchens using multiple brands, and catering businesses that juggle events and day-to-day operations. The details change; the math and systems stay consistent.
Related services: Restaurant & Foodpreneur Consulting · Restaurant Operations Overhaul
QuickBooks Cleanup & Financial Clarity for a Growing Business
A service business had revenue coming in, but the owner was flying blind: years of inconsistent categorization, missing receipts, and no clear view of profit.
The Situation (Before)
- Multiple bank and credit card accounts feeding into QuickBooks with no clear rules.
- Old transactions partially coded, leaving gaps in expense and income categories.
- Receipts scattered across email, shoeboxes, and phones.
- Tax time was stressful because no one trusted the reports.
What We Did
- Reviewed and cleaned 2+ years of historical data so the story made sense over time.
- Rebuilt the Chart of Accounts to match how the owner actually thought about the business.
- Set up Shoeboxed for capturing receipts and Synder for better transaction handling.
- Created a simple monthly close checklist and recurring routines.
- Built an easy-to-read dashboard so the owner could see revenue, expenses, and cash in one view.
Tools in the Stack
Results (After)
“I went from dreading my books to actually checking them on purpose. The numbers finally told a story I could understand.”
Why Cleanup Comes Before Fancy Dashboards
Dashboards built on bad data just give prettier confusion. Our focus is always: clean data first, then visuals.
- Clean Up: Reconcile and reclassify old transactions; fix structure and rules.
- Streamline: Install bank rules, receipt flows, and monthly checklists.
- Automate: Let tools like Synder and Shoeboxed handle the repetitive work.
- Grow: Use a simple dashboard to make planning decisions based on facts.
Does this only work for service businesses?
No. The same cleanup + structure + automation approach applies to restaurants, food trucks, ghost kitchens, and product businesses — we just adjust the accounts and KPIs to fit your model.
Related services: Financial Systems & Bookkeeping · Clean Up & Automate packages.
Business Automation & Workflow Build for a Small Team
A growing service team was closing deals, but everything behind the scenes was manual: proposals in Word, contracts in email, tasks in random chats, and no clear owner on work.
The Situation (Before)
- Proposals were created from scratch every time, leading to delays and mistakes.
- No central place to see what stage each deal or project was in.
- Onboarding new team members took too long because nothing was documented.
- The owner felt like the only person who knew “the full picture.”
What We Did
- Mapped the full journey from lead → proposal → signed contract → onboarding → delivery.
- Built monday.com boards to track deals and work with simple, visual stages.
- Standardized proposals and contracts in PandaDoc with templates and e-sign.
- Connected payroll and onboarding to Gusto so hiring wasn’t a fire drill.
- Used Close (or a similar CRM) for communication history and follow-ups.
Tools in the Stack
Results (After)
“Instead of chasing documents and tasks, my team wakes up and knows what’s on deck. Proposals go out faster and I’m not the only one holding it all in my head.”
Building a System That Lives Beyond Any One Person
The goal isn’t just to “add more tools.” It’s to build a simple operating system that can handle more volume without burning people out.
- Clean Up: Clarify the stages of your process and remove extra steps.
- Streamline: Standardize how proposals, contracts, and tasks move through those stages.
- Automate: Use tools like monday.com, PandaDoc, and Gusto to handle handoffs.
- Grow: Add clients and team members without recreating the wheel every time.
Can this work for food trucks, ghost kitchens, and catering?
Yes. The details change — one-time events, recurring orders, seasonal rushes — but the idea is the same: a clear pipeline, standard documents, and automated steps so you’re not reinventing the process for every client or event.
Related services: Operations & Workflow Automation · Automate & Grow packages.
Ready to be the next case study?
Whether you’re running a soul food restaurant, a growing food brand, a food truck, a ghost kitchen, or a small team that’s outgrown DIY systems — we can help you move from chaos to clean, automated operations.
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Visit the Services page to see how we work, the Pricing page for starting points, and the Partner Ecosystem to explore the tools behind the systems.
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