Every restaurant has an opening and closing routine. In most, it lives in the heads of the two or three people who've been there longest. When one of them is off, the walk-in door gets left ajar, the float is short, or the first guest of the day waits while someone hunts for the sanitizer buckets.
A written checklist fixes that, but only if it's short enough to run and specific enough to check. This guide covers what to put on each list, how to write steps people follow, and how to know the lists are actually being run.
What a good checklist is for
A checklist isn't a training manual. It assumes the person already knows how to do each job, and it makes sure nothing gets skipped when the shift is busy, short-staffed or run by someone new. That changes how you write it:
- One action per line. "Stock the line" is a topic. "Fill the sauce bottles to the line" is a step.
- Checkable. Someone else should be able to walk past and see whether it was done.
- In walking order. Arrange the steps the way someone moves through the building, so nobody crosses the kitchen three times.
What to put on an opening checklist
Start from what has to be true when the doors open. Then work backwards.
Safety and food safety first
- Record fridge, freezer and walk-in temperatures, and flag anything out of range before using what's inside.
- Set up handwashing sinks with soap and paper towels.
- Make up sanitizer buckets or bottles at the right strength, and test them if you use test strips.
- Check that yesterday's date labels are still in date. Pull anything that isn't.
Equipment
- Turn on and check ovens, grills, fryers, coffee machines and dish machines in the order they need to warm up.
- Note anything not working in the shift notes so the manager sees it.
Stock and prep
- Receive and put away any morning delivery, checking it against the order.
- Work down the day's prep list.
- Fill stations: cups, lids, napkins, condiments, to-go packaging.
Front of house
- Count the cash drawer float and sign for it.
- Turn on the POS, card readers and printers, and run a test ticket.
- Check the dining room, patio and restrooms are clean and stocked.
- Unlock the doors at opening time, not before.
What to put on a closing checklist
Closing is where most problems start, because the team is tired and wants to go home. The closing list should leave the next opener with nothing to fix.
Food
- Wrap, date and label everything going back into the fridge.
- Throw out anything past its hold time, and log it as waste.
- Record fridge and freezer temperatures one last time.
Cleaning
- Break down and clean each station: slicers, grills, fryers, coffee machine, ice machine scoop.
- Empty and clean sanitizer buckets.
- Sweep and mop, kitchen and dining room.
- Take out trash and recycling.
Equipment and building
- Turn off everything that should be off, and confirm what should stay on (fridges, freezers).
- Check walk-in and reach-in doors are fully closed.
- Check back doors, windows and gas.
Money and handover
- Count the drawer, record over or short, and lock the cash away.
- Write a shift note: what ran out, what broke, anything the opener needs to know.
- Lock up and set the alarm.
Everything above is a starting point, not a rule. Your local health department's requirements come first, so check what they ask you to record, such as temperature logs, and put those steps on the list.
Keep lists short enough to run
A list with 60 steps gets ticked all at once at the end of the shift, which means it isn't really run. A few habits keep lists honest:
- Split by station. An opening list for the bar and one for the kitchen beats one list for everyone.
- Cut steps that never get missed. If nobody has ever forgotten to turn the lights on, it doesn't need a line.
- Add a step when something goes wrong. If the walk-in was left open once, "Check walk-in door is shut" earns its place.
- Review the list every few months with the people who run it. They know which steps are out of date.
Example: a café's closing list has 40 steps and takes a closer about 20 minutes to tick through. After a review, 12 steps that are always done anyway come off, and 3 steps that were being missed get more specific wording. The list now has 31 steps, and the steps left are the ones that matter.
Checking the lists got run
A paper list on a clipboard tells you nothing once it's thrown away. What you want to know each morning is simple:
- Was the list run? Opening and closing, every day, at every location.
- By whom, and when? So you know who to ask if something was missed.
- How complete was it? A list submitted at 60% is a conversation, not a problem to ignore.
Look at this the same way every day, for example as part of the opener's first ten minutes. When a step is skipped repeatedly, ask why. It's often a step that's unclear or missing the tools to do it.
How Ospelia does it
Ospelia's Checklists let you build an opening and a closing list once per location, and every shift runs the same one. Staff tick each step on a phone as it's done, type temperature readings against an allowed range, add photos, and sign the list off by name. A list with a due time raises an alert when it's missed, and the history shows who signed off each day, the readings and anything missed. You can use the same tool for any list your team repeats, such as cleaning or delivery receiving.
Shift notes are the handover: anyone posts from a phone, notes are categorised, and pinned notes stay at the top. An equipment note can become a work order. Training courses let you write opening and closing training once, publish it to the team and see who has completed it.
