Key takeaways
- A restaurant manager job description should cover duties by shift, measurable KPIs, required certifications, reporting lines and what the manager is allowed to approve in the POS.
- SFA lists restaurant managers among the supervisory staff who can be a Food Hygiene Officer. FHOs must pass WSQ Food Safety Course Level 3, then retrain at Level 1 or 2 within five years.
- MOM requires written Key Employment Terms (KETs) within 14 days of the start of employment, including job title and main duties. Your job description can feed straight into them.
- Write the job ad to TAFEP’s fair employment guidance: select on skills and experience, not age, gender, race or nationality.
Checked against MOM, SFA and TAFEP pages: September 2026. This is a practical guide, not legal advice.
What a restaurant manager does
A restaurant manager runs the outlet day to day so the owner doesn’t have to. In a single-outlet business they often report straight to the owner. In a group they report to an area or operations manager. Either way, the job profile has four parts:
- Guests: service standards, complaints and reviews.
- People: rostering, hiring, training and discipline for front-of-house staff, and working with the head chef on the kitchen team.
- Money: sales, labour cost, cash control, voids and discounts.
- Compliance: food safety, licences, fire safety and workplace safety.
Our guide to restaurant roles and organisation charts shows where the manager sits at different outlet sizes. This page is the job specification for the restaurant manager role itself. For crew roles, use our waiter, cook and cashier job descriptions.
Restaurant manager duties by shift
Most restaurant manager job duties fall into a daily rhythm. Put them in the JD by shift so a candidate can picture the work.
Opening
- Check the roster against bookings and forecast covers; call in cover for absences.
- Walk the dining room, toilets and entrance; check cleanliness, lighting and music.
- Confirm the POS, printers, kitchen screens and card terminals are working, and open the cash float.
- Brief the team on specials, sold-out items, VIP bookings and targets.
During service
- Run the floor: seat guests, manage waiting times and support the pass.
- Approve voids, discounts and comps within set limits.
- Handle complaints on the spot and log them.
- Watch labour against sales and send staff home or call in extra help.
Closing
- Cash up, reconcile payments against the POS end-of-day report and bank the takings.
- Check closing cleaning, stock rotation and that the premises are secured.
- Write the shift handover: incidents, maintenance issues, stock shortages.
For weekly, monthly and quarterly tasks, use our restaurant manager checklist rather than packing everything into the JD.
KPIs to put in the job description
A manager can only be held to targets they can influence and measure. Pick five to seven from this list and set the numbers yourself, based on your own history:
| KPI | What it measures | Where the data comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Net sales vs target | Revenue after discounts | POS sales report |
| Labour cost % of sales | Rostering discipline | Payroll and POS sales |
| Average spend per cover | Upselling and menu mix | POS reports |
| Voids and discounts | Control and training | POS void and discount reports |
| Cash variance | Cash handling accuracy | Daily cash-up vs POS |
| Guest feedback score | Service quality | Review sites or surveys |
| Staff turnover | Team stability | HR records |
| Hygiene inspection results | Food safety compliance | SFA inspections and internal audits |
Our restaurant KPIs guide explains how to calculate each one. Review them monthly with the manager, not just at appraisal time.
Certifications: Food Hygiene Officer and Food Safety Course
SFA’s Food Hygiene Officer requirements say certain SFA-licensed establishments must appoint FHOs, and the FHO must be supervisory staff, such as a chief chef, sous chef, restaurant manager, operations manager or supervisor. So your restaurant manager may be the natural FHO.
- FHO: must pass WSQ Food Safety Course Level 3, a one-time certification. SFA’s Level 3 course page describes a three-day programme covering hygiene checks and HACCP principles.
- Retraining: FHOs retrain at FSC Level 1 or Level 2 within five years of passing Level 3, then every ten years if they continue to handle food.
- Food handlers: anyone preparing food needs a valid FSC Level 1. SFA’s food handler page says licensees must not let untrained staff, such as cashiers not qualified as food handlers, help with food preparation. A manager who steps onto the line or bar needs to be certified.
In the JD, state “WSQ Food Safety Course Level 3 (Food Hygiene Officer) preferred, or willing to obtain within X months”. Our Food Hygiene Officer guide covers which premises must appoint one and how to register them with SFA.
Reporting lines and POS permissions
Be explicit about authority. Unclear limits cause most of the friction between owners and managers. In the JD, state:
- Reports to: owner, area manager or operations manager.
- Direct reports: assistant manager, supervisors, service crew, cashiers; dotted line with the head chef.
- Approval limits: discounts and comps up to a set amount, voids after an order is sent, refunds, petty cash and supplier orders.
- Hiring authority: can hire part-timers; full-time hires need owner approval.
Mirror those limits in the POS. ChaChaCha, powered by AppsPOS, gives each staff member their own login with staff permissions, so a manager can approve voids and discounts that a crew member can’t. Its reports show sales, voids and discounts by staff member. Multi-outlet owners get an ERP view for head office, and the AppsPOS AI agent on WhatsApp can answer quick questions about the numbers.
Restaurant manager job description template
Copy this into your job ad or employee file and edit the square-bracket notes out.
Job title: Restaurant Manager
Outlet: [name and address]
Reports to: [owner / operations manager]
Direct reports: [assistant manager, supervisors, service and cashier team]
Purpose of the role: Lead the outlet to deliver consistent guest service, hit sales and cost targets, and keep the premises safe, clean and compliant.
Main duties and responsibilities:
- Run daily opening, service and closing, including team briefings and shift handovers.
- Roster staff to forecast sales and keep labour cost within target.
- Recruit, train, coach and appraise front-of-house staff.
- Handle guest feedback and complaints, and respond to online reviews.
- Control cash, voids, discounts and refunds within approved limits.
- Review daily and weekly POS reports and act on trends.
- Work with the head chef on menu changes, stock levels and wastage.
- Act as Food Hygiene Officer [if applicable] and keep hygiene, pest control and fire safety records up to date.
- Report sales, costs and issues to [owner / operations manager] weekly.
Requirements: [X] years’ experience supervising in F&B; WSQ Food Safety Course Level 3 or willing to obtain; confident with POS systems and spreadsheets; able to work weekends, evenings and public holidays on a roster.
KPIs: [pick five to seven from the table above, with targets].
Writing a fair job ad
TAFEP’s guide to writing job advertisements says fair ads do not discriminate on age, gender, race, religion, marital status and family responsibilities or disability. Selection criteria should relate to qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience. In practice:
- Don’t write “young and energetic team”. If the job is physical, describe the task instead, such as lifting stock or standing through long shifts.
- If you need a language, say why. “Able to explain the menu to Mandarin-speaking guests” is a job-related reason; TAFEP lists “Chinese/Malay/Indian preferred” as wording to avoid.
- Don’t state a nationality preference or say work passes will be applied for.
Applicants can report discriminatory ads to TAFEP. For where to advertise and how to interview, see our guide to hiring F&B staff. Don’t publish salary figures you can’t back up. If you include a range, base it on your own budget.
Turning the JD into Key Employment Terms
MOM’s Key Employment Terms page lists what KETs must include, unless an item doesn’t apply. The list includes the job title and main duties and responsibilities, start date, working arrangements (daily hours, days per week, rest day), salary period, basic salary, fixed allowances and deductions, overtime period and rate, other salary components such as bonuses, leave types, medical benefits, probation and notice period. MOM says that if the employee is a PME and overtime pay does not apply, the overtime items can be left out.
KETs must be issued in writing within 14 days of the employee’s first day, according to MOM’s KETs FAQ. They can be a written contract, a company handbook or similar. Paste the duties section of this JD into the KETs so the two stay consistent. MOM also has a KETs verification tool to check working arrangements against the Employment Act. For hours and overtime rules, read our guide to working hours and overtime.
Want to see how manager permissions and reports look in practice? Book a walkthrough with our team.
