Customer story · UK · Restaurant group
Lussmanns
How a Hertfordshire restaurant group brought Tronc management, HR records and real-time operational dashboards into one system — replacing spreadsheets and paper across four sites.
“Tronc was the thing that kept me awake at night. Staff didn’t trust the old spreadsheet, and honestly, I wasn’t confident in it either. Now every team member can see exactly how their Tronc is calculated — and I approve it in twenty minutes instead of losing a day to it.”
100%
Tronc transparency & compliance
12 hrs
Admin hours saved per week
0
Missed certification renewals
Real time
Labour & sales dashboards
4
Sites on unified platform
3
POS systems consolidated
The challenge
People problems are harder than food problems.
Lussmanns is a group of sustainable fish and grill restaurants in Hertfordshire, founded by Andrei Lussmann over twenty years ago. The food operation was well-managed — menus were costed, suppliers were reviewed quarterly, and kitchen processes were tight. But the people side of the business was held together with spreadsheets, paper and goodwill.
Tronc was the biggest headache. A points-based system allocated service charge across front-of-house and kitchen teams, but the calculation was done manually in Excel by one person. Staff regularly questioned their allocations, and there was no audit trail to show how the numbers were derived. The process took a full working day each month and was a constant source of friction.
HR records were scattered across filing cabinets and shared drives. Certification expiry dates were tracked on a wall chart in the office — which was only checked when someone remembered. Time and attendance was recorded on paper sign-in sheets that were often incomplete and always slow to process. The operations director spent two days each week compiling reports that were already outdated by the time they reached the management team.
The solution
Tronc, HR and dashboards — one system, no spreadsheets.
Lussmanns went live site-by-site over 4 months. Here’s how RocketOS replaced the paper and the spreadsheets.
Tronc management — transparent, compliant, automated
Lussmanns manages a Tronc system across all four sites, distributing service charge and tips to front-of-house and kitchen staff according to a points-based formula. Before RocketOS, this was calculated in a spreadsheet maintained by one person — with no audit trail and constant questions from staff about fairness. RocketOS automates the Tronc calculation based on hours worked and role points. Every team member can see their own Tronc allocation. The Tronc master simply approves the monthly calculation rather than building it from scratch.
HR records and staff lifecycle
All employee records live in RocketOS — contracts, emergency contacts, right-to-work documentation, disciplinary notes and appraisal records. When Lussmanns onboards a new starter, the checklist in RocketOS ensures every document is collected and every training session is scheduled. Line managers can see their team’s records without needing to call head office. The HR manager has a single view across all four sites.
Certification and training tracking
Every member of staff at Lussmanns holds multiple certifications — food hygiene, allergen awareness, first aid, personal licence. RocketOS tracks expiry dates for all certifications and sends alerts 30 days before renewal. Since going live, Lussmanns has had zero missed renewals — previously, expired certificates were only discovered during audits or inspections.
Time and attendance — replacing paper sign-in
Staff clock in and out on a tablet at each site. RocketOS compares actual hours against the published rota, flags late arrivals and early departures, and feeds actual hours into Tronc calculations and labour cost reporting. Paper sign-in sheets — which were inconsistent across sites and often illegible — have been retired entirely.
Real-time dashboards — not weekly spreadsheets
Lussmanns’ operations director previously received a weekly P&L summary built manually in Excel by the finance team. That report took two working days to compile and was already stale by the time it arrived. RocketOS dashboards show labour as a percentage of sales, food cost by site, cover counts and average spend — updated daily. Exception-based alerts flag when any metric moves outside its expected range.
Multiple POS systems, one reporting view
Across their four sites, Lussmanns uses three different POS systems (a legacy of acquisitions and fit-outs). Rather than waiting for a costly POS migration, RocketOS integrates with all three — pulling sales data into a unified reporting layer. The operations team sees one consistent set of KPIs regardless of which till sits behind the bar.
Tronc spotlight
Transparent, auditable, trusted by the team.
Tronc in RocketOS works on a points-per-hour basis. Each role has an assigned point value — senior chef, commis, FOH lead, runner — and the system multiplies points by actual hours clocked to calculate each person’s share of the Tronc pool for the period.
Every team member can log in and see their own calculation: hours worked, points earned, share of the pool. The Tronc master reviews the summary, approves it, and the export goes straight to payroll. The entire monthly process now takes 20 minutes instead of a day.
Tronc Summary · March 2026
ApprovedTotal Tronc pool: £13,620
34 staff
Implementation timeline
From paper to platform in 12 months.
Month 1
Onboarding: HR records import for 85 staff, Tronc formula configured, POS integrations scoped.
Month 2
Time & attendance tablets deployed at all 4 sites. Clock-in replacing paper sign-in sheets.
Month 3
Tronc automation live. First monthly calculation approved in 20 minutes (previously took a full day).
Month 4
All 3 POS integrations active. Unified dashboard showing labour, sales and cover counts across estate.
Month 6
Certification tracking preventing lapses. Two renewals caught and completed before expiry.
Month 12
12 hours of weekly admin eliminated. Staff trust in Tronc at all-time high. Zero compliance incidents at inspection.
“The dashboards alone would have been worth it — but getting Tronc right, finally, after years of staff frustration? That changed the culture. People trust the system. They can see the numbers. There’s nothing hidden.”
Andrei Lussmann, Founder & Managing Director · Lussmanns