At 4.30 on a Saturday, the duty manager at a club walks through before dinner. One of the two fryers in the bistro will not light, the urinal in the men’s toilets near the function room has been running all afternoon, and the air conditioning in the function room is blowing warm with a 60-person birthday booked for seven. The chef rings a gas fitter from memory, someone leaves a voicemail for a plumber, and the function room gets two pedestal fans.
For a pub or club, the room is what the guest pays for. A kitchen down to one fryer slows every table in the bistro. A blocked toilet on a busy night ends up in a review. A function room that is too hot is the booking that does not come back. Across a venue group, the same Saturday can bring a fryer down at one venue, a beer garden light out at another and a function room door that will not lock at a third, each handled by whoever picks up the phone.
OpsChase puts every kitchen, toilet, function room and beer garden fault across your venues on one board: the fault is raised with a photo against the venue and the area, it goes to your own team or your contractors and is followed up until the work is done, and the operations manager can see which venues still have open faults before the next service.
From a fryer that will not light to a work order
The duty manager, the chef or a bar attendant raises a work order from their phone against the venue and the area: bistro fryer two not lighting, men’s toilet urinal running, function room air conditioning blowing warm. They add a photo and a note, and mark whether the area can still trade around it.
A maintenance person on staff can take the small jobs straight away, such as resetting a tripped circuit, swapping a globe or tightening a loose toilet seat, and close them on the same work order. Anything that needs a licensed trade goes out to your contractors with the details already on the job, so nobody rings the venue back to ask which fryer it is.
OpsChase looks after the buildings, the rooms and the people who work on them. Bookings, point of sale, gaming, memberships and liquor licensing stay in the venue systems you already use.
Your contractors per venue and per trade
The gas fitter who knows the kitchen at your city pub may not reach the club on the coast before dinner. Set the order of your contractors per venue and per trade, including the firm that services your kitchen equipment.
The faults that hold up a service
- Kitchen and bistro. Fryers, ranges and gas burners go to gas fitting; dishwashers, grease traps and floor drains go to plumbing; grease trap pump-outs go to waste; cool rooms and under-bench fridges go to refrigeration.
- Toilets. Running urinals, blocked pans and leaking taps go to plumbing; sanitary bins and dispensers go to washroom hygiene; cracked tiles go to tiling.
- Function rooms. Air conditioning goes to heating and cooling; dead power points and stage lights go to electrical; portable equipment due for testing goes to test and tag; a sliding partition or door that sticks goes to doors and shutters.
- Beer garden and outdoor areas. Festoon and garden lights go to electrical; loose decking and broken benches go to carpentry; garden beds go to grounds and landscaping.
- Doors, security and pests. A front door lock that will not turn goes to locksmith; cameras and alarms go to security; a pest sighting in the kitchen goes to pest control.
Attend-by times set around service
Every job carries an attend-by time that fits the risk: straight away for a gas smell; within the hour for a door that will not lock or a toilet flooding the floor; before the dinner service for a fryer down or a function room that is too hot; within the week for a scuffed wall in the lounge.
Add a note on when the contractor can work on site: before the doors open, between lunch and dinner, or after close with the manager’s sign-in. Late jobs show against your response targets, so the operations manager can see which venues are still waiting before Friday night, not after the function has gone home.
Compliance and site access before anyone is booked
Keep licence, public liability, induction and site-access details on file for each contractor firm through contractor compliance, so the venue can check them before booking. Add site notes on where contractors sign in, where to park clear of the loading bay, which areas need a staff escort during trade, and where the gas isolation valve and switchboard are.
Proof before the area goes back into use
Set proof templates per job type: before and after photos, a note from the contractor, and a certificate where gas or electrical work needs one. With proof of completion on the work order, the chef knows the fryer is back before the docket rail fills, and the function coordinator knows the room is cool before the guests arrive.
Faults that keep coming back
Some faults return every few weeks: the same fryer, the same urinal, the same function room air conditioner. With Assets & planned maintenance switched on, each fryer, dishwasher, grease trap, air conditioner and cool room keeps its own job and service history, and you can run planned maintenance such as grease trap pump-outs, kitchen equipment servicing and air conditioning filter cleans through scheduling on the same board as reactive jobs. When the fryer fails again, every visit is on the record, so the call between another repair and a replacement is made on what happened, not on memory.
What the operations manager sees on one board
With every venue on one board:
- Faults come in with a photo, the venue and the area.
- Your own team takes the small jobs; your contractors are set in the order you choose for each venue and trade.
- Attend-by times put gas, toilets and locks before cosmetic work.
- Photos, notes and certificates are attached to the work order.
- The operations manager sees every open job across the venue group in one view.
For cool rooms, beer lines and gaming floor comfort, read pubs and clubs: plant fixed before Friday peak. For the wider picture across venues, read about multi-site maintenance.
Starting with one venue
Pick the venue with the busiest function calendar. Import its kitchen, toilets, function rooms and outdoor areas, the contractor book and the trades each firm covers. Set roles for the duty manager, the chef, the function coordinator and the operations manager. Set proof templates for gas, plumbing, electrical and heating and cooling. Raise the next kitchen or toilet fault into OpsChase instead of a phone call, then add the next venue.
Read the pubs and clubs industry page or book a demo with your venue list and contractor book. Check pricing when you are ready to bring every venue onto one board.
The kitchen will still have busy nights. The difference is that every fault is on the board, booked to the right firm and closed before the next service starts.