Good gastronomy needs people who want to be hosts. For them to have the time and freedom to do so, the processes behind the scenes must also work: accounting, personnel records, payment allocations, evaluations, and daily administrative work.
GASTRONATION on October 26, 2026, in Hamburg provides an opportunity to take a closer look at this commercial side of gastronomy and hospitality.
Event Tip: GASTRONATION in Hamburg
GASTRONATION brings together people from gastronomy, entrepreneurship, and management. The announced event concept combines expert insights, masterclasses, and personal exchange. The content includes, among other things, management, personnel, calculation, brand development, and growth.
Date
Monday, October 26, 2026
Venue
Georg Elser Hall in the Grüner Bunker
Feldstraße 66 · Hamburg
Admission and start
Admission from 10:00 a.m.
Start at 11:00 a.m.
Program and information
Event details according to the organizer and ticket shop. As of October 18, 2026. Subject to change.
Why Hospitality Needs Commercial Attention
Restaurants, cafés, hotels, catering companies, and gastronomic corporate groups combine guest-oriented work with numerous administrative tasks. Purchasing, supplier invoices, personnel changes, incoming payments, and location evaluations must reliably come together in daily business.
A typical challenge arises when the organization grows more slowly than the business. Management collects documents itself, follow-up questions remain between several contacts, and commercial evaluations only arrive after decisions have already been made.
External support can make sense here. The prerequisite is a clear scope of services: Which tasks are taken over? Which decisions remain in the company? Who provides information and who approves the results?
Where ELB Services Can Support
Ongoing Accounting and Open Items
Structured processing of ongoing business transactions creates a reliable basis for a commercial overview. This includes, in particular, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payment allocations, open items, and the traceable documentation of unexplained transactions.
For a gastronomic business, this could mean, for example, providing supplier documents in an organized manner or regularly reconciling payments for event and catering invoices.
Organizing Payroll Processes
Personnel master data, entries, exits, absences, and variable remuneration components require complete documents and binding deadlines. Otherwise, unclear reporting channels lead to follow-up questions and additional effort shortly before payroll.
ELB Services supports the organization of recurring payroll processes and clear interfaces. Specific tax or legal questions are clarified with appropriately authorized professionals.
Outsource Back Office and Administrative Tasks
Recurring tasks do not necessarily have to be fully processed internally. Data maintenance, document organization, commercial processing, and preparatory evaluations can be organized with defined handover points.
Decisive are traceable processing times, regulated access, and a fixed contact person. This makes it visible which process is being processed and where information is still missing.
Further Develop Controlling and Processes
An evaluation is only helpful if its data is understandable, up-to-date, and comparable. For example, with multiple locations, time periods, cost centers, and responsibilities must be defined uniformly.
ELB Services supports the analysis of existing processes, the structuring of reports, and the practical implementation of improvements. ERP-related processes, such as in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central environment, can also be considered.
Economically Manage Facility Services
Cleaning and other building services require clear service descriptions. Who takes over which tasks, how often, and with what documented quality?
ELB Services supports clients and service providers with tenders, implementations, and the economic management of facility services. Operational requirements and control processes are considered together.
Relieve Management Temporarily
In the event of growth, personnel bottlenecks, or changes, additional commercial management may be required. Within the framework of an individually agreed mandate, tasks, decision-making paths, and reporting structures can be defined.
Whether project support, management support, or an external commercial management function makes sense depends on the size of the business and the actual need.
Practical Example: A Second Location Changes Administration
An owner-operated gastronomic business opens a second location. The previous team is supposed to process additional supplier documents, personnel information, and evaluations. At the same time, management is busy with the opening and operational organization.
In this situation, a structured commercial organization can help:
- Both locations use an agreed entry point for invoices and commercial documents.
- Personnel changes are fully reported by a fixed cut-off date.
- Unexplained transactions are assigned a responsible person and a follow-up date.
- Management receives coordinated location evaluations.
- Approvals and entrepreneurial decisions remain clearly regulated.
The example is illustrative. It shows that effective relief often begins with clear handovers. Software alone does not replace this coordination.
Which Companies Can Benefit Particularly
Gastronomy and hospitality are a relevant customer group for ELB Services because operational and commercial requirements are closely linked. The appropriate scope can, however, vary greatly.
- Owner-operated businesses: Support with clearly defined, recurring administrative tasks.
- Companies with multiple locations: Uniform handovers, reports, and responsibilities.
- Catering and event businesses: Structuring project-related commercial processes and open items.
- Growing hospitality companies: Support in building additional administrative and management capacity.
GASTRONATION as an Opportunity for Concrete Questions
An industry meeting offers an opportunity to learn about challenges from different perspectives. It is worth it for operators to bring concrete questions with them:
- Which administrative tasks currently consume too much management time?
- Where is information missing for decisions?
- Which processes differ unnecessarily between locations?
- Which tasks are suitable for external support?
From Inspiration to Actionable Cooperation
ELB Services views commercial support as part of a functioning business organization. In the initial conversation, tasks, existing systems, responsibilities, and desired results are therefore clarified together.
This can result in an individual support service, a time-limited project, or a coordinated outsourcing model. The decisive factor is that the scope fits the business and the cooperation can be organized in an economically sensible way.
An Exchange with a Personal Background
There is a personal friendship and professional exchange between Jan Wilhelm and Kemal Üres regarding ELB Gastro. This also forms the background for our event tip for GASTRONATION.
The connection to gastronomy is also an opportunity for us to look at technical and commercial requirements together: ELB Gastro deals with professional gastronomic technology and equipment. ELB Services supports commercial processes, back office, and organizational further development.
To the detailed event presentation with program, personalities, and ticket information at ELB Gastro
Dear Kemal, thank you for your friendship and personal exchange.
I appreciate our personal exchange, your energy, and your commitment to gastronomy. You bring people into conversation with each other and give them impulses to further develop their own path.
Thank you very much for your friendship and the professional connection through ELB Gastro. For GASTRONATION, I wish you and your team a successful day with good encounters, exciting conversations, and new perspectives.
I hope that we will also soon find the time to pick up our joint ideas and develop concrete projects from them. I look forward to that very much.
Warm regards
Jan Wilhelm Managing Director of ELB Services GmbH
Founder of ELB Gastro
More freedom for guests, the team, and company management.
Do you run a business in gastronomy or hospitality and want to organize commercial processes more reliably? Let's talk about your needs and a suitable scope of services.