Abstract: A laundry system has a plurality of laundry machines networked together and a remotely located host computer for collecting operation data and audit data from the laundry machines and to program the laundry machines with operation parameters. A bridging controller is provided to bridge the host computer with the network of laundry machines, and communicates with the host computer through a wired or wireless network connection. The host computer may command the bridging controller to collect data from the laundry machines and may send programming data to the laundry machines through the bridging controller.