Food Cost Intelligence for Restaurants

Know Your True Food Cost — Before It Eats Your Margins

Upload your vendor invoices and get instant visibility into spending, pricing trends, and recipe costs — powered by AI. No spreadsheets. No manual entry.

Setup in 15 minutes
Works with any vendor
No POS required
PlateCost Dashboard - Food cost analytics at a glance

Avg. Savings

12%

Setup Time

15 min

The Food Cost Blind Spot

Most restaurant operators are making pricing decisions with incomplete data. Sound familiar?

Manual Data Entry

You're spending hours copying numbers from invoices into spreadsheets. Every week.

Price Creep

Vendors raise prices quietly. By the time you notice, you've been overpaying for months.

Recipe Cost Guessing

Your menu prices are based on estimates, not real numbers. You don't know which dishes are losing money.

Vendor Lock-In

You're loyal to your rep, but you have no idea if another supplier has better pricing on the items you buy most.

The Platform

From Invoice to Insight in Minutes

PlateCost uses AI to extract, organize, and analyze your vendor invoices automatically — so you can focus on running your restaurant.

AI-Powered Invoice Extraction

Upload a PDF and we'll extract every line item — vendor, product, quantity, price. In under 60 seconds.

Real-Time Recipe Costing

Build recipes once. Costs update automatically as vendor prices change. Know your food cost % for every menu item.

Multi-Vendor Price Comparison

Upload order guides from your vendors and instantly see who has the best price on every product you buy.

Food cost analytics - Complete visibility into purchasing patterns
Restaurant Benefits

Why Restaurant Owners Choose PlateCost

Stop guessing your food costs. Start making data-driven decisions that protect your margins.

Cut Food Costs 10-15%

Compare prices across all your vendors. Find savings you didn't know existed.

  • Side-by-side vendor comparison
  • Best-price-per-item identification
  • Annual savings projections

Real-Time Menu Profitability

Know exactly which menu items make money and which ones don't.

  • Automatic food cost % calculation
  • Live updates when prices change
  • Flag items above your target margin

Eliminate Manual Work

Stop typing invoice data into spreadsheets. Let AI do it in seconds.

  • PDF upload and extraction
  • Automatic item matching
  • One-click approval workflow

Track Inventory & Waste

Know what you have, what you need, and what you're throwing away.

  • Par level management
  • Waste tracking by category
  • AI-generated order suggestions
How It Works

Three Steps to Food Cost Clarity

No complex onboarding. No POS integration. Just upload and go.

1

Upload Your Invoices

Snap a photo or upload a PDF. Our AI extracts every line item automatically.

2

See Your True Costs

Dashboard shows spending trends, price changes, and recipe costs — updated in real time.

3

Save Money Every Month

Compare vendors, optimize recipes, and catch price increases before they hit your bottom line.

Spreadsheets vs. PlateCost

Spreadsheets

  • Hours of manual entry
  • Outdated by next invoice
  • No vendor comparison
  • Static recipe costs
  • Error-prone

PlateCost

  • 60-second AI extraction
  • Always current
  • Side-by-side pricing
  • Live recipe costing
  • AI-verified accuracy
Trust & Security

Built for Busy Restaurant Operators

We know you don't have time for complex software. PlateCost is built to work the way you work.

No POS Required

Works with invoices you already have. No integrations to set up.

Any Vendor, Any Format

US Foods, Sysco, Gordon, Ben E. Keith, local suppliers — we handle them all.

Multi-Location Ready

Manage multiple restaurants from one dashboard. Per-location costs and inventory.

Your Data Is Yours

Bank-level encryption. Your data is never shared with vendors or competitors.

Ready to Stop Guessing Your Food Costs?

See how PlateCost gives restaurant owners real-time visibility into every dollar they spend on food.

No commitment required
30-minute walkthrough
Free pilot available