CooksTime
CooksTime is US restaurant bookkeeping software that connects to a restaurant's POS, bank and vendors to automate accounts payable, reconciliation and daily reporting. It adds recipe costing, inventory counts, employee scheduling, tip-out calculation and petty cash tracking, plus an AI assistant that answers questions about performance. It is priced per restaurant by venue type and sold to bars, restaurants and franchises.
Last reviewed
- Best for
- Bars and nightclubs, Full-service restaurants
- Pricing
- From USD 149 per month, billed monthly on an annual subscription
- Runs on
- Web, iOS, Android
Who it is for
Bars and nightclubs
A plan with bar manager features such as recipe costing, waste tracking and inventory counts.
Full-service restaurants
A plan combining bookkeeping with bar and kitchen manager tools.
Family-style and food-only restaurants
A plan with kitchen manager features, recipes and a cookbook.
Restaurant franchisors
Franchisors can preset recipes, menu mapping to the POS, budgets and employee roles so franchisees start with a configured system.
What it does
Automated bookkeeping
The vendor says its AI agents automate up to 95% of bookkeeping entries, with bank feeds and account reconciliation.
Automated accounts payable
Captures vendor invoices by upload or vendor connection so purchases reach the books automatically.
Daily and financial reporting
Daily reports and financial reporting from POS and accounting data, including a daily prime cost of goods sold.
Recipe costing
Create recipes and cost out menu items, with changes in ingredient cost tracked.
Inventory counts and par levels
Counts on a mobile app or a shelf-to-sheet list on a tablet, with par levels set by algorithm or by hand.
Waste tracking
Tracks wasted food and alcohol and shows variances between items sold and items purchased.
Employee scheduling and budgeting
Builds schedules against a labour budget and compares daily labour cost to the budget using POS data.
Payroll reconciliation
Automatically reconciles payroll in the bookkeeping.
Tip pool and tip-out calculator
Calculates shared tips by several methods, including voluntary sharing with non-tipped staff.
Petty cash register
Tracks the petty cash balance and payouts.
Team messaging
Managers can message the whole team or just managers from the mobile app.
AI insight assistant
Answers questions such as how last week performed, what to order and next week's cash flow forecast.
Budgeting
Sets budgets and break-even numbers, with EBITDAR as the focus in the franchise set-up.
Pricing
- Starting price
- From USD 149 per month, billed monthly on an annual subscription
- Pricing model
- Subscription per location
- Minimum contract
- Monthly, quarterly or annual terms
- Free trial
- Free cancellation within the first 30 days
Prices depend on venue type and term. Billed monthly: Bars and Nightclubs $189, Full Service Restaurants $249, Family Style/Food Only $219. With an annual subscription: $149, $179 and $158. With a quarterly subscription: $169, $199 and $175. Each plan lists a first-month discount of 90% and free cancellation within 30 days.
Works with
- Payments
- Stripe
- Suppliers
- US FoodsGordon Food Service
The connections page shows logos with no descriptions, so what each connection does is not stated. It says CooksTime works with popular restaurant POS systems, vendors and fintech.
Where and how it runs
- Available in
- United States
- Platforms
- Web, iOS, Android
- Apps
- CooksTime: Mobile app for inventory counts, ordering and team messages
- Hardware
- None stated. Inventory counts run on the mobile app or on a tablet.
The site title says United States and prices are in dollars; no other country is named.
The company
- Company
- CooksTime, Inc.
- Headquarters
- United States
Security and support
- Support
- Support is by email at support@cookstime.com and a contact form or demo booking; an optional white-glove support tier is offered to franchisees.
Listing details
- Built for
- Restaurants
- Focus
- Food-specific
- Status
- Active
- Website
- cookstime.com
Alternatives to CooksTime
See all 8 in Restaurant Accounting & BookkeepingMarginEdge
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Runs on Web and iOS, against Web, iOS and Android for CooksTime.
Shoebooks
Shoebooks is an Australian bookkeeping and payroll service that also sells its own cloud accounting software as a stand-alone product.
Runs on Web, against Web, iOS and Android for CooksTime.
Brikly
Invoice extraction tool for hospitality producing line-item data and accounting exports; site currently shows a coming soon page.
Sage Intacct
Cloud financial management and accounting platform with a hospitality and restaurant offering.
Compare CooksTime
Side-by-side tables built from the same profile data.
What we could not confirm
These points were not confirmed when this page was written.
- Founding year, headquarters, founders, funding and team size
- What each connection does and whether QuickBooks or other accounting software is supported
- Customer names
- Interface languages and security certifications
- Accuracy of the vendor's claim of up to 95% automated entries
Sources
Facts on this page come from the pages below, checked on 29 September 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm with the vendor before you buy.
- Homepage: positioning and planshttps://www.cookstime.com/
- Plan prices by venue type and termhttps://www.cookstime.com/pricing
- Partner logoshttps://www.cookstime.com/connections
- Inventory and costing featureshttps://www.cookstime.com/restaurantinventory
- Tip-out, petty cash, messaginghttps://www.cookstime.com/restaurantmanagement
- Scheduling and budgetinghttps://www.cookstime.com/restaurant-scheduling
- Franchise set-uphttps://www.cookstime.com/restaurant-franchisee-accounting
- Support contacthttps://www.cookstime.com/contact