Back of House

Which problem it actually solves. Stock counting, recipe costing, supplier ordering, waste capture and quality records are separate jobs. Many products cover two or three, but each has one it does best.

Single site or many sites. Some products are built for one kitchen, others for groups with central kitchens and transfers between outlets. Check that the one you shortlist matches your size today and next year.

Does it read your POS sales. Usage against sales is what reveals losses. Tools that pull sales from your till can compare what should have been used with what was used.

Hardware you must buy. Most products run on a phone or tablet. A few need scales, sensors, cameras or their own screens, which adds cost and installation.

Inventory Management (52)

Stock is money sitting on shelves, and it walks out of the door through waste, over-portioning and theft.

Recipe Costing & Menu Engineering (41)

Ingredient prices move, and a dish that made money in spring can lose it by autumn.

Purchasing & Procurement (29)

Ordering by phone, text and paper leaves you with no record of what you agreed to pay, and no easy way to check a delivery against an invoice.

Beverage & Bar Inventory (23)

A bottle behind the bar is hard to count by eye, and a few unrecorded pours a night add up over a month.

Supplier Ordering Marketplace (22)

Chefs often order from five or six suppliers through texts, calls and emails, then find errors when the delivery arrives.

Food Waste Tracking & Reduction (16)

Most kitchens know they throw food away, but few know how much, which items or at what stage.

Quality Management System (food QMS) (15)

When an auditor or a customer asks for proof, a folder of paper forms is slow to search and easy to get wrong.

Food Labelling & Date Coding (14)

A label has to carry the right name, ingredients, allergens, nutrition panel and dates, and handwritten ones get smudged or skipped.

Kitchen Display System (13)

On a busy service, paper tickets get lost, stained and read out of order.

Restaurant Accounting & Bookkeeping (8)

Restaurant books are busier than most: daily takings across several payment types, tips, many small supplier bills, and payroll.

Demand Forecasting (7)

Over-prep wastes food and under-prep loses sales, and both come from guessing how busy tomorrow will be.

Kitchen Automation & Robotics Software (3)

A small group of products goes beyond software on a screen and tries to automate parts of kitchen and order flow.