Food cost software that starts at the recipe card.
PlateCost tracks ingredient costs in real time, optimizes menu pricing, predicts waste and automates supplier ordering for restaurants, hotel F&B and food service chains.
What it is
PlateCost is a costing layer that sits between your suppliers, your recipes and your POS. It turns invoice lines into ingredient prices, ingredient prices into plate costs, and plate costs into decisions: what to charge, what to prep and what to order.
The problem
Most kitchens know their food cost percentage once a month, after the money is spent. Recipe cards go stale as supplier prices move, prep follows habit rather than forecast covers, and ordering means juggling several supplier portals before cutoff. PlateCost makes those numbers current and actionable.
Four modules that share one cost model.
Food cost tracking
Invoice prices mapped to recipes, so plate cost and food cost % stay current.
Menu engineering
Margin and popularity scores per dish, with pricing recommendations.
Waste prediction
Demand forecasts turned into daily prep quantities; waste logged by station.
Supplier ordering
Drafted purchase orders from par levels, forecasts and supplier prices.
From invoice to decision in four steps.
- 1
Connect your POS, supplier accounts and inventory tools.
- 2
PlateCost maps ingredients to recipes and calculates a plate cost for each dish.
- 3
Menu engineering scores and price suggestions show where margin is leaking.
- 4
Prep sheets and draft orders keep inventory lean; you approve before anything is sent.
Kitchens of every size.
Independent restaurants
Owners and chefs who cost recipes in spreadsheets today.
Hotel F&B
Directors running several outlets, banquets and room service.
Chains & food service
Operators standardizing recipes, pricing and purchasing across sites.
Product principles
Built around the recipe
The recipe is the unit of truth. Every number in PlateCost traces back to an ingredient line.
Show the working
Every recommendation shows the invoice, quantity and price it was calculated from.
People approve, software drafts
Price changes and supplier orders are suggestions until a manager signs off.
Honest numbers
Forecasts include their uncertainty. We'd rather say 'not sure' than overstate accuracy.