Payables & Receivables

AI Invoice Intelligence for Restaurants & Food

Delivery-day invoices from produce, meat and drinks suppliers are captured and split into food and beverage costs while the week is still open.

In a busy kitchen, supplier invoices travel from the back door to the office in a chef's pocket, and food cost only becomes clear weeks later. This build reads every delivery invoice, even a phone photo, captures weights, unit prices and totals, and splits food and beverage costs for your books. Odd prices and doubtful invoices wait for you to check. Everything runs in your own accounts.

  • Food and beverage costs coded the week invoices arrive
  • Phone photos of paper invoices read as easily as PDFs
  • Price changes by the kilo, case or bottle easy to spot
$4,900 20–30 working days Optional maintenance $249/mo
A fork on a plate beside herbs and a brass scale weight, standing for delivery invoices split into food and drink costs.

What it is

AI Invoice Intelligence for Restaurants & Food reads the stream of invoices from produce, meat, dairy, dry goods and drinks suppliers, including ones photographed at the back door, captures weights, unit prices and totals, and codes food and beverage costs separately. Doubtful invoices wait for review. It includes the Restaurants & Food workflow template. Food cost reports arrive sooner.

Why businesses buy it

Food cost is the number that decides whether a restaurant makes money, yet most owners see it weeks late because invoices wait for a quiet day. By then a supplier price rise or a short delivery has already cost you. After this build, invoices are captured and coded as they arrive, so you can compare suppliers and adjust menus while it still matters. Nobody has to do data entry during service. The Scope Card fixes the invoice types, fields and cost categories before you pay, so you know exactly what you are getting.

Problems this solves

Delivery invoices photographed at the back door are hard to read

The agent reads invoices from produce, meat, dairy, dry goods and drinks suppliers, including photos taken on delivery. It captures weights, unit prices and totals for review.

Food cost figures arrive too late to act on this week

Food and beverage costs are coded separately as invoices arrive. Food cost reports can be prepared sooner, while there is still time to adjust ordering or menus.

Price changes from suppliers slip through across several sites

Weights and unit prices are captured on every line and checked against your rules. Doubtful invoices wait for review, so a sudden price jump is noticed.

Scope card SKU UPM-I0238

AI Invoice Intelligence for Restaurants & Food

Everything this build includes, written down before you pay. Choose a delivery speed and any add-ons, then add it to your cart.

$4,900 one-time build price
1. Choose your delivery speed

Delivery times are in working days (Monday to Friday) and start once your intake is complete. They can extend because of national or public holidays, technical issues outside our control (such as platform outages, third-party changes, account approvals or access delays), or natural disasters and other events beyond our control. If a delay happens, we tell you in writing with a new date.

What is included

Channel
1 intake route (email inbox or upload folder)
Integrations
Up to 2 systems (source + destination)
Knowledge
Up to 3 document types, up to 25 fields each
Workflows
Extraction, validation rules and a human review queue; includes the Restaurants & Food invoice field set and validation rules
Languages
1
Testing
100 sample documents processed with an accuracy report
Revisions
2 rounds
Handoff
1 × 60-min handoff session (recorded)
Support
30 days after launch

A good fit if

Suppliers deliver several times a week and the paper invoice travels from the kitchen to the office in a chef's pocket.
You track food cost and beverage cost separately and want invoices coded that way the week they arrive.
Lines are priced by the kilo, the case or the bottle, and the unit matters when you compare suppliers.
Nobody on the team has time for data entry during service, so invoices wait until a day off.

Not the right fit if

You want orders placed with suppliers from approved requests, not invoices processed afterwards. See AI Purchase Order Agent.
You need staff rotas, prep lists or operational requests handled. See AI Operations Assistant for Restaurants & Food.
You want next month's cash position projected from what you owe and expect to take. See AI Cash Flow Assistant.
Invoices from several sites need separate coding, and you expect a second intake inbox per site. Note it at checkout for a Change Quote, or add Multi-Location Setup.

How it works

  1. Invoices are captured on delivery. Staff photograph paper invoices into an upload folder, and emailed ones reach the accounts inbox as before.
  2. Kitchen detail comes out. Supplier, date, item lines, quantity, unit of measure, unit price, tax and total, up to 25 fields for each invoice type.
  3. Totals and duplicates are checked. Lines must add up, the supplier must be on your list, and the same invoice number cannot be entered twice.
  4. Food and drink are kept apart. Produce, meat, dairy, dry goods, beer, wine and spirits map to the cost categories and accounts you report on.
  5. Unclear invoices wait for you. A smudged photo, a failed sum or an unknown supplier is queued for the reviewer with the image beside it.
  6. Checked invoices post. Approved data reaches QuickBooks or your accounting system, so the weekly food cost figure is based on this week's deliveries.

What you provide within 72 hours

Your portal lists these the moment you order. Delivery starts the working day after everything is in and your access is checked.

  • At least 20 real invoices for each type, for example produce, meat and drinks distributor invoices, including some phone photos.
  • The fields you need, such as unit of measure and any delivery or order reference your suppliers print.
  • Your list of approved suppliers and any rules for invoices that need a second look.
  • Access to the accounting system that will receive approved invoices.
  • Your cost categories for food and beverage, and the accounts they map to.
  • Who reviews flagged invoices, plus admin access and API keys for each connected system, never sent by email.
  • One decision-maker for approvals, usually the owner or finance lead.
  • An API key for your own AI model account (for example OpenAI or Google Gemini), created for this build with a spending limit.
The 72-hour rule. Send everything on your checklist, including access, within 72 hours of ordering so your build starts on time.

Timeline

Start Intake confirmed: supplier invoices, cost categories and accounting access received.
Weeks 1–2 Capture of item lines, weights and unit prices built per invoice type.
Week 3 Upload folder, inbox and accounting destination connected; review queue set.
Weeks 3–4 100 restaurant invoices processed and the accuracy report delivered.
Week 4 Two rounds of changes after you review the results.
Go-live Running on live deliveries, handoff recorded, 30 days of support begin.
Delivery options, in working days (Monday to Friday) from completed intake. They can extend because of national or public holidays, technical issues outside our control (such as platform outages, third-party changes, account approvals or access delays), or natural disasters and other events beyond our control. If a delay happens, we tell you in writing with a new date.
OptionDelivery timePrice
Standard20–30 working days$4,900
Express15–25 working days$5,750
Rush10–20 working days$6,600

What you receive at handover

  • Invoice extraction for food and drink suppliers on one intake route, including photographed invoices
  • The Restaurants & Food invoice field set, food and beverage coding rules and validation checks
  • Connection to one source and one destination system, plus a human review queue
  • Test report from 100 sample restaurant documents, with an accuracy report
  • Admin guide and recorded 60-minute handoff session
  • 30 days of post-launch support

Expected benefits and how to measure them

  • Can give kitchen and site managers food cost figures while they are still useful.
  • Helps spot supplier price rises before they eat into margins.
Food cost report timing
Note how many days after each week or month the food cost report is ready, before launch and after.
Price changes flagged
Count supplier price changes flagged per month and how many you queried.
Invoices keyed by hand
Compare the number of invoices entered manually across your sites, a month before launch and a month after.

Before you start: Record how invoices reach the office from each site and when food cost reports are ready. Note last month's invoice count.

These are things to track, not promised results. Outcomes depend on your data, your team and your market.

Running costs

You pay for the build once. Running it costs roughly $30 to $200 a month in your own accounts for OCR, AI usage and storage; a site with daily deliveries sits higher than one with twice-weekly drops.

Usage during build and testing also bills to you. It supports your bookkeeping and is not regulated financial, tax or investment advice.

Ask about running costs

Custom requirements

A separate intake route per site, a fourth invoice type or a POS export used as a third system goes beyond the Scope Card. Add a note at checkout and a written Change Quote arrives.

Request a custom version

Keep it running

Monthly maintenance is recommended: monitoring, fixes and monthly change hours, ample for a new supplier, a menu change that adds categories, or a tweak to a rule. Maintenance starts once the 30 days of support end.

$249/mo (the minimum fee, includes 2 change hours)

Optional. Starts after the post-launch support period. Cancel any month.

How maintenance works

How this compares

Do it yourself with a SaaS toolHire a custom agencyUpmark Labs
Price Restaurant back-office software usually charges per location per month A custom agency quotes after discovery calls Ours is one fixed price, shown before you buy
Food and beverage split A generic capture tool posts each invoice to one account An agency build depends on what was agreed Ours codes food and drink lines to your own cost categories
Phone photos Some tools only accept clean PDFs from suppliers Depends on the brief Ours reads photographed delivery invoices from the upload folder
Delivery Back-office suites often want your POS and ordering moved over first An agency usually takes several weeks, set per project Ours has a fixed delivery time shown before you buy, with faster options

Questions about this product

Does AI Invoice Intelligence for Restaurants & Food separate food and beverage costs?

Yes. You define the categories, for example produce, meat, dairy, dry goods, beer, wine and spirits, and how they roll up into food and beverage accounts. Lines are coded to those categories, and an invoice mixing both is split by line rather than lumped into one account.

Can a chef just photograph the invoice when the delivery arrives?

Yes. Photos dropped into the upload folder are read like emailed PDFs, so the invoice is captured the day it arrives instead of sitting in a pocket. If the photo is blurred or cut off, the uncertain fields go to your reviewer rather than being guessed.

Will it read lines priced by weight or by the case?

Yes, if unit of measure is on your field list. Quantity, unit and unit price are captured as separate fields for each line, so a price per kilo and a price per case are not confused. That detail is what lets you compare suppliers fairly later.

What about an invoice for goods we sent back at the door?

It cannot know what happened at the delivery, so it processes the invoice as printed. Your reviewer can hold it, and if you add credit notes as one of the three document types, the supplier's credit is captured and posted against the same supplier once it arrives.

We run four restaurants. Does one build cover them all?

One build covers one intake route and one set of coding. For separate cost centers per site, add the Multi-Location Setup add-on to the same order. If each site needs its own inbox or its own accounting file, describe it at checkout and you receive a written Change Quote before any extra work starts.

What do we need to send so the restaurant edition starts on time?

Sample invoices from your main suppliers, your food and beverage cost categories, and access to your accounting system. These are due within 72 hours of ordering, and the delivery clock starts once they are all in. A phone photo of a paper invoice is fine as a sample, since that is how many will arrive.

Know this week's food cost this week.

Order AI Invoice Intelligence for Restaurants & Food and delivery invoices, photographed or emailed, are captured and split into food and beverage costs for your books on a fixed delivery date.

Works well with

A brass token, sync-arrow shapes and a slider arranged overhead, suggesting a purchase order tracked to close.
Payables & Receivables

AI Purchase Order Agent

Creates and tracks purchase orders from approved requests.

From $4,900 Delivery in 20–30 working days
Calendar page, funnel and database icon stacked diagonally, representing cash timing projected from real accounts.
Reporting & Analysis

AI Cash Flow Assistant

Projects cash flow from receivables, payables and history.

From $4,400 Delivery in 20–30 working days
A dial, a hinged box and an interlocking gear arranged isometrically, suggesting invoices moving through approval.
Payables & Receivables

AI Accounts Payable Agent

Runs invoice intake, matching and approval routing for payables.

From $5,900 Delivery in 20–30 working days
Staging copy for testing. Not the live site; payments are in PayPal sandbox and every email goes to the team.