Guides
Hospitality cost control, explained properly
Practical guidance on stock, margins and reliable numbers, free to read without an account.
Best restaurant inventory software UK: an honest comparison
A comparison of the main UK restaurant inventory systems, including ours — with the cases where a competitor is genuinely the better choice.
Read guide8 min readFree restaurant inventory software: what's actually free
Most 'free' inventory tools paywall recipe costing and waste tracking. Here's how to check what a free tier really includes — including ours, in full.
Read guide7 min readRestaurant stock control software: what to look for in 2026
How stock control software actually works in a restaurant, what it should cost, and the questions to ask before you sign anything.
Read guide6 min readHow to calculate food cost percentage (with worked examples)
The food cost percentage formula, a worked example per dish and per period, and the three mistakes that make the number lie to you.
Read guide5 min readThe bar stocktake checklist: a repeatable weekly routine
A practical weekly bar stocktake routine — order of counting, how to handle open bottles, and how to read the variance report afterwards.
Read guide5 min readStop typing supplier invoices: how invoice scanning works
Manual invoice entry is where stock systems die. Here's how photo-based invoice scanning works, what it catches, and where it still needs a human.
Read guide7 min readHow to price a dish: menu engineering without the jargon
A method for pricing dishes that protects cash margin, not just percentages — plus the four-box menu matrix and what to do with each quadrant.
Read guide6 min readHow to cost a cocktail (including the bits everyone forgets)
Cocktail costing from bottle to glass — pour costs, dilution, garnish, ice and the shrinkage that quietly eats bar margin.
Read guide6 min readHow to reduce food waste in a restaurant (and measure it honestly)
Where restaurant food waste actually comes from, how to log it without slowing service, and the changes that move the number fastest.
Read guide6 min readRestaurant inventory: when a spreadsheet stops being enough
An honest comparison of running stock on a spreadsheet versus a system — what spreadsheets do well, and the four points at which they break.
Read guide7 min readHow to do a stocktake in a restaurant, step by step
A repeatable restaurant stocktake: when to count, the order to walk the building in, how to handle part-used items, and how to read the result.
Read guide6 min readPar levels: how to set them so you stop over-ordering
What a par level is, how to calculate one from real usage rather than instinct, and how to adjust it for lead time, shelf life and seasonality.
Read guide8 min readHow to reduce food costs in a restaurant without cutting quality
Eleven levers that lower food cost, ranked by how much they move the number and how quickly — starting with the ones that cost nothing to pull.
Read guide7 min readFoxEra vs Jelly: which is right for your restaurant?
An honest comparison of FoxEra and Jelly for UK restaurant and bar inventory — pricing model, invoice scanning, recipe costing, and who each one actually suits.
Read guide8 min readRestaurant stock control in South Africa: catching shrinkage before it eats your margin
A practical weekly stocktake for South African restaurants and bars — what to count, how to read variance in rands, and how to tell theft from over-portioning.
Read guide7 min readFood cost percentage for South African restaurants: the VAT trap
How to calculate food cost percentage in South Africa — with VAT stripped out properly, worked in rands, and why most calculators online get it wrong for SA operators.
Read guide8 min readRestaurant stock software in South Africa: an honest comparison
GAAP, Pilot, SASSCO and the free options compared for South African restaurants — what each actually does, what it costs, and where a spreadsheet is still the right answer.
Read guide5 min readRecipe yield calculator: calculate the true cost per portion
How to calculate usable recipe yield after trimming and cooking loss, then turn it into an accurate cost per portion.
Read guide5 min readSpotting a supplier price rise before it eats your margin
How to catch supplier price rises before they quietly erode recipe margins, plus a three-ingredient check you can run this week.
Read guide5 min readRecipe costing: where the GP quietly leaks
Five ways a correctly costed recipe can still leak margin: portion drift, garnish, prep, stale sub-recipes and unlogged waste.
Read guide5 min readWhy your stocktake takes all Sunday, and the three things that make it slow
Why stocktakes consume a whole shift, and how parallel sections, fixed count lists and recording once can bring the time down.
Read guide5 min readBest multi-site inventory software for UK restaurant and pub groups
What multi-site restaurant inventory software must handle: site stock, suppliers, roll-up reporting, shared recipes and scaling costs.
Read guide5 min readFoxEra vs MarketMan: which is right for your restaurant?
FoxEra vs MarketMan: named POS integrations and USD tiers up to Enterprise From $449/mo, versus FoxEra's no-monthly-fee credit model.
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Core software, saved data, reports, users and David AI text chat are free forever; the metered AI, import, integration and workflow actions listed on Pricing use credits; every company starts with 24,000 credits (the same balance as the £160 top-up), and you can add more from £10 in the app or earn them by watching eligible videos.