We install the system,
then hand it to your team.

Yes. Kitchen Counts is comprehensive inventory management software, plus speech-to-text agentic diagnostics: describe what you see on the floor and get a real-time diagnosis and the next action, no typing required. It runs on a backbone library of Procedures, Routines, and Training documents, the standard for what to do in your kitchen. We build it and train your team to run it in a one-month on-site engagement, then step back to QA. The Thursday Report still lands in your inbox every week. The difference from off-the-shelf software is that the discipline is built into your team, not left for them to figure out alone.

Compass and the major contract foodservice operators take over your kitchen: staff, menu, sourcing, all of it. You give up control of the food program to gain operational discipline. Kitchen Counts keeps your kitchen intact. We layer inventory and cost discipline on top of your existing chef and team, weekly, at a fraction of the cost, and the purchasing leverage stays with you. Your kitchen stays yours.

No fixed minimum. A one-month on-site build, then a monthly QA retainer for as long as it’s earning its keep. Most operators see consistent results by month four and keep the retainer running indefinitely from there, since that cadence is what keeps the discipline from drifting back.

That’s exactly what the build month is for. We build the system once, train your team to run weekly counts in their own cadence, then step back to bi-weekly or monthly QA. If your systems are already mature, the build month goes faster; the implementation fee doesn’t change.

Yes. A single restaurant is the base $15,000 implementation tier, not the multi-unit rate. Multi-unit groups get their implementation fee scoped per unit on the walkthrough call. The calculator on our pricing page shows where your spend size lands.

We don’t replace your POS, your accounting, your scheduling, or your kitchen workflow. We build a layer of inventory and cost discipline on top of what you already use. If you have an inventory tool (MarketMan, MarginEdge, etc.) we can integrate with it, or replace it if it isn’t serving you.

Software is cheap and genuinely good at the math: invoice capture, recipe costing, variance reporting. What it can’t do is take the count for you or hold a busy kitchen to it week after week. The tool is only as good as the team operating it, and plenty of operators pay for a subscription that quietly fills with bad data. We do the human half: the counts get done, every unit is held to the same number, and the discipline survives the manager who quits. If you already run your software with real discipline, we’ll tell you so rather than sell you something you don’t need.

A two-page summary in your inbox every Thursday by 5pm, a day before the week closes so you can act on it. Page one: the four KPIs that matter (food cost %, weekly spend, variance, vendor flags) with the week’s narrative. Page two: par exceptions, the three to five items most worth your attention, and the one or two operator-readable insights from the week’s counts. No 40-page dashboards, nothing to interpret on your own.

The Kitchen Counts team only. We don’t sell aggregated data, don’t publish benchmarks that include your operation, and don’t run ads. Your invoices, your par sheets, and your variance stay confidential. We sign mutual NDAs at engagement start.

The implementation fee is one-time and covers the build month; after that, it’s the monthly QA retainer only, cancellable with 30 days’ notice. If something genuinely isn’t working, we’d rather have the conversation than keep collecting fees. We’ve never held an operator to a retainer that wasn’t earning its keep.