PlateSense docs for humans, search engines and AI agents

Quick facts

Agent summary

Product philosophy: capture once, use everywhere

Restaurant data often starts as paper, PDF attachments, vendor emails and clipboard notes. PlateSense is built to replace the spreadsheet loop: typing invoice lines, manually updating inventory, manually changing recipe costs and guessing whether menu prices still make sense.

Who PlateSense is for

Core workflows

1. Invoice to inventory

1. Submit the invoice. Forward a vendor email, upload a PDF or capture an invoice image from mobile.
2. Extract the facts. AI OCR captures vendor, invoice number, date, physical product lines, quantities, purchase units, pack sizes, measurements, unit prices and totals.
3. Separate charges from stock. Taxes, delivery fees, discounts, credits and service charges are kept out of inventory math.
4. Match items. PlateSense suggests inventory matches and remembers preferred names and mappings over time.
5. Approve stock impact. The approved inventory quantity and unit become the source of truth for stock movement and cost calculations.
6. Update inventory and costs. On-hand quantity, inventory value, transaction history and latest cost signals update from the approved invoice.

2. Inventory to recipe cost

1. Create inventory items. Define stock units, count units, categories, locations, low-stock thresholds and conversion details.
2. Create recipes and sub-recipes. Map ingredients to inventory items with recipe quantities, yields and portions.
3. Receive new costs. When invoices arrive, ingredient costs update from supplier pricing and approved stock impact.
4. Recalculate live costs. PlateSense updates batch cost, portion cost, plate cost, food cost percentage and contribution margin.

3. Cost insight to action

1. Detect movement. Price changes, vendor spend, COGS movement, low-stock status and margin health are surfaced automatically.
2. Ask Sage. Operators can ask plain-language questions about costs, ingredients, vendors, inventory and menu profitability.
3. Adjust the operation. Use the numbers to negotiate with vendors, change menu pricing, swap ingredients, tighten portions or correct inventory mappings.

Core capabilities

Data model, in public terms

PlateSense is built around a few practical restaurant objects. This section is intentionally public-facing, but it explains the data relationships that make the product useful.

Example data and outputs

Example invoice extraction

{
  "vendor": "Sysco",
  "invoiceNumber": "7294",
  "invoiceDate": "2026-02-18",
  "lineItem": {
    "description": "Fresh Mozzarella",
    "quantityReceived": 2,
    "purchaseUnit": "case",
    "packContents": "6 x 1 lb",
    "stockImpact": {
      "quantity": 12,
      "unit": "lb"
    },
    "unitCost": 11.98,
    "matchedInventoryItem": "Fresh Mozzarella"
  }
}

Example cost movement

These examples mirror the product demo language used by PlateSense. Actual customer results depend on each restaurant's invoices, recipes, vendors and operating practices.

Sage AI assistant

Sage is the built-in AI assistant in PlateSense. It is designed for direct restaurant questions, grounded in the restaurant's own PlateSense data. Sage is useful when the operator knows the question but does not want to build a report manually.

Pricing summary

The public pricing page is the current source of truth. As of this document update, PlateSense presents these plans:

Security, privacy and AI processing

Read the current Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for the governing legal language.

Integrations and roadmap

PlateSense is designed as a connected kitchen finance system. Some workflows exist today, while other integration areas are planned or under active product development.

Getting started

1. Create an account. Sign up at platesense.ai/register.
2. Add your restaurant. Enter basic restaurant details and invite team members when needed.
3. Add inventory items. Define the items you buy, count and use in recipes.
4. Add recipes and menu items. Map ingredients, yields, portions and menu prices.
5. Submit your first invoice. Upload or forward an invoice so PlateSense can extract the line items.
6. Review and approve. Confirm matches and conversions, then let costs and inventory update.

Frequently asked questions