Getting Started
Find clear, concise answers to frequent questions about Genius Food Purchasing to help you get started and maximize your restaurant’s efficiency.
What is restaurant procurement software?
Restaurant procurement software centralizes vendor ordering, price comparison, and purchase history in one system, replacing the emails, phone calls, and spreadsheets most restaurants use to buy food today. Genius adds real-time price checks and automatic rebate tracking on top of that core, so every order is priced against the market before it’s placed.
How is Genius different from generic procurement or ERP software?
Generic platforms are built for retail or broad supply chains and adapted for restaurants after the fact. Genius is built specifically for restaurant purchasing, same vendors, same ordering workflow, no new system to learn, so setup takes days instead of the weeks or months generic software usually needs.
How long does it take to set up Genius?
Most restaurants are live within 3–5 days. Genius connects to your existing vendors and ordering process, so there’s no vendor switching, no new hardware, and no change to how your team places orders.
Do I need to change vendors or staff to use Genius?
Inventory levels are tracked in real time, alerting you to shortages and helping reduce waste.
Does Genius integrate with my POS system?
Genius works alongside the POS systems restaurants already run, including Toast, Square for Restaurants, and Aloha, so sales data and food cost data can be reviewed side by side without a separate integration project.
How does real-time food price comparison work?
Genius checks the price of every item on every order against your connected vendors as you build it: Sysco, US Foods, PFG, Gordon Food Service, and 60+ regional distributors, so you see the best price for that item today, not last month’s contract price.
Can I compare prices across Sysco, US Foods, and my other distributors in one place?
Yes. Genius pulls live pricing from all of your current vendors: Sysco, US Foods, PFG, Gordon Food Service, and 60+ regional distributors, side by side, so you can compare without switching or adding any vendor relationships.
Will Genius tell me which vendor has the better price on an item, or do I have to check manually?
Genius does the checking automatically, item by item, on every order. Instead of calling reps or cross-referencing invoices by hand, you see each item’s price across vendors at the moment you’re ordering, with the best option flagged.
Does price transparency mean I see the exact price other operators pay?
You see every vendor’s live price for every item you order, side by side, with no markup hidden inside a bundled invoice. That’s the transparency Genius is built around — not estimates, the actual current price from each of your connected vendors.
What should food cost be in a restaurant?
Most full-service restaurants target a food cost percentage between 28–35%, though the right number varies by concept, menu mix, and region. Genius removes the guesswork by pulling live vendor pricing and recipe data into a single, ongoing calculation rather than a monthly estimate.
How do you calculate food cost for a restaurant?
Food cost percentage is (cost of goods sold ÷ food sales) × 100 for a given period. Doing this by hand means updating every recipe whenever a vendor’s price changes. Genius recalculates it continuously by linking live vendor pricing directly to your recipes.
How do I control food cost in my restaurant?
Food cost control comes down to knowing your real ingredient prices, costing recipes accurately, and catching price increases before they eat your margin. Genius handles all three automatically — comparing vendor prices, updating recipe costs as prices move, and surfacing rebates — so control doesn’t depend on someone checking spreadsheets weekly.
What’s the difference between food cost software and inventory software?
Inventory software tracks what’s on your shelves; food cost software ties that inventory to recipe costs and vendor pricing to show your actual margin. Genius does both in one system, so counts, recipe costs, and vendor prices update together instead of living in separate tools
What’s the best way to track both food and labor costs together?
Food cost and labor cost are usually tracked in separate systems, which makes it hard to see total prime cost in one view. Genius combines cost control with restaurant payroll — tip pooling, variable hours, and compliant tracking, so both sides of prime cost live in one dashboard.
What does a restaurant order management system actually do?
An order management system builds and tracks purchase orders across vendors instead of handling each one by phone or email. Genius goes a step further and builds the smartest possible purchase order for you automatically, based on live pricing across every connected vendor.
How does restaurant supply chain management software help a single-location restaurant, not just multi-unit groups?
Even a single location deals with multiple vendors, changing prices, and manual ordering. Genius applies the same live price-checking and purchase-order logic multi-unit groups use, scaled down to one location — so independents get the same protection without the overhead
Can I see analytics on my restaurant’s purchasing over time?
Yes. Genius tracks purchase history, price trends, and savings by vendor and item, so you can see where money was saved or lost over time instead of relying on memory or a stack of invoices.
What is a recipe cost calculator and how accurate is it?
A recipe cost calculator totals the cost of every ingredient in a dish to show its true food cost and margin. Free calculators are only as accurate as the prices you type in manually. Genius links live vendor pricing straight to each recipe, so the cost updates automatically as market prices move.
How do I calculate the food cost of a recipe?
Add up the cost of every ingredient at the quantity used in the recipe, then divide by the menu price to get food cost percentage. Genius automates this by pulling each ingredient’s live vendor price into the recipe, so the calculation stays current without manual re-entry.
What’s the difference between recipe costing and menu costing?
Recipe costing prices a single dish; menu costing looks at food cost across your entire menu to see which items are most and least profitable. Genius does both — costing every recipe individually and rolling them up into a full menu view.
Can recipe costing software update automatically when ingredient prices change?
Yes, that’s the main gap in spreadsheet-based costing. Genius connects live vendor pricing directly to your recipes, so a price change from any connected vendor updates that recipe’s cost immediately instead of at your next manual review.
Is there a good free restaurant inventory management software option?
Some free tools exist, but most require manual counts and don’t connect to live vendor pricing or recipe costs, which limits how much they can actually save you. Genius automates the full loop between purchasing, inventory, and recipe costing instead of tracking counts in isolation.
How does inventory management software for restaurants cut down on manual counting?
Genius tracks inventory in real time as orders come in and go out, rather than relying on a weekly physical count. That makes it easier to spot waste, over-portioning, or theft the moment it happens instead of after a month-end count.
What should I compare when evaluating restaurant inventory management software?
Look at whether it connects to live vendor pricing (not just item counts), whether it ties inventory to recipe costs, and how much manual counting it still requires. Genius covers all three in one system rather than requiring a separate tool for pricing and recipe costing.
What makes restaurant payroll software different from general payroll software?
Restaurants deal with tip pooling, variable hours, and shift-based schedules that most general payroll tools aren’t built around. Genius’s payroll module handles tip pooling, variable hours, and IRS-compliant tracking specifically for restaurant and hospitality operations.
Is Genius payroll a good fit for a small, single-location restaurant?
Yes. The same tip pooling, variable-hours, and compliance tracking that multi-unit groups need applies to a single location. Genius doesn’t require a minimum number of locations or staff to use the payroll module.
What are food rebates and how do restaurants actually get them?
Distributors often offer rebates on certain items or brands, but they’re typically credited back to the distributor rather than passed on to the restaurant. Genius plugs into a national rebate program that sends that cash back to you directly.
How does rebate management software find rebates I didn’t know about?
Rebate programs are often buried in vendor terms most operators never see itemized. Genius surfaces which of your purchases qualify and routes the rebate to you automatically, rather than requiring you to track eligible items and file claims manually.
How much does restaurant procurement software cost?
Pricing depends on order volume, number of locations, and which modules you use. Most operators see the platform pay for itself within the first month through price-comparison and rebate savings alone. Book a demo for a quote based on your operation.
Is there a contract or commitment?
Genius doesn’t lock you into a long-term contract. You stay because the savings are ongoing and visible in your dashboard, not because you’re tied to a term.
See what you would save before you commit.
We run Genius against your real orders and show you every dollar it finds, in writing, before you decide anything.