❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Kitchen Control is UK back-of-house management software for independent restaurants, cafes, pubs, takeaways, bakeries and other small food businesses. It handles allergen management, recipe costing with live GP% tracking, and near-zero data entry via AI scanning of invoices, ingredient labels and recipes. It's built by a working head chef, not a large enterprise vendor.

£12.99 per month, with up to 5 team members included. There's a 30-day free trial (a card is required at signup, but you won't be charged if you cancel before the trial ends). There are no separate feature tiers or per-user add-on fees.

Yes — it's built specifically for single-site, independent kitchens (restaurants, cafes, pubs, takeaways, bakeries, food vans, cake makers, ice cream shops, outside caterers and private chefs), not large restaurant groups or enterprise hospitality chains. It's designed to be usable during service, not just from an office.

Yes. Kitchen Control generates an allergen matrix automatically from your recipe data, compliant with the Food Information Regulations 2014, and prints proper PPDS labels for dishes sold prepacked — full ingredients list in descending order with the 14 regulated allergens emphasised, straight from your recipe data. See our Natasha's Law guide for how it works. Allergen accuracy always depends on the ingredient data entered — always verify independently before serving customers.

Yes. Photograph a supplier invoice and Kitchen Control extracts line items and updates prices automatically. Photograph an ingredient's packaging and it detects the 14 major allergens. You can also photograph a recipe from a book, or upload a PDF/Word/Excel/text file, and it's parsed into a structured, costed recipe automatically.

Kitchen Control is web-based and works on any device — phone, tablet or computer — with real-time sync across all of them. Scanning invoices, labels and recipes is designed to be done from a phone camera on the pass.

Go to Dashboard → Import Invoice. Take a clear, flat photo of the invoice or upload a PDF. Kitchen Control reads the product names and prices automatically.

This usually happens when the invoice is blurry, folded, or has handwriting. Try a clearer photo with good lighting. Digital PDF invoices from supplier portals give the best results.

Yes. When a scanned product matches an existing ingredient, the price is updated automatically. New products are added to your Awaiting Allergens list.

This means the AI scanning service is temporarily busy. Kitchen Control will retry automatically up to 3 times. If it still fails, wait a moment and try again.

Yes — use the Scan Another button after each scan. The previous results are saved automatically and the scanner resets for the next invoice.

Open the ingredient → Edit → scroll to the allergen section → tick the missing allergens → Save. Changes cascade automatically to all recipes and dishes using that ingredient.

Red dots are auto-detected from ingredient data. Orange dots with a black ring are manually added. Click a grey dot to add an allergen manually, click an orange dot to remove it.

Yes — go to Allergen Sheet, select your view (By Dish, By Menu etc.) and click Print. The sheet is formatted for printing automatically.

Go to Settings → Import Data. Choose Ingredients, Yields, Recipes or Dishes, upload a spreadsheet exported from whatever you're using now (or a plain CSV), and match the columns to Kitchen Control's fields — most files match up automatically. See the Switching Systems Guide for the full walkthrough.

Ingredients, then Yields, then Recipes, then Dishes — the Import Data chooser lists them in that order for exactly this reason. Each step matches against whatever you've already brought in.

No. A row that looks like something you already have is flagged as a possible duplicate and skipped by default — you choose whether to update it. Nothing is written until you review and confirm on the final screen.

It's never guessed. A row with unclear allergen data goes to your Awaiting list for you to confirm. A recipe or dish with an unmatched ingredient is still created, with that line clearly flagged as Missing so you can link it up afterward — nothing is silently dropped.

Yes, any time. Settings → Export All Data downloads everything — ingredients, yields, recipes, dishes, menus and suppliers — as one spreadsheet. It's available to everyone with access, not gated behind a support request.

Owners and Head Chefs only, to keep bulk changes to your data under control.

This usually means the ingredients in the recipe don't have a pack size and pack cost entered. Go to each ingredient and make sure both fields are filled in.

A recipe is a preparation (e.g. garlic butter, beer batter). A dish is a customer-facing menu item that combines one or more recipes. Dishes have a sell price and GP% tracking.

A yield calculates the true cost of a prepared ingredient by accounting for trim loss. For example a 5kg salmon may only yield 3kg of usable fillet — a yield tracks this so your costing is accurate.

Yes. Each dish has its own VAT Rate — 20% Standard, 5% Reduced, or 0% Zero-rated — on its edit form. GP% and the ex-VAT selling price are always calculated against that dish's own rate. New dishes default to 20%.

Go to Settings → Account → Change Password. A reset link will be sent to your email address.

Go to Settings → Branding → Upload Logo. Your logo will appear on allergen sheets and printouts.

Kitchen Control syncs in real time across all devices. If data isn't showing, try refreshing the page. Make sure you're logged in with the same account on both devices.

Email us at support@kitchen-control.co.uk and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Yes — invite as many people as you like from Settings → Team, with no extra cost per person. Choose from Head Chef, Sous Chef or Chef (View Only) when you invite them. Chef (View Only) is ideal for a shared kitchen login: it shows recipes, methods and allergens, but never costs, GP% or selling prices, and can't add, edit or delete anything.