What invoice scanning software actually does
The basic job is simple to describe and easy to do badly: read a supplier invoice — photographed, emailed or uploaded — and extract the line items, quantities and prices without someone typing them in. The harder, more useful job is what happens next: does that scanned price actually flow through to update the ingredient's cost, and from there every recipe that uses it? A lot of invoice-scanning tools stop at "extracted the data" and leave the costing update as a separate manual step.
What to actually check before you buy
The comparison
Kitchen Control and Jelly both treat invoice scanning as a core, automated feature that feeds straight into costing. FoodCore takes a different approach — barcode-based ingredient import rather than invoice scanning specifically.
| Capability | Kitchen Control | Jelly | FoodCore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads a photographed invoice | Yes | Yes — photo or forwarded email | Not confirmed — barcode ingredient import instead |
| Automatically updates ingredient cost | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Recipes recost automatically from the update | Yes — every recipe using that ingredient | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Auto-creates a new supplier from an invoice | Yes | Not detailed publicly | Not confirmed |
| Supplier price-change alerts | No — invoice-by-invoice | Yes — flags every price move | Not confirmed |
| Monthly price | £12.99 flat, one plan | £129 per location | Tiered plans, roughly £19–£65 depending on plan |
Who each one is actually for
Kitchen Control
A single-site independent kitchen that wants a scanned invoice to update ingredient costs and recipe costs in one step, without a separate price-alert system to manage.
Jelly
A growing operator who wants invoice scanning plus proactive price-change alerts, POS integration and stocktake, with the budget for £129 a location.
FoodCore
A small producer who imports ingredient data by barcode rather than invoice, alongside PPDS labelling and a production workflow.
Invoice scanning: common questions
What does invoice scanning software actually do?
It reads a photographed or uploaded supplier invoice, extracts the line items and prices, and updates ingredient records automatically — instead of someone typing each line into a spreadsheet or system by hand.
Does invoice scanning update recipe costs automatically?
In Kitchen Control, yes — once an invoice is scanned and ingredient prices update, every recipe using those ingredients recosts immediately, without a separate step. See our recipe costing comparison for how that fits together.
Can I scan a photo of a paper invoice, or does it need a PDF?
Kitchen Control reads a photograph taken on a phone as well as a digital file — most kitchens scan the paper invoice as it arrives with the delivery.
Kitchen Control scans invoices and updates ingredient and recipe costs in the same step — £12.99/month, one plan, no separate add-on.
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