About PrepPilot
PrepPilot is a free beta, chef-built by Daniel Macharia. It helps chefs and small restaurant teams cost recipes, watch inventory and expiry dates, and plan daily prep — without spreadsheets. The public sample kitchen uses fictional data; signed-in kitchens start empty and save online.
What PrepPilot does
- Recipes and menu margins — cost each plate from your own ingredient prices, test price and portion changes, and see food-cost percentages.
- Inventory — track quantities, minimum stock, categories and optional expiry dates.
- Prep Planner — plan servings, turn them into a task list for the day, and print the prep sheet.
- Requisitions — list what needs ordering, share it with a supplier as CSV or print, and mark it received through the same review.
- 86 list — mark dishes or ingredients out with a time and reason, and bring them back when restocked.
- Notes — kitchen-wide notes for the team, plus private notes that follow you across kitchens.
Adding stock
- CSV/Excel import — the most accurate way. Download a blank template, fill it in, upload it.
- Paste a list — copy rows from a spreadsheet or type one item per line.
- Photo/PDF scanning (beta) — photograph a receipt or invoice, crop and adjust it, then read it on your device. Results may need editing.
- Review before saving — every line is shown beside the original so you can fix it. Nothing changes stock until you confirm, and the latest import can be undone.
What uses AI, and what is free
- Free, no AI: costing, menu margins, prep planning, CSV/Excel import, pasted lists and photo/PDF scanning. These run with fixed calculations or on-device text recognition.
- Free, no AI: the public sample kitchen and its Ask guide use built-in examples only.
- Ask Chef · AI (sign-in only): the tap-to-talk assistant answers from your live kitchen records using free built-in matching by default. It can read stock, recipes, prep and order lists, open pages, and — only if a kitchen lead enables it — make confirmed 86 changes. Optional AI understanding and a custom voice stay off.
- AI (sign-in only): the Kitchen Assistant page, including specials ideas when you ask for them. It receives relevant saved kitchen information; exact costs and quantities come from fixed calculations, not AI arithmetic. Fair use limits apply; scanning never uses the AI allowance.
Full limitations
- Free beta, not a production-certified system. Sample prices and dates are illustrative.
- Tour changes reset on reload. Real kitchens require sign-in, save online and start empty.
- USD costs cover ingredients only (adjusted for entered yield). Labour, overhead, taxes and other unentered expenses are excluded. Gross profit is not net profit.
- Prep requirements and shortages are estimates, not stock deductions. Only compatible units are combined.
- The public Ask guide is rule-based, not AI. The signed-in assistants are in beta and fair use limits apply per person and kitchen.
- Expiry dates do not establish food safety. Verify labels, allergens and your kitchen’s safety procedures.
- Photo/PDF scanning is a free beta that runs on your device without AI. Results may contain errors (blurry photos and handwriting especially) and nothing is saved until you review and confirm. CSV/Excel import is the most accurate.
- No supplier feeds, payments, offline sync or multi-currency support. Cloud availability depends on usage allowances.