--- title: "Cooking the Books Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra" description: "With the help of Capterra, learn about Cooking the Books Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Food Costing products and more." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/252918/Cooking-the-Books/" page_type: "product" language: "en" --- # Cooking the Books Software Review 2026: Features, Reviews, Integrations, Pros & Cons Last updated on September 16, 2026 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[FAQs](#faqs)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Integrations](#integrations)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews) Cooking the Books ## What is Cooking the Books? Cooking the Books is an all-in-one solution for restaurant management. Modernise your kitchen processes and lower operating costs. Generate ingredient costs, reduce waste, produce restaurant savvy reports, plan recipe cards and build cost-effective menus. ## What is Cooking the Books used for? [Food Service Management](https://www.capterra.com/food-service-management-software/)[Food Costing](https://www.capterra.com/food-costing-software/) Top alternative Featured Overall rating Based on 1 user reviews Reviews sentiment Positive \- Neutral \- Negative \- ### Starting price Free trial not available Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Do you work for Cooking the Books?[Manage this product listing](https://www.g2.com/products/cooking-the-books/claim_requests/new?auto=true) ## Cooking the Books Overview Updated September 2026 AI summary Cooking the Books supports small businesses in food service management with tools for catering, inventory, menu planning, nutrition analysis, and point of sale operations. It offers recipe management, purchasing, and reporting capabilities, along with features like accounting integration, multi-location support, labor cost reporting, and real-time data. The software is available via cloud and desktop deployment. ## Compare with a popular alternative Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status. ### Cooking the Books 5.0 (1) VS. [4.6 (5,315)](https://www.capterra.com/p/153140/Connecteam/reviews/) Starting Price Contact vendor Starting Price $29 Flat Rate, Per Month Free Trial Free Version Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version Ease Of Use 5.0 (1) Ease Of Use 4.7 (5,315) Value For Money 5.0 (1) Value For Money 4.5 (5,072) Customer Service 5.0 (1) Customer Service 4.6 (5,086) ## Cooking the Books alternatives [4.5 (2)](https://www.capterra.com/p/86872/Dietary-Manager/#reviews) Starting price $375.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 100% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [4.5 (1,300)](https://www.capterra.com/p/121248/When-I-Work/reviews/) Starting price $2.50 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 90% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars Highest Rated [IndiCater](https://www.capterra.com/p/165064/Indicater/) [5.0 (5)](https://www.capterra.com/p/165064/Indicater/#reviews) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 100% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/165064/Indicater/) [Marketman](https://www.capterra.com/p/136439/Marketman-Restaurant-Inventory/) [4.7 (112)](https://www.capterra.com/p/136439/Marketman-Restaurant-Inventory/reviews/) Starting price $199.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/136439/Marketman-Restaurant-Inventory/) ## FAQs about Cooking the Books Overview ### What company size and specific industries is Cooking the Books built for? Cooking the Books is designed for hospitality groups, chefs, restaurant owners, and cafe owners. It fits businesses in the food service and hospitality sectors, especially organizations that manage restaurant or cafe operations and need tools suited to those industry workflows. Features and Usability ### What are the key features of Cooking the Books? Cooking the Books offers access controls and permissions, accounting integration, and an activity dashboard for tracking operations. It also includes billing and invoicing, cost management and cost tracking, inventory management, order management, menu planning, recipe management, nutrition analysis, forecasting, reporting and statistics, and sales reports. Integrations ### Which third-party tools and platforms does Cooking the Books integrate with? Cooking the Books integrates with 5 third-party platforms for accounting and business operations, including ADEPT, MYOB Business, NetSuite, OrderMate, and Xero. These catalog integrations cover finance, ERP, and order management connections for organizations that need to link bookkeeping with core operational systems. Getting Started and Support ### What training and onboarding options does Cooking the Books offer? Cooking the Books provides in person training, live online sessions, webinars, and videos to help teams get started. In person and live online formats support guided instruction, while webinars and videos offer scheduled or self-paced learning for feature overviews and setup reference. Getting Started and Support ### What customer support options does Cooking the Books offer? Cooking the Books provides Email/Help Desk, a Knowledge Base, Phone Support, and Chat. Support experience details are not available in the catalog data, so no claims can be made about response times, helpfulness, or common frustrations. ## Features AI summary Based on 220 Food Costing reviews Capterra reviewers highlight these as the features buyers value most when choosing food service management software: - **Recipe Management** (**62%** of reviewers rated this feature as critical) - **Purchase Order Management** (**59%**) - **Sales Reports** (**57%**) Cooking the Books supports **Recipe Management** and **Sales Reports**, giving food service teams a way to standardize menu items and track revenue trends more closely. However, it does not include **Purchase Order Management**. Instead, it offers other important capabilities that reviewers also rate highly, including **Inventory Tracking** (**55%**) and **Cost Management** (**54%**), which help businesses monitor stock levels, control spending, and make better purchasing and pricing decisions. Activity Dashboard 5.0 (1) 100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities Inventory Management 4.0 (1) 100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Track and manage inventory levels to maintain proper supply Labor Cost Reporting 4.0 (1) 100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Report on the allocation and distribution of labor costs across projects Nutrition Analysis 4.0 (1) 0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Scientific process of assessing the types, amount & nutritional content, including calories, vitamins & minerals for food/food products Point of Sale (POS) 4.0 (1) 0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Accept and process customer payments for products or services using hardware and software Real-Time Updates 5.0 (1) 100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Receive system updates as soon as any changes are made Cooking the Books 25 features ### All Features - Access Controls/Permissions: Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems - Accounting Integration: Integrate with a third-party accounting system - Activity Dashboard: Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities - Activity Tracking: Track and document all activities across devices, networks, and other systems - Alerts/Notifications: Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges - Billing & Invoicing: Create, manage, and send invoices or bills to customers - Catering Management: Manage catering operations/processes - Cost Management: Manage budgets, track and optimize spending and align capacity to workload demand - Cost Tracking: Process to track, record, and analyze expenses that occurred over the entire duration of a given project - Food & Beverage Management: For businesses handling food & beverage operations - Forecasting: Form predictions based on past and present data/trends - Inventory Management: Track and manage inventory levels to maintain proper supply - Inventory Tracking: Track and monitor inventory items, such as raw materials, unfinished goods, and ready-to-sell items - Labor Cost Reporting: Report on the allocation and distribution of labor costs across projects - Menu Planning: List of food items to serve in any type of meal including main dishes, side dishes, and desserts. - Multi-Location: Manage and support multiple locations - Nutrition Analysis: Scientific process of assessing the types, amount & nutritional content, including calories, vitamins & minerals for food/food products - Order Management: Manage and track customer orders for goods, investments, or any other purchases - Point of Sale (POS): Accept and process customer payments for products or services using hardware and software - Purchasing & Receiving: Workflows that help acquire inventory, issue purchase orders and receive and store items in required quantity - Real-Time Data: Receive data and information in real time - Real-Time Updates: Receive system updates as soon as any changes are made - Recipe Management: Store recipes, enable recipe modification, and generate data required for production records - Reporting & Statistics: Collection, analysis, and representation of numerical data and generation of reports to understand various patterns - Sales Reports: Reports specific to sales analysis for trends and strategies --- Get Advice We can help you find the software with the features you need. Features 5.0 (1) 5.0 Based on 1 reviews ## Pricing Value for money 5.0 (1) ### Starting price Free trial not available Value for money 5.0 (1) 5.0 Based on 1 reviews ## Integrations [ Xero](https://www.capterra.com/p/120109/Xero/)[ NetSuite](https://www.capterra.com/p/135757/NetSuite/)[ MYOB Business](https://www.capterra.com/p/183867/MYOB-Business/)[ OrderMate](https://www.capterra.com/p/146148/OrderMate/) Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation Get a personalized software list aligned to your business needs with guidance from our expert advisors. Our team has helped 1 million+ businesses like yours find options that fit their needs. ## Support, customer service and training options Customer Service 5.0 (1) Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos Deployment - Web - Android - iPhone/iPad Typical users - Freelancers - Small businesses - Mid size businesses - Enterprises Customer Service 5.0 (1) 5.0 Based on 1 reviews ## User reviews Overall rating 5.0 Based on 1 reviews Filter by rating 5(1) 4(0) 3(0) 2(0) 1(0) Mentioned topic Sorted by most recent LT Liezel T. Admin Assistant Hospitality ### "Cooking the Books Review" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 November 24, 2024 The overall experience with Cooking the Books is superb! It’s so easy to navigate and you don’t need to spend a whole day to learn the platform. Pros What I like most about Cooking the the Books is it’s very user-friendly and easy to use. You can clearly see the invoices coming in. Cons So far, there’s nothing I like least about Cooking the Books because all the basic features are in there! Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. ## Top-rated software of 2026 ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.