Next week's vendor order, written for you.
It's Thursday, the cutoff is at 3, and you're in the walk-in guessing how much cheese you'll go through by next week. Keep the Dough writes next week's vendor order list from what you actually bought, week by week, on your own invoices. You don't set par levels or map recipes, and you don't have to count. I built it for my own shop, Amore Pizzeria, and it builds our order list every night.
My shop's order list, week of Nov 2.
One shop, one week. Built from Amore's own Delco and Piazza invoices, 39 lines in all. That week's order was due Thursday at 3 PM. A few lines as they came out:
From invoices alone · no counting
| Item | Usual | Order | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romaine (produce truck) | 2 cs | 1 | 1 already came Tuesday |
| Spinach (produce truck) | 1 cs | 0 | Already came this week |
| Lasagna sheets | 1 cs | 0 | Came on another vendor's truck |
| Fresh mozzarella logs | 1 cs | 2 | I tapped "ran out," raised 1 |
Fine-tuned by a shelf count · optional
| Item | Usual | Order | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shredded mozzarella | 13 cs | 10 | Count took 3 off |
| 9" paper plates | 1 cs | 0 | Enough on the shelf |
| Meatballs | 3 cs | 3 | Short before the truck |
| Ricotta | 1 cs | 1 | Short before the truck |
You don't have to count for the list to work. A few shelf counts in the first weeks fine-tune it, and I'm counting on Mondays for the first few weeks to tune it at my own shop. The list is a draft you check, and that week shows why. On Thursday my Delco list stood at 29 lines, $3,489.10. I added items it had left off, changed some amounts and took a couple off by hand, and the order I sent was 37 lines, $4,311.92. About a fifth of those dollars came from my changes. One week, dollar figures at our latest invoice prices. One shop's list, not a promise about yours.
- Built from your vendor invoices: what you actually bought, week by week, vendor by vendor
- Lists what you buy most weeks (5 of the last 8) at a typical week's amount, with no cushion
- Split by vendor and truck day. The off-day top-ups you usually make show up after about six weeks of trucks
- Rebuilt every night, so it's on your phone before your cutoff
- Tap "ran out" on an item and it goes up on the next lists
Chris Simone · Co-owner, Amore Pizzeria · Zionsville, Indiana · since 2003
When you're short on cash, it's usually sitting on your shelves.
Cash flow is everything to a restaurant, especially now, with margins getting squeezed. Unleash your own cash flow with AI ordering that learns, adapts and sharpens as time goes on, and keep more of your own dough.
How your order list gets written.
- You get your own addressYour shop is set up automatically, on any POS. You get your own Keep the Dough address and forward a few weeks of your vendor invoices to it as PDFs. After that, copy that address on every invoice, or have your vendor do it, and each one is read as it comes in. It reads PDFs, not phone photos.
- It learns your typical weekIt goes through what you bought, invoice by invoice. Anything you bought in at least 5 of the last 8 weeks goes on the list, at a typical week's amount, with no cushion. The first weeks are thin. The list fills in as more invoices come in, and top-ups show up after about six weeks of trucks.
- Next week's list, on your phoneIt rebuilds every night, split by vendor and truck day, in the Keep the Dough app. The order screen is in the newest build, which I'll send you. You still place the order: change anything you know better first. Tap "ran out" on something and it goes up on the next lists. A few shelf counts in the first weeks fine-tune it, and they're optional: send me the count, I map your count sheet once, by hand, and your main-truck order comes down by what's already there.
Other ordering software starts with homework.
The ordering tools restaurants use (xtraCHEF, MarketMan, MarginEdge, Restaurant365, Supy and others) say on their own help pages what they need before they'll suggest how much to order: a par level for each item, recipes mapped to your POS, a shelf count typed in, or some mix of the three. Their published prices for a single location: xtraCHEF Pro $279 a month (Toast shops only), MarketMan Growth $299 a month, MarginEdge $350 a month.
To be fair, they do a lot more than mine: invoice processing, full inventory, recipe costing. If you want all that, they're real tools. Mine does one job. It reads what you actually bought, week after week, and writes the order from that. Counting is optional. I haven't found another tool that builds the order from invoices alone, though I haven't checked every one.
The order list. $149 a month, first 4 weeks free.
Next week's vendor order list on your phone, written from your own invoices, plus your food cost from the same invoices. You forward your vendor invoices as PDFs and they're read as they arrive.
- Next week's order, rebuilt every night from the invoices you've sent
- Split by vendor and truck day; top-ups show up after about six weeks of trucks
- Items you buy most weeks, at a typical week's amount, no cushion
- Tap "ran out" and the item goes up on the next lists
- A few shelf counts in the first weeks to fine-tune it, if you want: you send me the count, I load it by hand for now, and that order comes down by what's on the shelf
- Food cost from the same invoices
The first 4 weeks are free. No card until after the call. Nothing is charged until day 28, and if you cancel any time before that you pay nothing. $149 is the founding price for the first 10 shops, kept for as long as you stay; after that it's $199 a month. It starts with a 30-minute call: I'll tell you straight whether it reads your vendors yet. Works with any POS, from your invoices. On Toast you also get sales, labor and food cost as a percent.
Yesterday's sales and labor every morning, plus your week every Monday, on your phone.
- Yesterday's sales and labor every morning
- Your week every Monday
- No setup fee, no card
Toast only for now. You add one email address in Toast, no passwords.
Not ready to change how you order? See how your prices compare. It's free.
Tell me your restaurant and where you are. You'll get a free report by email: your DoorDash prices next to your counter prices, what you likely keep on a typical order at each commission level, and your menu prices next to nearby restaurants that serve the same kind of food (burgers against burgers, tacos against tacos), dish by dish. A few boxes, no call needed.
- Your DoorDash prices next to your counter prices, and what you keep at 15%, 25% and 30% commission
- Your menu, dish by dish, next to what similar restaurants nearby charge
- Where you're leaving money on the table, and where you're priced high
- Built from public menus. You don't have to send me anything, though a payout statement makes the DoorDash number exact.
Get your free report
A few boxes. It's emailed to you, no call needed.
Know the true cost of third parties.
The free report estimates your DoorDash cost from menu prices. The delivery-app fix uses your real payout statements, and I do it with you on a call, wherever your restaurant is.
Amore Pizzeria, Zionsville, 2026, added up from my own payout statements. One shop's numbers, not an industry average. Yours will be different, which is the point of checking.
- We pull your real payout statements from DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub.
- We find what each app actually costs you: your commission plan, fees, DoorDash Capital holdbacks, and promo spend.
- Then we reset the things you control: your app prices, your plan tier, and which items to pull from delivery.
- You get a one-page plan, and we make the changes on your accounts together while we're on the call.
Done with you on a call, anywhere in the country. In person if you're near Indianapolis. One-page plan, plus the changes made with you on your DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub accounts.
One session, one price. No monthly fee.
I built it for my own shop first.
I've co-owned Amore Pizzeria in Boone Village, Zionsville since 2003. My brother Daniel runs the floor; I run the numbers. Keep the Dough is what I built to see my own numbers and write my own order, and it runs at Amore today. Amore is a pizzeria, but a vendor invoice is a vendor invoice: the order math works the same at a burger place or a Thai kitchen. These are my shop's numbers, added up from my own books:
Amore Pizzeria, January, May and June 2026. One shop's numbers, not an industry average. Yours will be different.
Need more than the app? Chris also works as a fractional CFO: a 13-week cash forecast, the monthly close, business valuation, pricing and hiring decisions, second-location and equipment planning, and getting ready for the bank.
Stop starting Thursday's order from a blank sheet.
Book 30 minutes with me. Have a few weeks of invoices from your main truck handy, and I'll tell you straight whether your list will work yet. Not ready? Start with the free price report.