Part I · Stop the money leaks
Chapter 1: Your food costs are climbing. Find out exactly where.
Time45 minutes the first time, 15 a month after
You needThe last two invoices from each supplier
You leave withYour Supplier Price Tracker and your top five increases
The leak
Suppliers rarely send a letter saying prices are going up. The burrata goes up 75 cents, the case of olive oil goes up $11, the flour bag shrinks from 50 to 40 pounds at the same price. The invoices go in a drawer and you only notice when the month’s food cost looks wrong.
You’re not imagining it: 82% of operators reported higher average food costs in 2025 (Nation’s Restaurant News).
What it costs you
For any item that went up:
Yearly cost = (new unit price − old unit price) × units per week × 52
Worked example · Mirela is fictional
Three small increases at Mirela, our example restaurant:
| Item | Old price | New price | Per week | Yearly cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burrata, each | $4.10 | $4.85 | 60 | $2,340 |
| Olive oil, case | $68.00 | $79.00 | 3 | $1,716 |
| Flour, 50 lb bag | $28.00 | $31.50 | 6 | $1,092 |
| Total | $5,148 |
None of these would make you look twice on a single invoice. Together they cost more than $5,000 a year, and that’s three items.
The fix
- Pull two invoices per supplier: the most recent one and one from 4–8 weeks ago.
- Photograph each one flat, in good light, every line readable. Blurry lines are where AI guesses.
- Upload the photos to your AI with Prompt 1 below. Most free plans accept photos, sometimes with a daily limit.
- Check the output against the invoice total. If the line totals don’t add up to the invoice, ask the AI to re-read the lines that are off.
- Paste the table into your Supplier Price Tracker (in the kit below; it opens in Excel or Google Sheets). It works out the change per unit, the percentage and the yearly cost for you.
- Sort by yearly cost. The top five rows are your list. Ignore the rest for now.
- Repeat monthly. Fifteen minutes on the first Monday of the month.
In the kit · a working sheet
- Supplier Price TrackerOld and new invoice prices per unit, the change, and what it costs you a year. Catches shrinking packs. Opens in Excel or Google Sheets.
The prompts
Prompt 1 · Read the invoices
Read these supplier invoices. Make a table with one row per line item and these columns: invoice date, supplier, item, pack size, unit (lb, each, bottle), quantity, price per pack, price per unit, line total. Use only what’s printed on the invoice. If anything is unreadable, write UNCLEAR instead of guessing. Under the table, add up the line totals for each invoice so I can check them against the invoice total.
Prompt 2 · Find what changed
Here are two tables from the same supplier, [date] and [date]. Match the items between them and list every item whose price per unit changed, from biggest increase to smallest. Flag any item whose pack size changed. Then, for my top 5 increases, suggest one thing I could ask the supplier and one substitute worth tasting. My menu is in my restaurant brain.
Prompt 3 · Write to the supplier
Write a short, friendly email to [rep name] at [supplier]. We’ve ordered [item] from them for [time]. The price went from [old] to [new] per [unit]. Ask whether they can hold the old price for a [volume] standing order, or suggest an equivalent product at a lower price. Firm, polite, no threats. Under 120 words.
You’re in good company asking: 55% of full-service operators said they plan to negotiate with existing suppliers this year (Franchise Times).
Three decisions this week
i.Your top three increases: send Prompt 3 to each supplier, or get one quote from a second supplier.
ii.One substitute to test: taste it with your chef before anything changes. Check the new product’s allergens before it goes on a plate.
iii.Any item up more than 10%: note every dish it’s in. Those dishes go into Chapter 2.
What you leave with
Everything from this chapter you can keep. No email needed.
- 01Supplier Price TrackerOld and new invoice prices per unit, the change, and what it costs you a year. Catches shrinking packs. Opens in Excel or Google Sheets.
- This chapter’s 3 promptsReady to paste into your AI assistant. Fill in the [brackets] first.
- The prompt libraryEvery prompt in the guide, by chapter, as one PDF.