Running a professional kitchen in the UK hospitality scene is tough enough without manual invoice management slowing you down. If you’re still using spreadsheets to track supplier costs in your restaurant, pub, or boutique hotel, you’re likely losing time and money. Automated invoice processing can change that, helping your business stay competitive in a tight market by cutting admin work and boosting profit margins.
For kitchens with annual revenues over £500,000, capturing and analysing invoice data in real time is as vital as nailing your best dish. This guide walks you through setting up an automated system with Jelly, saving you 10-20 hours of paperwork each month and adding up to 2 percentage points to your gross margins.
Why Automation Matters for UK Professional Kitchens
Manual invoice handling creates inefficiencies that hurt your kitchen’s finances. Decentralised payments across multiple accounts or cards often lead to complexity and higher fraud risks. Without a unified system, maintaining financial control for growth becomes nearly impossible.
The time drain is real. When your head chef spends half an hour costing a menu item or your finance manager wastes afternoons reconciling payments, you’re missing out on focusing on what drives revenue. Manual tracking rarely shows a clear picture of owed amounts or due dates, making cash flow and budgeting harder.
Even worse: Without real-time insight into ingredient cost changes in the volatile UK food supply chain, supplier price hikes can cut into your margins before you even notice.
Discover how Jelly automates your kitchen operations. Book a chat.
Getting Ready: What You Need for Automation
Before starting, make sure your kitchen has the basics in place for automation. You’ll need simple hardware like computers or tablets, a stable internet connection, and software that integrates via APIs.
Essential Tech Setup
You don’t need a full tech upgrade. Most kitchens already have a computer or tablet with internet and accounting tools like Xero. The key is ensuring these can connect to your automation platform through API links for smooth data flow.
Team and Process Alignment
Automation works best when your kitchen and finance teams are on board. Modern platforms like Jelly are built for quick setup, unlike older systems that take months. Still, define clear roles and processes to get the best results.
Time Commitment for Setup
Setting up in Jelly typically takes about a week, with benefits often visible in the first 24 hours. Its systems are designed for ease, so even team members with little tech experience can adapt fast.
Your Guide to Automating Invoices with Jelly
Switching to automated invoice processing moves your kitchen from reacting to issues to preventing them. Here’s how to make it happen with Jelly.
Step 1: Centralise Invoice Collection
Start by streamlining how invoices come in. Jelly gives you a dedicated email address for suppliers to send invoices, which are then captured and digitised automatically.
For paper invoices, staff can snap photos and upload them to Jelly’s web platform, no extra downloads needed. This works whether your suppliers are tech-savvy or stuck on paper, keeping every invoice in one system.
Quick tip: Share the new invoice email with all suppliers at once during setup to avoid missed invoices going to old addresses.
Step 2: Automate Data Capture and Sorting
After invoices are received, Jelly pulls out key details like supplier info, dates, costs, and payment terms. Capturing data such as invoice numbers and line-item costs is crucial for finances and inventory.
Every detail, from quantities to tax info, is digitised into a structured database. This cuts out hours of manual entry work each week.
Step 3: Connect to Your Financial Tools
Jelly links directly with UK accounting platforms like Xero, keeping your existing workflows intact. API integrations push invoice data into financial and stock systems.
The process is straightforward. Invoices are matched with purchase orders, exceptions are flagged, and approved payments are archived digitally. This cuts bookkeeping time by up to 90% while meeting compliance needs.
Step 4: Track Costs in Real Time
Once invoices are processed, you get instant access to tools for cost analysis. Jelly’s Price Alert flags supplier price changes as they happen, so you’re never caught off guard.
The Insights Dashboard shows spending by supplier, helping you see exactly where your money goes. This clarity supports smarter decisions on suppliers and buying strategies.
If alerts feel like too much at first, focus on your top 10 suppliers. They often account for most of your costs and offer the biggest savings potential.
Step 5: Boost Menu Profits with Live Costing
Finally, automate menu management for precision. Invoice data supports real-time costing and profit analysis for dishes. With Jelly’s Kitchen feature, chefs build recipes by selecting ingredients from scanned invoices, cutting costing time from 28 minutes to just 3.
Ingredient prices update with each invoice, keeping dish profitability accurate. Alerts in red or green show margin changes, helping you adjust menu prices fast to protect profits.
Discover how Jelly automates your kitchen operations. Book a chat.
Measure the Impact: Tracking Automation Benefits
Automation should deliver clear gains in your kitchen’s operations. It cuts manual work and errors, saving time and reducing vendor disputes.
Hours Saved
Compare the time spent on invoices before and after automation. Jelly users often save 10-20 hours monthly. Calculate the value of those hours based on staff wages to see your savings.
Profit Margin Growth
Track your gross margins pre- and post-automation. Digitised processes improve cost control and boost margins. Many Jelly users see a 2 percentage point gain within three months.
Efficiency Gains
Look at fewer invoice errors, quicker supplier payments, and better cash flow planning. These often lead to stronger supplier ties and better payment terms over time.
Real Example: Amber Restaurant
Amber restaurant in East London shows what’s possible. Struggling with price swings and manual invoice burdens, they adopted Jelly in 2020.
The outcome? Monthly savings of £3,000-£4,000 through better cost visibility and faster responses to price changes. Chef-Owner Murat Kilic says, “Jelly keeps my business alive.”
Take It Further: Advanced Automation with Jelly
Once basic invoice automation is running, explore these next-level uses to enhance your kitchen.
Managing Multiple Locations
Automation helps high-volume or multi-site businesses by reducing manual tasks and ensuring price consistency. Jelly’s reporting spots price differences across sites, aiding better group buying deals.
Evaluating Suppliers
Use Jelly’s invoice data to assess supplier reliability and pricing. This helps you make informed choices on partnerships and negotiate better with tools like Price Alert.
Refining Menu Strategy
Invoice data links to recipe and inventory tools for accurate cost and profit updates. Jelly’s Menu Engineering feature connects with POS systems to highlight top-performing dishes, guiding profit-focused menu decisions.
Comparing Options: Jelly Against Alternatives
UK kitchens have a few choices for invoice automation, each with pros and cons.
Manual Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are familiar but risky and slow. Without centralisation, tracking payments is tough, leading to missed deadlines. Spending 10-20 hours monthly on them isn’t sustainable for growth.
Comprehensive Enterprise Tools
Platforms like MarketMan and Nory have extensive features but can overwhelm smaller kitchens. They suit larger setups but may not offer quick, simple value for everyone.
Jelly’s Focused Solution
Jelly strikes a balance, offering powerful automation with a user-friendly design. Unlike others with long setups, it shows value in the first week. Tailored for growing UK hospitality, it provides essential features at a flat £129 monthly fee per site, with no extra costs for users or tools.
Discover how Jelly automates your kitchen operations. Book a chat.
Common Questions About Invoice Automation
How Soon Do Results Show?
With Jelly, benefits start within 24 hours of setup. Price alerts and spending insights kick in as invoices arrive via email or photo. Bigger gains, like time savings and margin boosts, often appear within three months of regular use.
What If Suppliers Won’t Adapt?
Most suppliers adjust easily since they only need to email invoices to a new address or keep their current method while you photograph them. The system fits around existing relationships, ensuring no invoice is missed.
How Accurate Is Data Capture?
Jelly’s AI-driven extraction often outperforms manual entry in speed and accuracy for standard invoices. Any issues are flagged for review, maintaining reliability even during peak times when errors typically rise.
Does It Work with Existing Accounting Software?
Yes, Jelly connects with popular UK tools like Xero via secure APIs, feeding invoice data into your workflows. This cuts bookkeeping time by up to 90% while keeping everything compliant with UK standards.
Is Data Secure and Compliant?
Jelly uses bank-level security, including encryption and secure cloud storage, meeting GDPR and UK data laws. Digital records offer stronger audit trails than paper or email, enhancing compliance and protection.
Wrap-Up: Boost Profit with Kitchen Automation
Automated invoice processing is more than tech. It’s a shift to proactive management. For UK kitchens facing fierce competition, handling supplier costs in real time is key to staying profitable.
Setup takes some effort, but the payoff is immediate and grows over time. Saving 10-20 hours monthly and gaining 2 percentage points on margins, Jelly delivers results fast.
The benefits go beyond savings. Digital records ensure consistent dish quality and margins across teams or locations. This consistency matters as you grow or expand menus.
Automation lets your team focus on guests and building your business. When costing a dish takes 3 minutes instead of 28, when costs are visible instantly, and price hikes are caught early, your kitchen runs smarter and earns more.
Waiting to automate isn’t an option in today’s hospitality challenges. That’s not just an upgrade, it’s survival. Revenue keeps you going, but profit keeps you thriving.
Automation with Jelly secures both. Discover how Jelly automates your kitchen operations. Book a chat.