AI & importing

The hard part of going digital was never the software. It was the job before it: getting everything you already have into the thing. That part is over.

Catermonkey reads your data in, works out what it is and files it where it belongs. After that you adjust it until it sits exactly how you want it. You hand over what you already have lying around, we make sure it lands in the right place.

A customer file from your old system. An email with a request. Your menu, your brochure, your banqueting folder. A wholesaler's invoice. The information is already in there. Just not in a shape software can use, and closing that gap normally costs somebody a week of evenings.

Format doesn't matter. Pdf, Excel, Word, a scan, or plain text out of an email: bring it on.

Catermonkey reads it, recognises what's in there and splits it out across your customers, products, ingredients and orders. No data-entry evenings, no copying out of spreadsheets, no typo in a price you only spot three quotes later.

What you can throw at it

Customer files from your old system

Names, addresses, contacts, payment terms, the allergy you've remembered for someone for years. Hand over the file exactly as it is, in Excel or as an export from your old package. Your customer records are filled in before you write your first quote.

Emails with requests

A customer sends a bulleted list, a Word attachment or a scanned pdf. Paste the text or upload the file. Products, quantities, delivery location and notes come out as order lines, matched to your own catalogue. If you'd rather work in Excel, you map the columns yourself.

Your menu, brochure and banqueting folder

The brochure you've been sending out for years, the banqueting folder that circulates as a pdf, the seasonal menu you just finished, the menu you're taking over from a colleague. Upload the file, check the list and confirm. Everything sits in your catalogue ready to sell, ready to drop into a quote.

Recipes from your kitchen folder

Recipes are rarely in one tidy place. An Excel per dish, a Word file of methods, a scanned card that's outlasted three chefs, a folder everyone in the kitchen knows and nobody can search. Whatever shape they're in, hand them over and recipes come out with the ingredients and quantities underneath. Your cost per dish works itself out from then on, and your prep lists and shopping lists come out without anyone building them.

Wholesaler invoices

Invoices and price lists from your butcher or produce supplier go in the same way, with pack sizes, purchase prices and allergens along with them. Your costings, shopping lists and prep lists then run on today's numbers.

Or just your own website

No file to hand? Then simply give us your web address. Catermonkey walks your pages and pulls out the dishes, packages and prices you've already written up for your visitors. It's often the fastest start there is, because you've done that work once already.

Useful when you're switching over

Coming off Excel, an old package, or a folder full of lists? Then nobody on your team has to spend evenings on data entry. You hand over the files you already have, check them, and you're done. In the Carefree Package we do that together with you. Worth reading too: why switching to catering software so often stalls, and how to keep that from happening.