MarginAssistMARGINASSIST
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Built for independent restaurants

Your margins, explained every single night.

Two minutes a night. MarginAssist shows you where your money went and where to improve tomorrow.

Cancel anytimeNo contractNo setup fees
7-day free trialTry every night first
Cancel anytimeFrom Settings, no calls
No contractMonth to month
Nothing to installWorks on your phone
How it works

Two minutes at the end of the night.

No setup call, no spreadsheet. Answer a few questions about the night and MarginAssist does the rest.

  1. 01

    Log tonight's numbers

    Five quick questions: total sales, covers, labor hours, food spend, and comps or waste. Snap a photo of an invoice instead of typing it in. Use Square? Your sales can fill in on their own.

    2 min
  2. 02

    See where the money went

    A score for the night, judged against your own targets, with a plain-words insight on what moved it most.

    Instant
  3. 03

    Improve one thing tomorrow

    A weekly recap shows how this week compared to last, so a good fix gets noticed and a slow drift does not hide behind one good night.

    Every week
  4. 04

    Run the rest from the same place

    When you want more than the nightly read, your staff, schedule and profit sit right next to your numbers.

    • Set shifts once and your team gets their week by email
    • Split tips by hours, role or evenly in seconds
    • See if this month's labor is trending over budget before the month closes
    • Know which days and which dishes actually make money
    When you're ready
What you get every night

A full dashboard, and three things to act on.

Every night you log, your dashboard updates with your score, your trends against target, and a short list of what to do next. Here is what a real night looks like.

marginassist.com/dashboardExample night
Rosa's Kitchen

Tuesday, Oct 6

61
Tonight's scoreNeeds a look
Prime cost66.4%Target 60%
Sales$2,94021% under usual
Labor34.6%Target 30%
Food cost31.8%Target 30%
Covers71$41 per cover
Prime cost, last 7 nights vs 60% target
60%
WEDTHUFRISATSUNMONTUE
Tonight's insights

Three things worth your attention

Labor hit 34.6% on a slow Tuesday

Sales were 21% under your usual Tuesday, but labor hours matched a normal night. That is about $135 over your target.

Try tomorrowCut one closing shift on slow weeknights, or move that shift to a busier day.

Food cost has run over target four nights in a row

31.8% tonight and 32.6% across the last four nights, against your 30% target.

Try tomorrowCheck this week's produce and protein invoices for a price jump, then look at comps and waste.

Your weekend schedule is working

Saturday labor held at 27.9% for the third week in a row, and prime cost came in under target.

Keep doingUse that Saturday schedule as the template for Sunday.

Examples only. Your insights are built from your own numbers and your own targets.

What else is inside

Everything an owner checks at close, in one place.

Ask questions, plan the week, control labor and see what each dish and each day really earns. See exactly which plan includes what on the pricing page.

Ask it anything about your own numbers

Type a question the way you would ask a manager. MarginAssist answers from your logged nights: sales, labor hours, food spend and your targets. It does not search the internet or guess.

  • Ask about a night, a week or a trend
  • Answers come only from your own logged nights
  • Gets sharper the longer you log
Why did labor run high on Friday?
Sales came in 18% under your usual Friday while the closing shift stayed at four people. That is about $96 of extra labor.
Is my food cost creeping up?
Yes. It has run about 2 points over target for four nights straight, mostly on produce days. Worth a look at your latest invoices.
Works with Square

Real profit on every dish

Menu Intelligence matches what each dish sold in Square with what its ingredients cost, so you see what every item actually earns.

  • Dish sales sync from Square every night
  • Ingredient costs update from the invoices you scan
  • Stars to push, and dishes to rethink
Smash burgerStar68%
Chicken sandwich61%
House salad52%
Loaded friesRethink34%

Needs a Square account. Menu Intelligence only works with Square today. We are working on more POS providers.

Schedule your team in minutes

A staff directory and a weekly schedule grid, right next to your numbers.

MONTUEWEDTHUFRIMaria4-114-114-113-12Dev5-115-113-12Sam4-104-104-104-11
Everyone gets their week by email automatically.
  • Set shifts once, no texting each person
  • Insights know who was on the floor, not just how many hours were logged

Control labor before the month closes

See where this month's labor is heading while you can still change it, and catch overtime before it costs you.

October labor, 62% of the month gone$5,950 of $9,200
On pace to finish about $400 over budget
Dev is at 38.5 hours this week. Overtime starts at 40.
  • Weekly and monthly labor forecasts
  • Hours-to-cut guidance when you are trending over
  • Overtime warnings before the shift, not after

Split tips in seconds

Enter the tips, pick how to split them, and everyone gets a fair number.

By hoursBy roleEvenly
Tips tonight$360
Maria30 hrs$150
Dev24 hrs$120
Sam18 hrs$90

Know which days earn their keep

Day Profitability shows what each day of the week really leaves you after food and labor.

MON$180
TUE$240
WED$410
THU$520
FRI$1,260
SAT$1,480
SUN$690

See what delivery really costs

Delivery Margin Visibility shows what DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub keep, and what you keep.

Delivery sales$2,400
Fees and promos-$610
What you keep$1,790
74.6% of the sale

Examples only. Numbers shown are for illustration.

Why we built MarginAssist

Made for the owner still working after the doors close.

Most restaurants don't lose money in one big way. They lose it in small ways nobody sees until it's too late: a supplier price that crept up, a closing shift that ran an hour long, a dish that sells great and earns almost nothing.

The software that could show you all of that was built for chains. It costs hundreds of dollars a month, needs a setup call, and assumes someone has time to study reports. So we built the tool we wanted independent owners to have.

MarginAssist
The MarginAssist teamReal tools for independent restaurants
Read our storyStart your free 7-day trial
Before you sign up

Questions independent owners actually ask.

Want the full list of what each plan includes? See the pricing page.

What does MarginAssist do?

Nightly closing report. Log the night in about two minutes and MarginAssist works out your sales, labor percentage, food cost and average check.

Interactive AI assistant. On Pro and Elite, ask specific questions about labor creep, food waste or cost trends and get answers built from your own logged nights.

Single score. Prime cost, labor, food cost and average check are compressed into one score you can read at a glance, judged against your own targets.

Square integration. On the Elite plan, if you use Square, your nightly sales sync in automatically and Menu Intelligence shows the real profit on each dish. Scanned invoices keep ingredient costs current. It needs a Square account.

Plans for independent restaurants are listed on the pricing page.

Does MarginAssist connect to my POS?

Only Square, and only on the Elite plan. MarginAssist does not connect to any other POS today, and you do not need to connect anything. On every plan you answer five quick questions about the night, which takes about two minutes, and you get your insights and score.

If you use Square, you can connect it on the Elite plan. Your sales then fill in automatically each night, and Menu Intelligence shows the real profit on every dish, which ones are your stars and which to rethink. Ingredient costs stay current from the invoices you scan.

If you use a different POS, everything else works the same and you simply type in the night's totals. We are working on more POS providers.

What if I already have a POS that tracks some of this?

Your POS is great at showing what you sold. Most stop there. They do not know what your food, your labor and your invoices cost, so they cannot show what you actually kept.

MarginAssist adds that missing half every night, judges it against your own targets, and tells you what to do tomorrow. You do not need to replace anything, and you can keep using your POS exactly as you do now.

What do I actually enter each night?

Five things: total sales, covers, labor hours, food spend, and comps or waste. There is also a notes box for anything worth remembering, like a private event or a short-staffed shift.

You can snap a photo of a supplier invoice instead of typing the amount in.

How much time does this take?

About two minutes a night. The weekly recap arrives by email on its own, so that is the whole time commitment.

Do I need a credit card to create an account?

No. Creating your account does not need a card. Choosing a plan afterward does, since that is what starts your 7-day trial. You will not be charged unless you keep it past day 7.

What happens after the 7 days?

If you keep your plan, you are billed monthly for the plan you picked. If you cancel before day 7, you are not charged. There is no contract, and you can cancel any time from Settings.

Where do the insights come from?

Only from your own restaurant. Every insight is built from your logged nights and your own targets, not industry averages or a generic playbook. Two restaurants with the same food cost can get different answers because their history is different.

Which plan is right for me?

Start with the one that matches how you work today.

  • Starter gives you the nightly insight, score and weekly recap.
  • Pro adds Ask, so you can question your own numbers any time.
  • Elite adds scheduling, tips, labor forecasting, profit by day and delivery, and Square with Menu Intelligence.

Every plan includes the 7-day free trial.

Know where tonight's money went.

Seven days free. Two minutes a night.

Start your free 7-day trial