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CostCook
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The client fills in the order. You approve it.

Put your menus on an ordering page of your own, or on the website you already have. The request comes in priced. If your booking rules ask for money up front and you take cards through CostCook, the client pays by card from a link.

In the app today Find it under Settings > Integrations > Ordering site.

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Founding offer open now: 15 days free, then $49/month per kitchen, locked in for life. Limited to the first 20 kitchens. Regular price $99/month per kitchen; unlimited crew. Prices plus tax. Card required; $0 today. Cancel before day 16 in Settings → Billing, no call required. What to prepare · Plan and team limits

One office lunch for 40, from the order on the client’s phone to the food cost the next day. That kitchen takes cards and asks for the full amount up front. It runs 50 seconds, music only, with the words on screen.
Read what the film shows
  1. A client orders lunch for 40 on your site.
  2. The client sees the price before anyone calls.
  3. It arrives priced. Food cost 29.3%, with misc.
  4. Clear day, priced menu, so it approved itself. You can still decline.
  5. The client gets a pay link and pays $1,273.08 by card.
  6. Nobody typed the order twice or chased the money.
  7. Whole packs, by supplier, for 40. The rest stays on the shelf.
  8. Each supplier gets only its own lines.
  9. A prep order the crew works top to bottom.
  10. 2 stuffed peppers, and no clashes with the guests’ restrictions.
  11. The next day it came in $2.47 over plan, still under your 30% target at 29.1% without misc.

Two ways in. Keep the website you have.

Both show the same menus, prices and dates, and send the request to the same place in Orders. The client never needs a login.

Your link

A page of your own.

Copy it into an email or a text, or print the QR code on a flyer or the menu you leave with a lunch drop.

On your website

Or a form on your own website.

The order form sits right on your own page, under your own heading. One small script loads it in a sealed frame, so it can’t touch the rest of your site.

What your client sees

  1. Pick

    The Coastal Dinner package opened on a phone: a photo of the dish, a short description (cedar salmon and seared scallops with corn, lemon orzo, charred green beans and an arugula and pear salad, lemon posset to finish), Guests for this package set to 50, the six included dishes ticked, an optional box for preparation instructions, and $4,650.00 for 50 guests with Cancel and Add to cart.
    They open a package, set the head count, and the price follows: 50 guests, $4,650.00.

  2. Check

    The cart on a phone: Coastal Dinner for 50 guests at $4,650.00 with its six dishes, Edit and Remove, Food $4,650.00, Estimated total $4,650.00, and Continue.
    The cart keeps the estimate in front of them before they give any details.

  3. Send

    The client’s confirmation on a phone: order saved, a request reference, the event on Nov 5 for 50 guests delivered to 40 Fore Street, Portland, and what they were quoted: Coastal Dinner 50 × $93.00 $4,650.00, delivery $25.00, sales tax added by the kitchen, $4,675.00 before tax; the kitchen will arrange payment.
    Sent. They keep a reference and what they were quoted, delivery included, before tax.

  4. Or ask

    Ask for a quote on a phone: Nothing is booked yet, Tell us about the event, filled in as a family-style rehearsal dinner in early June 2027 for 80 to 100 guests at a barn venue outside Portland, with staff on site and rentals ticked.
    Something off the menu? Ask for a quote takes the event, the guest range and what they need. No price until you reply.

Then, in your Orders

The order in Orders: Company anniversary dinner, Thu Nov 5, Dana Okafor, 50 guests, Coastal Dinner, a draft. Price $93.00 a guest; food cost 25.9% against a 30% target, sales $4,650.00, food $1,204.66, food margin $3,445.34. Approved, waiting on the payment: approved automatically because the day was clear and the menu had a price; the client pays the whole $4,675.00 up front, and you collect it yourself.
The same order in your Orders, already costed off your recipes: 25.9% food cost against your 30% target. A clear day and a priced menu let it approve on its own if your booking rules say so; you can still decline before anything is paid.

Sample kitchen and sample client. The package photos are free-licensed stand-ins; on your site they are photos of your own food.

Next: Putting it on your website.

Put the order form on your website.

Three steps, on the last tab, Put on your website. The hard one goes to whoever looks after your site. Your link and the snippet show up there once Setup has your name.

  1. 01

    Add your website

    Type your site’s address under Websites that will show it and press Add website. The form only shows on sites in that list.

  2. 02

    Send the snippet

    Press Copy snippet, or Email it to them: your mail app opens with the snippet in it, and you add their address.

  3. 03

    Check it showed up

    Under the snippet the app says where it has been seen and when. If it turns up on a site you didn’t list, it says so, with a button to add that site.

Until you press Go live, the form on your site says “Not taking online orders right now.” That’s expected, not broken.

Snippet for your web person · the app writes it
<div id="order-here"></div>
<script src="https://[your ordering address]/ordering.js" data-site-id="[your site id]" data-target="#order-here" data-ordering-origin="https://[your ordering address]"></script>

A sample with blanks: use Copy snippet in the app for the real one. The script is under 12 KB and adds its own small stylesheet and the form, in a sealed frame.

Your web person pastes two lines. You never touch the code.

Next: The settings behind it.

Four tabs, then Go live.

Settings > Integrations, then Manage storefront on the Ordering site card. It saves as you type. There’s no Save button.

  1. Tab 1

    Setup

    Who’s ordering and how it gets to them.

    • The name clients see, from your business profile
    • Smallest and largest group
    • Notice and how far ahead they can book, from Settings > Booking
    • Pickup (place and address) and delivery (with a fee)
    • How they pay, and an estimated tax

  2. Tab 2

    Menus

    Which menus clients can order, at what price.

    • Switch each menu on or off for the site
    • The name and price per guest clients see
    • Descriptions for the menu and each dish, or let Sage draft them
    • Diet badges, which show once every ingredient in the dish is answered

  3. Tab 3

    Look

    Make it look like your website.

    • Your logo
    • Text, button, picked-menu and background colours
    • A contrast check, so the text stays readable

  4. Tab 4

    Put on your website

    Your link, and the form for your own site.

    • Your link, with Copy and a QR code
    • Websites that will show it
    • Snippet for your web person
The Setup tab’s Pickup and delivery card: Pickup switched on with Place, Address and an optional Note for customers; Delivery switched on with a $25.00 delivery fee, added only when the customer picks delivery, and a box to charge sales tax on the delivery fee.
Open full-size (new tab)
Setup: how the food gets to them. Pickup needs a place and an address; delivery can carry a fee.
The Setup tab’s Payments and tax card: three choices, Card, through CostCook (with a Connect Stripe button), A partner collects it, and You collect it (invoice, check, cash or ACH after you confirm), selected; the saved acceptance and payment rules, with priced food orders accepted automatically when the date is clear; an estimated tax percentage; and an example estimate for the Coastal Dinner, 50 guests at $93.00 plus $25.00 delivery, $4,675.00 before tax.
Open full-size (new tab)
Setup: how they pay. Pick one of three; only card needs Stripe.

How the client pays

Card, through CostCook
Connect Stripe here. When your booking rules ask for money, the client pays by card from an emailed link, into your own Stripe account.
A partner collects it
A payment partner takes the money and reports back when it’s paid.
You collect it
Your own invoice, a check, cash or ACH. The client gets an approval email, and you record the payment on the order. New sites start on this one.

Go live stays grey until

  • Pickup or delivery is on. Pickup needs a place and an address.
  • At least one menu is on the site.
  • Every menu on the site has a price above $0.
  • If clients pay by card through CostCook, Stripe is connected and can take cards.

Missing descriptions and an empty website list show up as suggestions. They don’t stop you. Take offline shows clients “Not taking online orders right now.”

Next: When a request comes in.

What they pay up front is your call.

The request lands in Orders waiting on you. Approve it or decline it. What approving does is set by your Booking rules, under Settings > Booking:

Fixed menu: no online payment
Approving confirms the order. A new account starts here.
Fixed menu: pay in full
Approving sends the client a pay link. Their payment confirms the order.
Fixed menu: deposit, then the balance
The pay link takes the deposit and confirms the order. The balance gets its own link before the event.

Approving requests, on the same page, can let clear ones through on their own. It’s off until you turn it on.

If you chose You collect it during Setup, approval emails the client without a pay link.

A request for something bespoke, like staff on site or rentals, takes no money. It comes to you to price, and you can move it to an inquiry.

  • The pay link goes by email. A client who leaves only a phone number is sent nothing, so add their email to the order before you approve it.
  • When money is due, the client has 72 hours to pay, or you have 72 hours to record what you collected. If nothing is paid or recorded, the day opens back up and the order goes back to waiting on you.
  • The price never comes from the client’s screen. CostCook works out every amount after the request arrives, from what you published.
  • Card payments go into your own Stripe account. CostCook won’t save cards or refund on its own.
  • The form shows only on the websites you list, and it can’t read or change anything else on your page.

Put one menu on it and send yourself an order.

Turn on your lunch menu, press Go live, open your link on your phone, and order lunch for 20. You’ll see what your clients see, and what lands in Orders. Then cancel it in Orders, so it doesn’t sit there like a real job.

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