Our Promise
“I don’t think about this stuff anymore. I know it’s being handled.”
A ChefMod member, one year in
Getting someone to that sentence takes real people doing real work every day. This page is what that work is, and what you can hold us to.
People do the work
Not a dashboard that finds the problem and hands it back to you.
We act on your behalf
When a supplier is wrong, we are the ones on the phone. Not you.
We say what we will not promise
It is further down this page, not buried in a contract.
You can see your price today
About two minutes in the estimator. No demo, no call.
What changes
Help me. Handle it. I trust you.
The clearest way to describe what we do is to listen to what our members stop saying.
At 30 days
“I don’t have to figure this out by myself anymore.”
You stop askingWho do I contact about this? Did anyone follow up with the vendor? Where is this invoice? What happened to my order?
At 90 days
“Things are getting handled before they become my problem.”
You stop chasingVendors for answers. Missing invoices. Wrong charges. Credits you already requested. Instead of “any update on this,” you hear “we already followed up, here is where it stands.”
After a year
“I don’t think about this stuff anymore.”
The question changesFrom “can you look into this” to “I noticed something, can you take a look.” From “I’ve been trying to get my vendor to fix this” to “can you handle this with the vendor.”
The work behind it
Three things we do, and what each one is for
Use any one of them on its own, or combine them. Most operators start where the pain is loudest and add from there.
Network
Buy like a group, whatever your size
Our promise: we put the buying power of every ChefMod kitchen behind yours, and use what the whole network knows about pricing to hold your suppliers to a fair number. Including on the products that are hardest to compare.
Two suppliers quoting the same cut are frequently not quoting the same thing.
The hardest part of your spend
Anything that arrives in a sealed case with a brand on it is relatively easy to buy well. It has a manufacturer, a code and a specification, so it can be tracked and compared in a straightforward way.
Proteins and fresh product are not like that, and they are where the pressure is. Yield, trim, grade, pack and origin all change what it actually costs to put the dish on the plate, and none of that shows up in a straight price comparison. Prices move weekly, sometimes daily. There is no code to match against, so none of it can be automated.
That is the part we are built for, and it is why the work is done by people who know food rather than by a matching engine.
What “in network” actually means
It is not a directory or a logo wall. A supplier is in network when there is an agreement in place with them covering the pricing your locations get. Some are formal contracts, some are working arrangements built over years. What they share is that a price has been agreed rather than quoted at you.
We pursue manufacturer programs too, and when we do we go after contract pricing rather than a rebate. Contract pricing is a lower number on the invoice the day the delivery arrives. A rebate is money you have already spent coming back months later, sometimes more than half a year later, usually in a lump you cannot tie back to anything you bought. You get a cheque. You rarely get an explanation of what it was for.
It is also why we reach spend that other approaches cannot. The protein houses and perishable suppliers your kitchen depends on mostly do not run rebate programs at all. There is nothing there to collect. There is a great deal there to negotiate.
- Agreements in place with the distributors you actually buy from, which is what puts them in network
- Manufacturer programs pursued for contract pricing, so savings land on the invoice rather than arriving as a cheque months later
- Hospitality-trained people reading your purchasing data every day, so that when two items are compared they are genuinely comparable
- Recurring conversations with your perishable and bid suppliers, not an annual review
- Pricing tested against what the network sees across regions and across the country
- Clear visibility into which of your suppliers are in network, and what that changes
The result
Your buying reflects the size of the group and what the group knows, on the products where that is hardest to get.
Control
The back office, off your desk
Our promise: invoices in, accurate numbers out, with people chasing the exceptions instead of you.
We are not just processing invoices. We are actively looking for things that do not make sense, before they move forward.
ChefMod data management team
What happens to an invoice
It arrives and gets checked in
Missing pages, duplicates, corrupted files, missing information. Anything that would stop it being processed correctly. If it is unreadable we handle the rescan ourselves.
It gets transcribed, and checked while it is being transcribed
Vendor, invoice number, dates, quantities, prices, pack sizes and units. Discrepancies are investigated as they are found, not collected up for later.
Every line is matched to the right vendor and item
If a line cannot be matched, or the item does not exist yet, someone looks into it rather than forcing it through.
Problems get fixed, or named and passed on
Unmatched items, missing vendors, duplicate bills, wrong prices or quantities, pack size problems, differences against the purchase order. What we can correct, we correct. What needs a supplier or needs you, we document and route.
It gets a final look, then goes to accounting
We confirm the information is complete, the vendor and items are matched, and every issue found is either resolved or written down.
The part you never see
Most of this work is invisible by design, which is exactly why it is worth describing. We do not simply key in what is printed on the invoice. When a line does not match what we already know about that supplier or that item, someone stops and finds out why.
Pack sizes and units get checked. Prices and quantities get reviewed. Duplicates and missed credits get pulled out. Anything inconsistent gets researched first, and only reaches you when we genuinely need a decision that is yours to make.
What’s included
- Invoice processing, matched line by line to the items you actually bought
- Prices and quantities checked against what was agreed, and discrepancies flagged rather than absorbed
- Pack sizes and units checked, so a case is a case
- Duplicate invoices and missed credits identified before they cost you
- Vendor and item information maintained as your suppliers change theirs
- Invoices reviewed for errors, and discrepancies worked through to a resolution
- Credits you are owed identified, requested from the vendor, and tracked until they land
- Unpaid and unaccepted invoices followed up so nothing stalls your payables
The result
You stop reconstructing the number and start using it. What your food actually cost is available the same week, not assembled at month end.
Guided
A purchasing professional working your buy
Our promise: we put a purchasing professional to work on your business the way a large group would, and we start by understanding what you actually spend before we change anything.
- Dedicated procurement partner and ongoing spend analysis
- Sourcing, negotiations and supplier optimization
- Quarterly business reviews and benchmarking
- Multi-unit procurement oversight and strategy
How it runs
First, the baseline
Three months or more of your spend, broken out by location, supplier and item. Your ordering and approval workflow documented from the line through to corporate, including the contracts, rebates and pricing agreements you already have. Every supplier assessed on why you use them, what they do well, and where they are letting you down.
Then, the strategy
Category by category, where the real leverage sits, with defined actions rather than observations. Across multiple locations, where consolidation is worth doing and where it is not.
Then we go to market for you
Quote requests built, issued and evaluated on your behalf, with a recommendation at the end rather than a spreadsheet to interpret. Agreements put in place with the distributors you buy from, and manufacturer programs pursued where they produce contract pricing.
Then it keeps running
The same person stays with your account. Spend is watched continuously, suppliers are held to what was agreed, and every quarter you get a review against the baseline we built on day one.
One note on scope. Everything above describes Guided alongside Control, where we can see all of your spend. Guided is also available to Network members on its own, at a lower rate, where the work focuses on steering and negotiating within the network rather than across your whole operation. Your quote will make clear which one you are looking at.
The result
Someone is working your purchasing every week who does this for a living, and you can see what changed against where you started.
The people behind it
Who you actually reach
Member Services is the part of ChefMod you talk to. Not a ticket queue, not a help centre article. A person who knows your account, your suppliers and your standing problems.
We monitor outstanding issues rather than waiting for you to follow up.
Most of what we fix, you never have to ask about.
Accountability
What we hold ourselves to
We will only put our name to things we actually control. Your results depend on your suppliers and your market as well as on us. Our work does not.
Reviewed
Every invoice gets looked at by a person, not just entered. Anything that does not match what we already know gets investigated before it moves forward.
Checked
Prices, quantities, pack sizes and units. Items matched to what you actually buy. Duplicate bills and missed credits pulled out.
Caught
When something is wrong we find it and tell you. We do not pass a discrepancy through and let it surface as your problem later.
Brought to you
We research it first. You hear from us when we genuinely need information or a decision that is yours to make, and not before.
Honesty
What we will not promise
Every company in this category has a version of this section. Theirs is in the terms of service. Ours is here.
- A guaranteed savings figure. Our estimator will model what an operation like yours typically sees, using the spend you enter, and it shows you exactly how that math is built. A model is a starting point, not a commitment. The real number comes from your actual invoices, and we will not pretend to know it before we have seen them.
- That every price goes down. Some categories move against everyone at once. When that happens we will tell you why, early, instead of hoping you do not notice.
- That every issue closes on a clock. We control the processing, the checking and the chasing. We do not control how fast a supplier answers or how long a credit takes to clear. We will not put a deadline on someone else’s response and call it our promise.
- That a supplier will always perform. We cannot promise that. We can promise to be the one chasing them when they do not.
- That we will make your financial decisions for you. We do the work, we bring you the numbers and we tell you what we found. What you buy, what you approve and what you pay stays yours. It says so in our agreement, and we would rather you read it here first.
See what it costs, before you talk to anyone
Build your own estimate in about two minutes. No demo, no sales call, no card.
Build my estimate
Or call us on (646) 651-1120 and ask anything.