Review copy: working name, not live. Nothing you type is sent.
Questions you might have
Why I built Costella, how she works, and answers to what owners worry about before they sign up.
I’m Alphonse. I run Pho Heaven, a Korean-Vietnamese restaurant in Westgate, West Auckland.
I’m working towards a restaurant that does well without me there every night, so I get my evenings back. I’m not there yet.
I’m not the only one. In 2024, 54% of New Zealand hospitality businesses said mental health had got worse. In Auckland it was 66%. Restaurant Association survey, reported by 1News, 19 July 2024
Costella is the part I’m building first, in my own kitchen.
One honest limit: Costella knows six suppliers’ layouts so far. For any other supplier, you confirm each line.
Alphonse, Pho Heaven
In my kitchen, Costella has checked our real supplier invoices since May 2026. The examples below use a demo kitchen’s made-up numbers, because ours stay private.
Tested code reads the six supplier layouts she knows, and does every sum. For any other supplier, an AI model reads the invoice and you confirm each line. Anything she isn’t sure of waits for your tap.
No price or recipe changes until you say so.
Brown butter gnocchi now costs 12 cents more a plate. Check the menu price?
Not nowReviewYour suppliers, your recipes, your invoices. Nothing borrowed, nothing guessed.
Every cost traces back to the invoice line it came from, or tells you what’s missing.
Brown butter gnocchi
Per plate
Six things I’d want to know first.
Fair question. Other apps read invoices too, and some ask before a price changes. Costella has no setting that skips your yes, she never fills a gap with a guess, and every cost shows where it came from. I built her in my own kitchen, where I still work.
You forward the invoice emails you already get. Costella does the reading, and you tap to confirm anything she isn’t sure of.
Costella never guesses. When she can’t read a line or match a product, she shows it and waits for your tap. Every number shows where it came from, or what’s missing.
Today she knows the invoice layouts of six suppliers my kitchen uses, sent as PDFs by email. For any other supplier, she reads the invoice and asks you to confirm each line. She tells you plainly when she can’t read one.
The founding trial is free for three months. You’ll see the price before you pay anything, and you can leave whenever you like.
Your invoices won’t be stored until an independent reviewer has checked the app’s security and any fixes are retested. Today it holds only my own restaurant’s data.
I’ll use your email only to tell you when it opens and what it costs.
The road to a restaurant that doesn’t need me every night. What works, and what doesn’t.
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