Restaurant Purchasing Intelligence
Connect your data and get a prompt baseline of what you've bought this year. Then Nightlight delivers recurring reports that show what changed, what matters, and what needs action.
Free during beta. No obligation.
What Nightlight is
Nightlight is a restaurant purchasing intelligence layer.
Nightlight connects to the systems you already use and returns something useful immediately. The first report is descriptive. The recurring reports are diagnostic. Recommendations come later, when the data supports them.
This is not a dashboard. It is not inventory software. It is not a bookkeeping replacement. Nightlight is a report-led intelligence layer built to help operators see what their purchasing is doing, where pressure is building, and what deserves a closer look.
How it works
01
Nightlight starts with purchasing data from systems already in the workflow. No new software to learn. Once connected, the reporting flow is lightweight.
02
Shortly after approval, you receive a YTD baseline report showing what your purchasing footprint looks like right now.
03
After that, Nightlight delivers recurring reports that surface meaningful changes, recurring issues, and patterns worth acting on.
What you get first
Every new client gets a baseline report shortly after the connection is approved.
This is a baseline, not yet intelligence. Its job is to show you the shape of your purchasing before the recurring intelligence cycle begins.
What comes next
A short-cycle report showing what changed in the current window, what stands out, and what needs a closer look.
A deeper read on recurring patterns, supplier behaviour, credits, concentration, and cost movement across the month.
See what Nightlight actually sends
The first thing every client receives. A prompt snapshot of purchasing totals, vendor mix, category breakdown, and product-level context.
A recurring short-cycle report showing what changed, what stands out, and what deserves a closer look — written in operator language.
What Nightlight catches
Nightlight is built to surface the kinds of signals that usually stay buried in invoice history.
Unit costs that move quietly between invoices until the margin damage is visible on the P&L.
When too much spend flows through too few suppliers — and the leverage shifts without anyone noticing.
Supplier credits that appear some months and vanish others, with no clear pattern or follow-up.
Unusual shifts in purchasing mix — wine climbing, spirits dropping — that may indicate a programme change, supplier shift, or purchasing pattern worth checking.
Individual products that spike, disappear, or behave differently from the rest of their category.
Not guesses. Not dashboard clutter. Observed patterns, written in operator language.
Why it feels different
Nightlight separates what is observed, what is inferred, and what still needs context.
That matters. Most software either floods the operator with undigested numbers or overclaims what the data proves. Nightlight is built differently. It names the pattern, states the boundary, and improves each cycle as context accumulates.
Built on a real restaurant first
Nightlight was first built on Richard Hargreave's own restaurant data before it was offered to anyone else.
It was shaped by someone who can read a purchasing ledger and a wine list in the same afternoon — and knows which differences actually matter. That domain judgment is the point. The software is there to structure that judgment into something repeatable.
Start here
Nightlight starts with a read-only Fintech connection. You do not need to export reports or learn new software. We send the request. You approve it.
Free during beta. No obligation.
Or email Richard directly: [email protected]