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Welcome aboard. Here’s how to make your first month count.

Your first 30 days are about getting the basics locked in so Garde can start doing the heavy lifting. Three things matter most right away: uploading invoices, entering recipes, and building count sheets. Everything else in Garde builds on top of those.

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Week 1: Get invoices flowing

This is the single most important thing you do. Invoices are the foundation of everything in Garde — they build your product database, feed your expense data, and power your reports.

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Upload invoices

There are three ways to get invoices into Garde:
  1. Mobile app — Snap a photo the moment a delivery arrives. Download the Garde app from the App Store (iPhone) or Play Store (Android).
  2. Email — Forward invoices to your location’s unique invoice email address. Find it in Garde under Inventory > Invoices — there’s a banner at the top with your email address and a copy button.
  3. Browser upload — Go to Inventory > Invoices and click New Invoice to upload files directly from your computer.
Set up the Garde mobile app during your first week. Uploading invoices promptly after each delivery keeps your purchasing data accurate and ensures your reports are always current.
For more details: Uploading Invoices | Invoice FAQs

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Verify your data is landing correctly

As invoices come in, spend a few minutes checking that things are mapping correctly:
  • Payment accounts — Make sure invoices close to the right payment account. Set up Payment Accounts if you haven’t already.
  • Product accuracy — Check that vendor items connect to the correct products and that products link to the right categories. Two tools help with this:
Not sure how vendor items relate to products? This article explains it.

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Week 2: Start building recipes

Once you have a week or two of invoices processed, your product database will have enough items to start building recipes. Recipes are how Garde calculates your food cost per dish — and they’re required if you ever want to use theoretical usage reporting.

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How to get recipes into Garde

You have a few options:
  1. AI Onboarding — Garde’s AI can help you import recipes from PDFs, spreadsheets, photos of recipe binders, or whatever format you’ve got. Learn more about AI Onboarding.
  2. Manual entry — Build recipes one by one in Garde under Inventory > Recipes. Creating a Recipe.
  3. Recipe Setup Service — Our team can enter your recipes for you. Learn more.
Start with your top sellers. You don’t need every recipe on day one. Enter your 10-20 best-selling dishes first — that covers the majority of your food cost. Add the rest over time.
For more: Why Are Recipes Important? | Recipe Types

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Week 3: Set up inventory count sheets

Count sheets are how you take inventory in Garde. Setting them up properly now means faster, more accurate counts going forward.

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Build your count sheets

Go to Inventory > Count Sheets in Garde and organize products by how you physically walk through your storage:
  • Walk-in cooler — dairy, produce, proteins
  • Dry storage — canned goods, flour, spices
  • Bar — liquor, beer, wine, mixers
  • Line — prepped items, sauces, proteins in use
Organize by storage location, not by category. Your team will count faster when the sheet matches the physical path they walk through the kitchen. Nobody wants to bounce between the walk-in and dry storage for items in the same category.
For more: Setting Up Count Sheets | Getting Started with Inventory

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Week 4: Connect accounting and explore more features

By now you’ve got invoices flowing, recipes building, and count sheets ready. Time to connect the pipes to your accounting system and explore what else Garde can do.

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Export to accounting

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Take your first inventory

With count sheets set up, you’re ready for your first count. Two inventories give you your first Usage Report (actual COGS by product). Steps for Taking Inventory.

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Features to explore

  • AI Chat — Ask questions about your data in plain language
  • AI Insights — Get proactive recommendations about spending and cost trends
  • Task Queue — Keep your team organized with shared operational tasks
  • Price Alerts — Get notified when vendor prices spike
  • Ordering — Place orders directly through Garde via email to your vendors
  • PnL Release — Review and release your P&L with confidence
  • Bill Pay — Coming soon
  • Budgets — Coming soon

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You’re off to a great start

Once you’ve uploaded invoices for the majority of what you order, built your core recipes, and taken a couple inventories, you’ll have real-time numbers flowing through Garde. From there, it only gets better. Next up: Making the Most of Garde Questions? Reach out anytime at contact@garde.app — our support and onboarding teams are here to help.