CheddrAI & AI Features - FAQs

Q: What is the AI Briefing on the Dashboard?

The AI Briefing is a daily at-a-glance summary at the top of your Dashboard. It surfaces key statuses across Sales, Staffing, Inventory, and Alerts so managers can assess their operation at a glance without navigating to individual modules.

Q: What is the CheddrAI Assistant and how do I use it?

CheddrAI Assistant is a built-in AI chat tool on the Dashboard. You can ask natural-language questions about your sales, schedule, inventory, and more using real data from your account. Example prompts include "How are we doing this week?" or "What's running low on inventory?"

Q: Are CheddrAI answers always accurate?

CheddrAI answers are grounded in your real account data, but they may still be wrong. Always verify before acting on financial or staffing decisions.

Q: What is the AI-Optimized button on the Schedule page?

The "AI-Optimized" button on the Schedule page lets CheddrAI suggest an optimized schedule based on your sales trends, labor targets, and staffing requirements.

Q: What is Menu Engineering with AI?

Menu Engineering is an AI-powered tool in the Inventory & Menu module that classifies your menu items into four performance categories — Stars (high profit + high popularity), Plow Horses, Puzzles, and Dogs — based on margin and sales volume, then provides actionable recommendations.

Q: What is Inventory Intelligence?

Inventory Intelligence is an AI-powered section in both the Dashboard and Inventory module that tracks items trending below par, generates Smart Order suggestions, monitors Stock Trends, and flags cost anomalies.

Q: What is the Financial Intelligence widget on the Dashboard?

Financial Intelligence compares your last 30 days of financial data to the prior 30 days, synthesizing trends across sales, labor, and COGS to surface insights automatically.

Q: What is the AI Anomaly Alerts widget?

AI Anomaly Alerts scans your last 30 days of sales data to detect unusual activity — things like unexpected dips in revenue, sudden spikes in item costs, or irregular check averages.

Q: What is the AI Revenue Optimizer?

The AI Revenue Optimizer analyzes your menu, sales data, and margins to identify concrete revenue opportunities specific to your location, such as pricing adjustments or promoting high-margin items.

Q: What is the AI Labor Cost Saver?

The AI Labor Cost Saver reviews your shifts, pay rates, and sales to identify opportunities to reduce labor costs without impacting operations.

Q: What is the Industry Benchmark widget?

The Industry Benchmark widget compares your key metrics (sales, labor %, COGS %) against published industry averages for your restaurant category over the last 30 days.

Q: How do I configure CheddrAI settings?

Go to Settings → CheddrAI. You can set AI thresholds (Labor Target %, Expiration Alert Days, Low-Stock Alert Ratio, Inventory Count Stale Days) and toggle individual AI modules on or off, including Inventory Suggestions, Schedule Suggestions, Anomaly Alerts, and specific Dashboard widgets.

Q: How do I use the AI Draft Assistant in Messages?

In the Messages module, the AI Draft Assistant lets you describe what you want to communicate (e.g., "Need coverage for tomorrow's 4–10pm shift") and select a tone (Friendly, Professional, Urgent). CheddrAI will generate a ready-to-send draft using your active staff roster.