Not an Apicbase Alternative: Keep Apicbase, Add Voice Ordering

Apicbase, With One Step Added

Apicbase plans the order.
In VoiceOrder Solutions, you say it.

Read the table as a single extra step beside the software you already use. It is not an Apicbase alternative: ticks for recipes, pars, approvals and counts come from Apicbase itself. The rows that differ concern a distributor whose order still goes by phone, by text or through a rep, and they apply only if that distributor has signed up with us.

Feature

Apicbase + VoiceOrder Solutions

Apicbase on its own

Recipe costs and margins that update as recipes change

Order aloud, and fix any line before it goes

Typed, or filled up to par

Sign-off on orders made in Apicbase

Item list and prices kept by your distributor

You set up suppliers, unless one is linked

Orders to any supplier, by email or a direct link

Menu engineering and group-wide sales reports

Apicbase's suggested quantities from pars and forecasts

Allergens, HACCP checks and food labels

Stock counts in Apicbase, by barcode or voice

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Worth Knowing First

Why groups look for an alternative to Apicbase

Sometimes the search for an Apicbase alternative has nothing to do with recipes or costing. It is about the last step: getting one distributor's order out of the kitchen and into their hands.

Not every reorder needs a sign-off

Apicbase gives head office approvals and approved suppliers for each location, and that control matters. A routine reorder of the same staples may not need it. Where the distributor is on VoiceOrder Solutions, the kitchen can simply say it.

Orders are typed, not spoken

Apicbase suggests what to order from pars, recipes and forecasts. A person then types or accepts the amounts, and each supplier's order goes out on its own. Apicbase does take spoken stock counts.

Only some distributors are linked

Apicbase sends orders straight into a few large US distributors and buying platforms. For any other supplier, you add the items yourself and Apicbase emails the order. If a local distributor still gets your order by a call, a text or a rep's visit, that is the order our app can change.

What You Get

One step added, no Apicbase alternative to roll out

Voice Ordering

Speak the reorder, then look it over

Open the app at the shelf or in the walk-in and say what the kitchen needs. Each item turns into a line from your guide with that distributor. Correct anything that is off, then send. Nothing goes out until you have checked it.

Every line is yours to check before sending

Send it at midnight if that is when the count ends

Works on an iPhone or Android phone

Saves 20 to 30 minutes compared with the same order by phone

Placing an order, step by step

Your Order Guide

A guide your distributor keeps current

Your distributor enters the items you order from them, at the prices on your account, with their item codes. If a price moves or an item is dropped, they update it. It is the list you would otherwise build yourself in Apicbase for a supplier that is not linked.

Just the products you buy from them

Priced the way your account is priced

Updated on their side when things change

Same distributor, same rep

Buying across several suppliers

A Record Of Each Order

A number and a time on what you sent

When you send from the app, the order is stamped with its own number, the date and the time, and a confirmation reaches your phone. When a delivery comes up short, you have the order to point to. A call or a voicemail leaves no such record.

Each app order numbered, dated and timed

Confirmed by push notification or text

Something firm to hold a short delivery against

Who sent it and when, on record

What each supplier confirmed

Apicbase Stays

Recipes, pars and counts stay in Apicbase

Recipe costs, par levels, stock counts and allergen data stay where they are, run from head office as now. The one change: an order for a distributor that has our app can now be spoken.

Recipe costing left untouched

Par levels kept where they are

Allergen and HACCP records unchanged

Approval rules kept for Apicbase orders

Keeping the ordering routine the same at every location

Use Both

Apicbase for the group, VoiceOrder Solutions for one order

VoiceOrder Solutions is not an Apicbase competitor or an Apicbase replacement. Head office keeps costing, par levels, approvals and reports in Apicbase. Our app handles one order at a location: the one to a distributor that offers it, said aloud and checked before it goes.

Voice orders skip Apicbase's sign-off

An order spoken into our app travels from the kitchen to the distributor without passing through Apicbase. Nobody approves it there, and Apicbase has no record of it when the delivery and the invoice arrive.

Let the Apicbase count set the amounts

Do the count in Apicbase as you do now and look at what it suggests for that distributor. Then say those amounts into our app, review them and send.

One place per distributor's order

Where every order to that distributor must be signed off, leave it in Apicbase. Where the everyday reorder needs no sign-off, move that one to our app. Order from each distributor through one channel, so no line goes out twice.

See what a distributor receives

In 20 minutes we open a demo guide, speak a test order into the app, and show what lands on the distributor's side.

Book a Free Demo

FAQ

Questions from multi-site operators

Do I need an Apicbase alternative to order with my voice?

No. Apicbase already builds orders and sends them to your suppliers. If one of your distributors gives you our app, you can say that distributor's order aloud instead.

Is VoiceOrder Solutions better than Apicbase?

Not at recipe costing, menu engineering, stock counts, forecasting or invoice matching: we do none of those. Our job is narrower: your spoken order to your distributor, checked by you before it is sent. If ordering is what prompted your search for an Apicbase alternative, that one job, added beside it, may be enough.

Do Apicbase and VoiceOrder Solutions connect?

No. They are separate products with separate support teams, and no order data passes from one to the other. That is a real trade-off: Apicbase cannot match that delivery or its invoice to an order it never saw.

Can every supplier take orders this way?

No. Only distributors that work with VoiceOrder Solutions can receive them, and that is far fewer suppliers than Apicbase reaches by email and by direct link. Keep Apicbase for the rest, and ask your distributors which of them use our app.

Apicbase already takes counts by voice. What does your app add?

Its voice feature is for counting stock: you say what is on the shelf. Ours is for sending the order: you say what you want to buy from your account's own guide, and it lands with your distributor as an order.

I said an item wrong. Can I fix it before it goes?

Yes. Each line is on screen for you to check before it goes, so change the item or the amount there, or delete the line. Checking is the safeguard, and a quick look can still let a mistake through. Orders you phone in or leave on voicemail are not numbered by us.

How do I get set up, and what does it cost?

Through your distributor. If they have not mentioned us, or you are unsure, get in touch and we will find out for you. Most kitchens are placing orders the same day. Your distributor supplies the app, so ask them about cost; we post no price list. Apicbase quotes its plans as well, with no prices on its site.

Where do the Apicbase details on this page come from?

Checked on apicbase.com and its help center on 27 October 2026: their product and plans pages, plus support pages about ordering and suppliers. The customer and site counts they publish are theirs and are not repeated here. If anything there is different now, the mistake is ours to fix.

Not An Apicbase Alternative: Plan There, Order Aloud

is when most kitchens send a first order from the app

back on each order, compared with a phone call to your rep

to send an order, after the sales desk has closed

Apicbase plans the order.
In VoiceOrder Solutions, you say it.

Feature

Apicbase + VoiceOrder Solutions

Apicbase on its own