Frequently Asked Questions

Controliza is an AI-powered operational intelligence platform designed for multi-location HORECA groups. It centralizes demand forecasting, purchasing management, delivery note digitization, kitchen production and buffet control in a single tool. It includes seven modules: Forecast, Purchasing, Trazoon, Kitchen, Buffet, Inventory and CAPEX. Clients like La Mafia (90+ restaurants), Senator Hotels and Urban Poke already trust the platform.

No. Controliza is not an ERP. It connects to your SAP, Sage, Business Central or Odoo as a specialized operational intelligence layer for HORECA. It exports validated data to the ERP for accounting and integrates with your POS to capture sales data. See available integrations.

Controliza operates across three major HORECA sectors:

• Restaurant chains and franchises: like La Mafia (90+ restaurants), Urban Poke and Udon. Demand forecasting, centralized purchasing and food cost control.
• Hotel groups: like Senator Hotels. F&B management, buffet control with computer vision and multi-hotel purchasing optimization.
• Food service operators: catering, schools, nursing homes and hospitals. Cyclic menus, planned production and HACCP traceability.

Yes. Full traceability of batches, expiry dates and allergens. Waste documentation with real data (not estimates). Exportable reports for health audits and compliance with food waste regulations. Everything centralized and accessible in real time for each location.

Yes. Controliza is specifically designed for multi-location groups. It consolidates forecasting, purchasing and stock data from all locations in a single dashboard, with benchmarking across sites and centralized management.

Controliza is designed for chains and HORECA groups where operational complexity justifies AI-powered forecasting and centralization. The impact is structural when you need to coordinate multiple sites. You can start with Forecast and scale as you grow.

Most clients observe measurable improvements in waste and purchasing efficiency within the first 3 to 6 months. The investment payback typically falls within that same period thanks to direct savings in raw material costs.

The model achieves 95% accuracy at dish level with 6 months of data. With 3 months it already generates useful forecasts. Every night it recalculates including holidays, weather and events. Accuracy improves over time as it accumulates more data from each location.

Yes. New dishes start with a model based on similar dishes from the group and adjust with real data within days. Menu changes, daily specials and promotions are integrated automatically without contaminating the historical data.

With 3 months of history you already see useful forecasts. Groups using Forecast report a 30% reduction in waste and a payback of 3-6 months.

New locations start with data from similar locations in the group. The model transfers patterns and adjusts with the first weeks of real sales data.

Controliza Forecast analyzes the sales history of each dish on your menu at each location, cross-referencing it with variables such as day of the week, time slot, sales channel, weather and events. The model generates a granular forecast indicating how many units of each dish will be ordered tomorrow at each restaurant, so that mise en place is exact.

Yes. The model generates an independent forecast for each F&B point: breakfast buffet, a la carte restaurant, room service, bar, banquets and events. Each has different demand patterns and the system treats them separately, cross-referencing them with hotel occupancy.

Weather, holidays, local events, seasonality, sales channel (dine-in, delivery, takeaway), hotel occupancy (via PMS) and active promotions. The model continuously retrains with real data from each location.

Controliza automatically cross-checks each delivery note against the contract and the order. If the supplier charges more than agreed or delivers different quantities, the system alerts in real time.

You can configure both modes. The system generates the proposal based on forecast + current stock. The manager can approve it with one click or adjust it before sending to the supplier.

Yes, Purchasing includes Forecast. The suggested order is based on dish-level demand forecasting. You do not need to contract Forecast separately.

Yes. Controliza lets you define suppliers at group level and exceptions at location level. You can centralize the product families with the highest food cost impact (meat, dairy, oils) and keep local suppliers for fresh produce or regional products. The system respects both logics.

Controliza Purchasing centralizes negotiation with approved suppliers at group level and generates suggested orders per location based on demand forecasting, current stock and recipe costings. Head office defines contracts, prices and catalogs; each restaurant receives its optimal order without going outside the negotiated framework.

Yes, but within the group's rules. The manager can adjust quantities on the suggested order or add products from the approved catalog. Purchases outside the contract or from unauthorized suppliers are blocked or flagged for head office approval, eliminating silent deviations.

Controliza aggregates the needs of all sites and generates a consolidated order to the framework supplier. If each site needs different quantities, the system calculates the optimal order that respects supplier minimums and maximizes volume discounts.

Inventory is a module within the Purchasing ecosystem of Controliza. It works integrated with automated orders and goods reception to offer a complete cycle. It is included in the Purchasing license.

Both. You can schedule weekly full counts and daily partial counts by category (e.g., fresh produce only or proteins only). The app guides the manager through the selected zone and category.

Dates are captured automatically when the delivery note is digitized with Trazoon. If the delivery note does not include the date, the manager enters it manually from the mobile app during reception. From that point on, the system generates configurable preventive alerts.

Controliza traces each batch from reception to consumption. If you need to locate an affected batch, the system tells you which locations have it, what quantity remains and whether it has already been consumed. In minutes, not days.

When production logs a shift, the consumed ingredients are automatically deducted from stock according to the recipe costing for each recipe. Theoretical stock updates in real time without manual intervention.

Initial setup is completed in 2-4 weeks, including ERP integration and team training. App-based counts can be used from day one.

CAPEX is included in the Purchasing license. No additional cost. Any group that contracts Purchasing has full access to the approval workflow, asset management and reception compliance.

All non-food purchases: kitchen equipment (ovens, cold rooms, griddles), furniture (tables, chairs, decor), recurring services (maintenance, cleaning), technology (terminals, printers) and any asset or service requiring approval before purchase.

Yes. The workflow is fully configurable by amount, purchase category and site. You can define that small purchases are approved by the site manager, medium ones by the operations director, and large ones by the general manager. As many levels as you need.

The initial asset load can be done by bulk import (CSV/Excel) or manually from the app. From there, each new asset is automatically registered when its purchase and reception workflow is completed.

When the asset or service arrives, the site manager verifies delivery from the app: compares against the order, records the condition with photos and documents any issues. If there is a discrepancy, the claim to the supplier includes photographic evidence and original order data.

Yes. CAPEX purchase orders, supplier invoices and asset movements sync with your ERP (SAP, Business Central, Sage, etc.) for accounting, depreciation and consolidated reporting.

You take a photo with your phone and the Trazoon extracts the data automatically: supplier, products, quantities, prices, batches and expiry dates. The system cross-checks that information against the original order and the framework contract without manual intervention.

Yes. It cross-checks the delivery note price and quantity against the original order and framework contract. If there are deviations in price or quantity, you receive a real-time alert before confirming receipt of the delivery.

Trazoon is a module that activates on top of Purchasing. You need Purchasing so that the automatic cross-check has orders and contracts to compare against. Without that foundation, OCR would only extract text without being able to validate it.

They are extracted automatically from the delivery note and associated with each received product. If you activate Kitchen, batches propagate to the production plan, maintaining complete traceability from reception to the plate.

10 seconds per delivery note. You take the photo, the system automatically validates against order and contract, and the goods enter stock. No manual transcription or waiting.

The pipeline combines computer vision with ML models trained specifically on HORECA documents. Extraction accuracy exceeds 99% on structured fields (supplier, line items, prices, quantities). For documents with irregular formats, post-processing raises the success rate above 97%.

The plan is generated from real demand forecasting and the recipe costings for each recipe. Accuracy depends on the quality of your sales data: with 3 months of history, produced quantities adjust to real consumption and waste drops by 40%.

Yes. It supports on-site kitchen, central kitchen and bakery. For cook-chill, it automatically adjusts production and thawing times to the 24-48h lead time.

No. Kitchen generates plans and lists that your team follows within their usual routine. It does not replace your operations — it feeds them with data so decisions stop depending on individual experience.

From the first week your team works with data-driven plans. Groups using Kitchen report a 40% reduction in waste and eliminate 80% of emergency thawing within 2 months.

With the Kitchen module, each location receives a production plan per shift based on real demand forecasting: thawing schedules, mise en place and picking lists. The cook knows what to prepare and how much, without depending on individual experience. Staff turnover stops being a problem because the process is guided.

Computer vision identifies each product and scales measure weight continuously. Accuracy is gram by gram: you know exactly what has been consumed and what has been removed at each service.

Yes. Full buffet, partial lines (salads, desserts), self-service or attended service. Each point is configured independently and adapts to the existing layout.

No. Cameras and scales are installed on the existing line without construction or changes to furniture. In less than a week you have real consumption and waste data.

From the very first service you have consumption and waste data. Operators using Buffet report a 35% reduction in waste and 15% savings in cost per diner within 2 months.

With the Buffet module active, each hotel generates consumption and waste data measured by computer vision and weighing. The multi-hotel dashboard shows a benchmark by product, service and site. You can compare kg wasted per diner, per service and per hotel, and identify which sites need intervention.

Real buffet consumption data feeds the AI-powered Forecast engine, which improves the forecast by dish and service. From that forecast, Purchasing generates adjusted automated orders. The cycle closes: real buffet data → improved forecast → optimized purchasing → validation against actual consumption.

Yes. Controliza exposes a full REST API with OAuth 2.0 authentication, OpenAPI 3.0 documentation and a sandbox environment for development. It supports bidirectional webhooks for real-time events (orders, receptions, alerts). See integrations.

ERPs: SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Business Central, Oracle/NetSuite, Sage 200/X3, A3 ERP, Holded, Odoo and Noray. POS: Revo, Last.app, Agora, Camarero10 and Detaly. PMS: Cloudbeds and Mews. We also support SFTP, CSV and EDI for legacy systems. Full integration list.

AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit. SSO with SAML 2.0 and OAuth 2.0. RBAC access control by role, location and region. GDPR compliance with data residency in the EU. Full audit trail of access and changes.

The functional pilot is completed in 4-6 weeks with 2-3 locations. Technical diagnostics in 1-2 weeks, pilot with real data in 4-6 weeks, progressive rollout in 8-12 weeks and continuous optimization with dedicated support.

Yes. Cloud-native multi-tenant architecture with horizontal auto-scaling. The same tenant that starts in pilot scales to hundreds of locations without migration, without architecture changes and without downtime. The ML model retrains automatically with each new location.

Yes. Controliza imports product catalogs, suppliers and technical sheets from any standard format. The onboarding team manages the full migration in a few weeks.

Controliza generates an automatic food cost benchmark by location, with breakdown by product family and ingredient. You see deviations in real time against the group standard and can act before the monthly close. If a location deviates 3% on meat, you detect it in hours, not weeks.

With Forecast anticipating demand by dish and day, and Purchasing generating automated suggested orders based on that forecast plus each location's real stock. The result: fewer stockouts, fewer off-contract purchases and fewer last-minute calls to unapproved suppliers.

The new location automatically inherits the product catalog, approved suppliers, recipe costings and purchasing rules from the group. Forecast starts with a model based on similar locations in your chain and adjusts with its own data within weeks. You do not start from scratch.

Typical process: diagnostics and setup (1-2 weeks), pilot at 2-3 representative locations (4-6 weeks) and progressive rollout to the rest of the chain (8-12 weeks). In total, a chain of 20-30 locations is operational in 3-4 months. Larger chains follow the same process with wave-based rollouts.

Yes. The Buffet module measures consumption, replenishment and waste in real time using computer vision and weighing. You know which dishes are consumed most, when to replenish and how much is wasted per service. Ideal for restaurant concepts with breakfast, brunch or self-service.

The AI engine detects and isolates seasonal patterns (summer, Christmas, bank holidays) and atypical events (local holidays, matches, promotions). You can flag future events and the system adjusts the forecast automatically. Outliers do not contaminate the base model.

When a delivery note is received, the Trazoon module digitizes the document and automatically cross-checks invoiced prices against the current contract. Any price deviation generates an immediate alert so that central purchasing can claim before validating the invoice.

Controliza integrates via API with the leading PMS on the market (Cloudbeds, Mews, Opera and others). Expected occupancy and confirmed reservations automatically feed the Forecast F&B model, without manual intervention. Within 48 hours the connector is active and the forecast already reflects your hotel's real occupancy.

Yes. Controliza records batches from reception with Trazoon and traces them to the point of consumption. For allergens, technical sheets are linked to each product and recipe. In case of a food safety alert, you locate all affected dishes and involved hotels in under 2 minutes.

Absolutely. Controliza manages all hotel F&B points: breakfast buffet, a la carte restaurant, room service, banquets, corporate events and themed dinners. The forecast model feeds on both PMS occupancy and confirmed events, generating differentiated forecasting for each service.

Controliza consolidates the purchasing volume of the entire group in a single panel. AI-powered suggested orders are based on the demand forecast for each hotel. You can compare prices by supplier across sites, detect deviations automatically and negotiate with real aggregated volume data.

The process follows 4 phases: diagnostics (1-2 weeks), pilot at representative hotels (4-6 weeks), rollout to the rest of the group (8-12 weeks) and continuous optimization. Each hotel's team spends no more than 2 hours per week during the pilot.

Each hotel can have multiple warehouses or consumption points (central kitchen, bar, room service, banquets). Controliza manages stock for each separately, enables transfers between warehouses and consolidates the view at hotel and group level. Counts are done via mobile app.

The model learns the high, mid and low season cycles of each hotel, including bank holidays, local holidays, city events and conferences. Hotels with more than 12 months of history achieve accuracy above 92% even in high-variability periods.

Controliza models cyclic menus with variations by center, time of year and diner type (school, hospital, nursing home, corporate). The forecast automatically adapts to each combination and recalculates portions when you make changes to the menu rotation.

The Kitchen module generates production plans with your configured lead time. For cook-chill, it automatically schedules thawing, bakery production and plating with safety margins. Each satellite center receives its plan with exact portions adjusted for expected absenteeism.

Controliza digitally records batches, expiry dates, temperatures and production at each center. You can export traceability reports by period, center and batch in minutes, instead of collecting paper records from dozens of centers. In case of a food safety alert, you locate the affected batch and all centers where it was served in seconds.

Yes. Controliza differentiates central kitchen (bakery) production and satellite center distribution. The production plan calculates total portions by aggregating the forecast from all centers served by each central kitchen, with adjustments for cook-chill, transport and process waste.

The model learns absenteeism patterns by center, day of the week, time of year and diner type. It does not forecast based on theoretical headcount, but on expected actual diners. In schools, for example, it detects that Fridays and days before holidays see higher absenteeism. This adjustment measurably reduces overproduction.

The POS is the source of truth for sales, the ERP for accounting and suppliers, and the PMS for occupancy. Controliza does not overwrite source data: it consumes it, enriches it with forecasts and returns it validated. Each flow has its defined and documented source of truth.

Each sync is queued with automatic retries and exponential backoff. If the target system does not respond, data is retained in a persistent queue until it recovers. Your team receives real-time alerts and can check the event log to diagnose without depending on support.

Yes. The architecture is multi-tenant by design: each location has its own connector configuration, sync cadence and permissions. Adding a new location is a configuration operation, not a development one. Groups with different POS or ERP by zone operate without conflict.

Minimal. For native connectors, your team only provides API access and credentials — we configure and validate. For custom integrations via REST API, we provide OpenAPI 3.0 documentation, sandbox and dedicated technical support during the pilot.

Controliza. Native connectors are maintained and updated as part of the service. When a vendor updates their API, our team adapts the connector and deploys it without intervention on your side. Custom connectors are also maintained under support agreement.

Controliza does not create lock-in. If you switch vendors, we deactivate the previous connector and activate the new one. Your historical data, forecasts and location configuration remain intact. The change is a reconnection, not a migration.

In the cloud, in isolated pipelines per group. Models retrain every night with the tenant's own data. No data crosses between clients or is shared between models.

Multi-AZ architecture with horizontal auto-scaling. Zero-downtime updates. The system scales automatically based on load without manual intervention.

Yes. Each group has a dedicated partition with AES-256 encryption. The multi-tenant architecture guarantees database-level isolation. No client can access another group's data.

Minimal. Controliza is deployed as SaaS with no on-premise infrastructure. Your team provides API access to existing systems — we configure, validate and maintain.

Full export via REST API or CSV files at any time. No vendor lock-in. We comply with GDPR Article 20 on data portability.

Automatic backups with cross-region replication, RPO under 1 hour, RTO under 4 hours. Data in AWS eu-west-1 (Ireland) with geographic redundancy within the EU.

In AWS eu-west-1 (Ireland), within the EU. European residency guaranteed. Controliza has a designated DPO and a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) per client.

AES-256 at rest with automatic key rotation. TLS 1.3 in transit with certificate pinning available for critical integrations. End-to-end encryption without exceptions.

Granular RBAC: roles by person, location, region and module. A manager sees only their location, a regional director sees their perimeter, senior management has full visibility. Each permission is configured without code.

Complete and immutable audit trail: who did what, when and from where. Logs are exportable for internal and third-party audits. Retention is configurable per client.

Controliza supports SAML 2.0 and OAuth 2.0. Direct integration with Azure AD, Okta or Google Workspace. Your IT team configures it in minutes from the admin panel.

Yes. Each user has permissions assigned by role, location and module. You can define that a site manager only accesses inventory for their location, while a financial controller sees consolidated purchasing for the entire chain.

Just POS API access and integration credentials. Controliza handles configuration, connection and validation. Your IT team invests less than 4 hours during the pilot.

Discovery 1-2 weeks, pilot 4-6 weeks, rollout 8-12 weeks. Timelines depend on the number of locations and integrations, but the pilot always starts in under 6 weeks.

Yes. The pilot runs in parallel with your current systems — it does not modify or replace anything. If you decide not to continue, it disconnects without impact on your operations.

Not manually. Controliza ingests historical data from the POS via API. With 6-12 months of history, models forecast accurately from day one.

We define KPIs during discovery (forecast accuracy, waste reduction, purchasing savings). At pilot close we compare actual results against baseline.

Controliza is SaaS: automatic updates, technical support included and no on-premise infrastructure. If you decide to leave, full export via API or CSV.

REST API documented with OpenAPI 3.0, OAuth 2.0 authentication, SSO via SAML 2.0, AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit. Standard formats (JSON, CSV, XML, EDI) and bidirectional webhooks for real-time integration.

Controliza is cloud-native SaaS on AWS (eu-west-1). No on-premise infrastructure or proprietary client libraries required. Integration is via REST API or SFTP — no agents or software installed on your systems.

The API follows semantic versioning with backward compatibility. Breaking changes are communicated 6 months in advance and previous versions are maintained in parallel during the transition.

Yes. API-first and decoupled architecture: you can consume data via API, receive events via webhooks and connect external systems without depending on custom development from Controliza.

Full data export via API or CSV at any time. No vendor lock-in: data formats are standard and integration runs on open protocols.

Controliza manages infrastructure, updates, ML models and technical support. Your IT team only needs to provide POS API access and validate integrations during the pilot. Less than 4 hours of IT effort in the initial phase.

Yes. Controliza includes a recipe catalog with ingredients, sub-recipes, yields and costs. The difference from other systems is that those recipe costings directly feed the production plan and automated purchasing, instead of remaining as a static document.

Controliza calculates waste at recipe costing level, but goes further: it reduces production waste by up to 40% because the production plan is based on real demand forecasting, not manual estimates. Waste is prevented, not just measured.

It means the demand forecast automatically feeds supplier orders and the kitchen production plan. There are no manual gaps: data flows end-to-end and each module works with the same forecast. This is what differentiates Controliza from tools that only cover part of the process.