Maya by Inputly

Maya by Inputly is an AI restaurant manager that connects sales, recipes, inventory, and purchasing to help manage food cost and forecast demand. It tracks ingredient stock, flags low stock, recommends reorder points, and monitors expiry by perishable lot. Recipes connect menu items to ingredient needs, with forecasts accounting for batch yields and unit conversions. Maya can draft supplier purchase orders using forecast demand, stock on hand and in transit, supplier lead times, and pack sizes; approved orders can be emailed to verified suppliers. Forecasts use restaurant sales history and consider calendars, holidays, paydays, weather, and local events. Proposed actions require approval, and listed controls include role-based access, audit trails, reversible actions, and a kill switch. POS connections include Square, Toast, TouchBistro, Clover, SeroPOS, and Lightspeed, alongside a REST API and webhooks. Inputly lists apps for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, plus web and API access. Maya is paid, with pricing from $249/mo, and has no free plan.

Maya brings forecasting and inventory workflows together with purchasing drafts and approval controls. It is a paid product with no free plan; the listed starting price is $249/mo.

Maya is aimed at restaurants seeking to connect stock, recipes, sales, and purchasing. Its approval controls may suit teams that want to review proposed actions before they proceed.

Overview

Maya by Inputly connects restaurant sales, recipes, inventory and purchasing to plan ingredient needs and food costs. It is best suited to restaurant teams coordinating perishable stock and supplier orders across locations. Its strongest case is turning demand forecasts into controlled purchasing drafts; the cost and lack of a free plan make it a poor fit for operators seeking a low-commitment tool.

Key features

Maya links menu items to recipes and converts forecast sales into ingredient demand, including batch yields and unit conversions. That connection gives operators a path from expected covers to the ingredients required, which is more useful for prep and ordering than a sales forecast alone. The system also tracks stock, flags low ingredients, recommends reorder points and follows expiry by perishable lot.

Forecasts draw on a restaurant’s sales history and account for calendars, holidays, paydays, weather and local events. Maya also supports forecasts for sales, covers or orders, inventory and staffing, with real-time data inputs. These projections can inform planning across several operating needs, though the central value remains strongest when teams act on forecasts through stock and purchasing workflows.

Purchase drafts consider forecast demand, current and in-transit stock, supplier lead times and pack sizes. Maya rounds quantities to supplier pack sizes, then emails approved orders to verified suppliers. Since every proposed action requires approval, the system offers a useful control point for teams adopting automation; it does not remove the need for staff review.

Inputly lists connections to Square, Toast, TouchBistro, Clover, SeroPOS, Lightspeed and custom POS systems, as well as a REST API and webhooks. Other listed connections include Stripe, DoorDash, WhatsApp Business, Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks and Twilio. Security controls include AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, role-based access, required multifactor authentication for admin accounts and tenant data isolation. Inputly says SOC 2 Type II is in progress; PCI-DSS, GDPR and CCPA compliance are listed. Card data is processed through Stripe and Square and does not pass through Inputly’s servers.

Pricing

Maya is paid, with pricing from $249/mo and no free plan. That starting point makes the connected forecasting and purchasing workflow a more natural fit for restaurants that expect enough operational benefit to justify a recurring software expense.

The registration plans include Restaurant — Gold at $499 a month (billed $499.00 /mo; 1,000 customer interactions per month across all channels). Automobile — Gold and Retail — Gold carry the same price and interaction allowance, but their names point to different business uses. Airlines — Gold and Hotel — Gold each include 1,000 interactions per month across channels at custom pricing.

Coaching — Gold, Salon — Gold and Home Services — Gold each cost $199 a month (billed $199.00 /mo) and include 600 interactions per month across all channels. Those lower-priced plans have smaller interaction allowances and are aimed at other industries, so they are not cheaper restaurant editions. Meta Leads + Calls — Gold costs $1,000 a month (billed $1,000.00 /mo) for 750 interactions, a higher price with a lower quota than the Restaurant plan.

A customer interaction is a complete conversation: text interactions restart after 15 minutes of customer inactivity, and every voice call counts as a new interaction. Teams should account for those rules when estimating monthly usage. No free tier or trial is provided in the stated terms.

Platforms

Maya is listed for Android, iOS, macOS, Windows and web, with API access also available. Native apps across the major desktop and mobile platforms give operators options for office and on-the-floor access, while the API can suit teams connecting their own systems.

Who it's for

Maya fits restaurants that want forecasts tied directly to recipes, inventory and supplier purchasing, especially teams handling perishable lots or multiple locations. Role-based access, audit trails, reversible actions and a kill switch support organizations that want oversight around automated proposals. Inputly names hospitality, hotels, airlines, automotive services, healthcare and professional services among the industries it serves, but Maya’s described workflow is specifically built around restaurant ingredients, recipes and food costs.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Forecasted sales become recipe-level ingredient demand, including yields and unit conversions, helping teams connect planning with stock requirements.
• Pro: Purchase drafts account for stock on hand and in transit, lead times and pack sizes, then route approved orders to verified suppliers.
• Pro: Approval requirements and operational controls give staff oversight of proposed actions.
• Con: There is no free plan, and the starting price is $249/mo, which raises the commitment for smaller operators evaluating the workflow.
• Con: The Restaurant — Gold interaction quota is 1,000 conversations per month across channels, so high-volume customer engagement may require close quota planning.

Alternatives

For a lower-cost forecasting-focused option, Lineup.ai offers a Forecasts Only plan at $79 a month per location, with unlimited users and employees, automated forecasts and a custom labor allowance budget. Choose it when forecasts and labor budgeting matter more than Maya’s described recipe-to-purchasing workflow; it also has a free trial.

MarginKitchen suits a single-location operator prioritizing demand forecasts, a smart prep planner and a daily profit brief: its Single Location plan is $119 a month billed annually at $1,428, includes one user and 14-day access, and it offers a free trial. MarginEdge is an option for teams focused on invoice processing and bill payments, with its plan at $350 per location per month and unlimited invoices and U.S. bills paid.

Inpulse may suit teams seeking purchasing, inventory, supplier management, orders, loss tracking and multiple locations, with custom pricing for its plans. Meuze is another paid alternative with a free trial. PreciTaste Demand Forecasting is another paid option for Android and iOS. Vaansa and Pourcast Operations are alternatives for readers comparing restaurant software more broadly.

Browse the restaurant demand forecasting software category to compare more options.

Verdict

Maya is a strong candidate for restaurants that want demand forecasts translated into ingredient plans and supplier orders, with staff approval before actions proceed. Its operational breadth and controls are the main reasons to choose it. Look elsewhere if a free entry point, lower commitment or forecasting without a broader inventory and purchasing workflow matters more.