Varastiq for Toast
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Last updated: · By the Varastiq team
Key takeaway: Varastiq connects to Toast read-only. Your Toast sales become theoretical usage, what each item should have used based on what you sold. Compare sales-based usage with counts and purchases in reporting. Stiq separately checks large changes from the previous count while you count. Varastiq never writes to Toast, so your menu, prices and tickets stay exactly as they are.
What does the Toast integration do?
- Turns sales into usage. Every dish sold × its recipe = the ingredients that should have left the shelf.
- Supports usage analysis. Recipes and sales give theoretical usage; counts and purchases give actual usage. Review the gap in reporting. Stiq separately flags large changes from the previous count. See variance and count flags.
- Shows theoretical vs actual food cost. The gap between what recipes say you should have spent and what counts and invoices say you did. See the guide.
- Feeds prime cost. Sales are the denominator for food, beverage and labor percentages. Labor costs come from recorded wages. See prime cost.
- Ranks dishes by dollars. With sales next to live plate cost, you can see which items carry your margin.
What does read-only mean?
Varastiq reads data from Toast. It does not create, change or delete anything in Toast: no menu edits, no price changes, no tickets. If you disconnect, Toast is untouched.
How do you connect Toast to Varastiq?
- Request a Varastiq demo at contact us. Once your workspace is available, set up your storage areas in the order you walk them.
- Connect Toast read-only from Varastiq.
- Match Toast menu items to recipes. Each Toast item points to a Varastiq dish so sales turn into ingredient usage. Have no recipes yet? Upload your menu on See your menu and Vara drafts them.
- Run your first count. That gives you an inventory baseline.
- Count as usual. Use Toast sales to review theoretical usage in reporting. Stiq also checks large changes from the previous count.
What if I'm not on Toast?
Upload a sales report instead. Import a supported item-level sales report, such as a product mix export. Check your file format with us before you start. You get the same theoretical usage, from the report. And if you have no POS connection at all, counts, recipe costing, invoice capture and ordering still work.
Varastiq or xtraCHEF for Toast restaurants?
xtraCHEF is Toast's own back-office product. According to Toast's support article "xtraCHEF: Request a Demo" (last updated July 29, 2026; checked October 21, 2026), xtraCHEF Essentials is $179 per month per location (invoice automation, accounting sync, food cost reporting) and Pro is $279 per month per location (adding recipe costing and inventory management). Varastiq Pro is $149 a month for the first location plus $99 a month for each additional location, with walk-order counts, item search, manual quantity entry and offline drafts in the walk-in. Full comparison, including when xtraCHEF is the better fit: xtraCHEF alternative.
Frequently asked questions
Does Varastiq integrate with Toast?
Yes. Varastiq connects to Toast read-only and uses Toast sales to calculate theoretical usage, variance and theoretical vs actual food cost.
Can Varastiq change my Toast menu or prices?
No. The connection is read-only. Varastiq does not create, edit or delete anything in Toast.
What Toast data does Varastiq use?
Varastiq uses Toast sales by menu item to calculate how much of each ingredient should have been used.
Does Toast charge for the connection?
Live integrations are an optional Varastiq add-on; confirm availability and pricing in your owner portal. If your Toast plan requires paid API access for partner integrations, that separate fee is billed by Toast.
Do I need Toast to use Varastiq?
No. Supported item-level sales exports can be imported; check your export format with us first, and counts, costing and ordering work without a POS.
Is Varastiq an alternative to xtraCHEF?
Yes, for Toast restaurants that mainly want faster counts, variance flagged at the count and live plate cost. xtraCHEF may suit you better if you want invoice automation with accounting sync inside the Toast ecosystem.
Which Varastiq plan includes the Toast connection?
Varastiq Pro starts at $149 a month for the first location plus $99 a month for each additional location. Live integrations are an optional add-on; confirm Toast availability and add-on pricing in your owner portal.