Loaded
All-in-one hospitality back office software for labour, stock and profitability
By Loaded · HQ Queenstown, New Zealand · 4.0/5 Value-Position score (estimate)
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Multi-site hospitality groups in Australia and New Zealand — cafes, bars, restaurants, pubs and clubs — needing consolidated labour and cost-of-goods reporting
- Operators who want rostering, timeclock, stock, recipes and COGS in one per-venue platform instead of several subscriptions
- Groups on an integrated POS (Square, Lightspeed, Swiftpos, Impos, Ordermate, Tevalis and others) that want real-time sales sync
- Franchise and 40+ venue operations that need one-touch sharing of items and recipes across every site
- Venues where wage and food costs are eroding margin and real-time visibility is the priority
Ideal size: 10–500 staff across 1–50+ venues people · Growth-stage multi-site hospitality group already running a modern POS
Not for
- Venues whose POS is not on Loaded's integration list and that expect automatic sales data — those run in non-integrated mode with manual sales entry
- Non-hospitality businesses such as retail, healthcare, professional services or manufacturing
- Operators outside Australia and New Zealand needing local award, payroll and tax compliance
- Very small single-venue operators looking for a free or low-cost tool; Loaded is priced per venue with no free tier
- Groups needing ERP-grade inventory, production planning or supply-chain automation
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
Live within a few days (vendor claim)
~7 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$3,228/yr
Starts at $1,284 · Per venue, per month, monthly or annual billing (annual includes one month free). USD $107–$299 per venue depending on plan and POS integration; NZD/AUD exclude GST.
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Value-Position score
out of 5 · model estimate
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Unlimited users and devices per venue — no per-seat pricing. 14-day free trial, no credit card.
Add-on costs
- Custom/Tailored plan for larger groups and franchise operations is priced on application; includes a dedicated account manager.
- Non-integrated POS mode costs less but requires manual daily sales entry.
Company & support
Who is behind Loaded, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- 2011 · 15 yrs in business
- Headquarters
- Queenstown, New Zealand
How you get support
- PhoneNot listed
- EmailNot listed
- Live chatNot listed
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerEnterprise only
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- Not stated
Loaded cites world-class support, a setup team and tailored implementation/training, plus a public help centre and Loaded Academy. A dedicated account manager appears only on the Tailored plan. No support hours, contact channels or SLA are published.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Loaded sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line. A dashed ring marks an outlier pinned to the edge; hover for its value.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Loaded
- MarketMan
- Sculpture Hospitality
- Backbar
- ChefMod
- Orbisk
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Loaded. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What Loaded ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
The only named AI feature is AI Invoice Processing: supplier invoices are read line by line and update stock and recipes automatically. The vendor credits it with saving 28 working days a year across a 40-venue franchise group. No model, provider, opt-out or governance detail is published, and Predictive Ordering is not described as AI.
Your data & models
- Trains on your data
- Not recorded — ask the vendor
- Runs on
- Not recorded
- AI pricing
- Not recorded
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Not supported
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Loaded is an all-in-one hospitality back office for cafes, bars, restaurants, pubs and clubs, mainly across Australia and New Zealand. Team covers rostering, timesheets and wage control; Stock covers recipes, suppliers and real-time COGS; Hub combines both with multi-site reporting. Pricing is per venue with unlimited users, from about USD $107 per venue per month on annual billing, and a 14-day free trial. The vendor cites 10,000+ operators, an average 8% margin lift and AI invoice processing; onboarding is handled by its setup team.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Loaded cost per venue?
Pricing is per venue, per month, not per user. USD pricing is roughly $107–$119 for Team or Stock and $152–$299 for Hub, depending on whether your POS is integrated and whether you bill annually; annual billing includes one month free. Larger groups and franchise operations get tailored pricing on application. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial with no credit card.
How long does implementation take?
Loaded's onboarding team handles setup: migrating rosters, inventory and recipes, syncing your POS, and training your team. The vendor says most businesses are live within a few days, and a tailored implementation and training plan is provided after the trial.
Does Loaded replace my POS system?
No. Loaded sits behind your existing POS. On an integrated POS sales sync automatically in real time; if your POS is not supported you can run Loaded in non-integrated mode with manual sales entry at a lower per-venue price.
Which POS systems does Loaded integrate with?
Square, Lightspeed (O-Series), Wizbang Onetap, PosBiz, Swiftpos, Tevalis, Impos, Ordermate, Tabin and AI Menu are named as integrated POS systems, and the vendor says it has 20+ partners in total.
Does Loaded handle payroll and award compliance?
Loaded exports timesheets to payroll platforms including Xero, iPayroll, PayHero, PaySauce, Smartly, Ace and Crystal Payroll, and includes Australian Award rates and pay adjustment packages. It is not itself a payroll or accounting system.
Is Loaded only for multi-site groups?
Both single independent venues and 50+ site groups use it. The Hub plan adds consolidated multi-site reporting, and franchise groups use one-touch sharing of items and recipes across sites. Pricing scales per venue rather than per user.