Food Cost

What it does

Food cost tells you what a dish costs to make, worked out automatically from its recipe and what you actually paid for the ingredients — and what share of the selling price that is. It's the number that answers "are we pricing this right?" before a single plate goes out, which is different from Cost Report, which tells you what dishes actually cost after they've sold. Give a dish a recipe and its cost appears everywhere its price is set, and on one page ranking your whole menu.

Getting started

1. Give the dish a recipe first — see Recipes. Without one, there's nothing to calculate a cost from.
2. Open the item's Recipe / Food cost window. It opens on the Recipe tab, listing the ingredients; under the list you'll see Cost per serving and, once you've entered a selling price, Food cost as a percentage of it.
3. If an ingredient has never been delivered, the Recipe tab can't price the dish yet. Switch to the Manual cost tab and type in what you know one serving costs — that figure prices the dish from then on. The ingredient list is kept and still deducts stock; it simply stops deciding the price. Switch back to Recipe once every ingredient has a real price, and the calculated figure takes over again.
4. Wherever you set a price — the item editor, a variant's price (including every row of the size/variant list), a modifier's price — a small line under the field shows the cost and food cost % for that price, so you see the effect of a price change immediately.
5. Open Menu → Food cost to see every dish and modifier ranked by food cost %, with its price, cost, margin and margin %. Search by name, sort by any column, and switch on the filters to show only dishes over your target or dishes with no cost yet. Select a row to reveal its actions — Edit opens its recipe, Delete removes the recipe (the dish itself stays on the menu; only its ingredient list goes).
6. Optionally, on Inventory → Configuration, set a Target food cost percentage. Dishes that cost more of their price than the target are flagged, on the Food cost page and next to the price field.

Key things to know

• Cost is worked out from what you actually paid, the same weighted-average price used everywhere else in Inventory — not a guess and not a list price.
• An ingredient that's out of stock still gets a cost, from the last price you paid for it, marked estimated so you know it might be off. An ingredient that has never been delivered has no cost at all — the dish shows "—", not a zero, because pricing it at zero would say the ingredient is free.
• A recipe with one uncosted ingredient shows no total on the Recipe tab at all, rather than a total missing a piece. A part-priced dish isn't a cheaper dish — it's a question you haven't finished answering. Price it by hand on the Manual tab in the meantime.
• Recipe or Manual cost is a choice you make, not something the app decides for you. The two tabs are two answers to "what does a serving cost", and whichever one is selected is the one that prices the dish. Manual doesn't erase the ingredient list — it's kept and still deducts stock and still decides whether the dish can be made — it just stops setting the price. This is useful for a dish you'd rather price by feel (or by a supplier's quote) even though every ingredient is already priced.
• A dish with no ingredients and a hand-entered cost is a legitimate way to cost something — a bottle of wine you buy in and never touch, for instance. It doesn't affect stock, because there's nothing to deduct.
• Food cost % is measured against the price exactly as it's set — tax is not taken out first. This keeps the number consistent everywhere you meet it: the same dish reads the same percentage on the price field, in the size/variant list, and on this page.
• Every variant is costed on its own, and its cost line shows in the size/variant list next to its price as well as in its own recipe window. A large and a small size don't share a cost unless you give them the same recipe.
• An item with variants has no price or cost of its own. Its Price field shows the range covered by its variants, read-only, and there's no recipe or cost line at the item level — each variant is priced, costed and recipe'd on its own row.
• A combo/set item's cost is its own recipe (if it has one) plus each of its components', for the quantity in the combo. If any part is uncosted, the whole combo shows no total, the same all-or-nothing rule as a single recipe.
• A percentage-based modifier shows a cost but no food cost percentage — it adds a share of the dish rather than its own price, so there's no price for the cost to be a share of.
• Modifiers only used behind the scenes never appear on the Food cost page — they're never charged to a guest, so there's no price to measure against.
• Rows with no cost always sort to the bottom, however you order the list. They aren't cheap, they're unanswered, and putting them at the top of "most expensive" would read as free.
• You can delete a recipe right from this page, without opening it — select the row and use the Delete action, then confirm. The dish or modifier stays on the menu; what's removed is its ingredient list, the same as clearing every ingredient in the recipe window itself. Only staff who can manage products see this action.
• A variant that has never had its own recipe may still show a cost, borrowed from the whole item's recipe — left over from before the item had sizes. You can't delete that from the variant's row, because doing so would remove the cost from every other variant sharing it too; open the variant's recipe and give it one of its own instead.
• The summary tiles at the top count dishes and modifiers together, since modifiers cost money too — but the average food cost % deliberately leaves modifiers out, so a cheap add-on doesn't quietly pull the headline number around.
• Anyone who can see stock values or reports can see food cost figures. There's no separate permission for it — it's no more sensitive than the numbers already on the stock and cost-report pages.

FAQ

Q: How is a dish's food cost calculated?
A: From its recipe, priced at what you actually paid for the ingredients currently in stock (a weighted average across open deliveries), divided by what the dish sells for. Give it a recipe with priced ingredients and the number appears on its own.

Q: A dish shows no cost at all. Why?
A: Either it has no recipe yet, or one of its ingredients has never been delivered. Open the recipe — an uncosted ingredient is named there so you know exactly what's missing.

Q: Can I just type in what a dish costs?
A: Yes — open its Recipe / Food cost window and switch to the Manual cost tab. Type in what one serving costs and that figure prices the dish from then on, even if every ingredient already has a real price. The ingredient list stays and keeps deducting stock; it just stops setting the price.

Q: I typed in a cost on the Manual tab. Will the calculated figure ever take over by itself?
A: Only if you switch back to the Recipe tab yourself — the app doesn't switch it for you. Your hand-entered figure stays saved either way, so nothing is lost by switching back and forth.

Q: Why does the food cost percentage look different from a rough "cost ÷ price" I did by hand?
A: It shouldn't — food cost is measured against the price exactly as you've set it, with nothing taken out first. If the two disagree, check whether the price you divided by matches what's actually saved on the item.

Q: Do sizes and variants share a food cost?
A: No. Each variant has its own recipe and its own cost, shown right in the size/variant list next to its price — a large isn't automatically twice a small unless you set it up that way.

Q: My item has variants (sizes). Why doesn't it have its own price or Recipe button anymore?
A: Because each size prices and costs itself. The item's own Price field now shows the range its variants cover, and the recipe for each size lives on that variant's own row — open the size/variant list and use Recipe there.

Q: How is a combo or set meal costed?
A: As the sum of what its components cost, at the quantities used in the combo, plus a recipe on the combo itself if it has one (packaging, for example). If any single part is uncosted, the whole combo shows no total.

Q: A modifier shows a cost but no percentage. Why?
A: It's a percentage-based modifier — it adds a share of the dish's price rather than a fixed amount, so there's no fixed price for its own cost to be measured against. The cost itself still shows.

Q: What does "estimated" mean next to a cost?
A: The ingredient is currently out of stock, so its cost is based on the last price you paid for it rather than what's on the shelf right now. It's a reasonable stand-in, but worth knowing about.

Q: How do I set a target food cost percentage?
A: On Inventory → Configuration. Leave it blank and nothing gets flagged — there's no one figure that's right for every kitchen. Set it and dishes over target are marked both on the Food cost page and next to the price field where you're editing them.

Q: Who can see food cost figures?
A: Anyone who can view stock or reports today — it isn't gated separately. If you need to keep it from floor staff, don't grant them those permissions.

Q: Can I remove a recipe without opening it?
A: Yes — on Menu → Food cost, select the dish or modifier's row and tap Delete, then confirm. It's the same result as opening the recipe and clearing every ingredient, just faster. The item stays on the menu; only its ingredient list is removed.

Q: The Delete button on a variant's row is greyed out. Why?
A: That variant doesn't have a recipe of its own — it's showing a cost inherited from the whole item, usually left over from before it had sizes. Deleting from that row would strip the cost from every other variant too, so open the variant's own recipe instead and set it up properly.