Know your GP before you print the menu
Add ingredients with a base unit and a cost, build recipes with quantities and waste, and every dish shows recipe cost, cost per portion, gross profit and gross margin. Free, no card, no time limit.
Ingredients, recipes and the numbers between them
Two screens under Menu. Nothing to install, no formulas to maintain.
Ingredients with a base unit and cost
Each ingredient has a Name, optional SKU, Base Unit (g, kg, ml, l, unit, pack and so on), Cost, Declared Allergens, notes and an Active toggle.
Recipes with yield and waste
Choose the Output, set the Yield Quantity, then add lines: Ingredient, Quantity, Unit and Waste %. Waste is applied per line, so trimmed and untrimmed items are costed differently.
Sub-recipes for prep
A recipe can output a prep ingredient instead of a dish. Cost a sauce or dough once with its yield and use it by weight in every recipe that needs it.
Cost per portion, GP and margin
Recipe Cost divided by yield gives Cost per Portion. Against the variant's sell price you get Gross Profit and Gross Margin, on the recipe and in the Recipes list.
Unit conversion built in
Weight and volume units convert within their family: 90 g of a kilogram-priced ingredient just works. Lines that cannot convert are flagged "Cannot calculate" rather than guessed.
Three places a cost can come from
If an ingredient has its own recipe, that cost is used. Otherwise the preferred supplier price if you have Purchasing, otherwise the flat cost on the ingredient. Missing costs are flagged, not zeroed.
The ingredient list also drives your allergens
Declared Allergens on an ingredient flow into every recipe that uses it, and from there to the variant on your menu and your public allergen page. Review once, at the ingredient.
- Declared Allergens is a field on the ingredient, next to Base Unit and Cost
- Confirm allergens records the review date; the ingredient list shows Reviewed or Not reviewed
- The Allergen Worklist shows which unreviewed ingredients are holding up each dish
- Change the ingredient and every recipe, sub-recipe and dish that uses it updates
Change a price once and every margin follows
A spreadsheet holds the price from the day you built it. Here the recipe reads the ingredient's current cost every time, so a supplier increase shows up on every dish that uses the ingredient.
- Edit the ingredient's Cost, or its preferred supplier price if you use Purchasing, and the Recipes list recalculates
- Scan the Margin column in the Recipes list for the dishes that have quietly slipped
- Prep recipes carry the change through: a dearer tomato moves the sauce, which moves every pizza
- Purchasing (suppliers, SKUs and prices) is part of Operate; the costing itself is free
Want a quick answer first?
The free food cost calculator works out one dish in 30 seconds with no account. When you want the whole menu, start free and build it properly.
Costing questions
Is recipe costing really free?
Yes. Ingredients, recipes, sub-recipes, cost per portion, gross profit and gross margin are all on the Free plan, with no card, no expiry and no limit on products or locations, up to 3 users. Purchasing, which adds suppliers and their prices, is part of Operate at £79 per location per month.
Do I need Purchasing to cost a menu?
No. Type a cost on each ingredient and recipes use it. If you later switch on Operate and record supplier prices, the ingredient's preferred supplier price takes over automatically, converted from the pack size into the ingredient's base unit.
How do sub-recipes work?
A recipe's Output can be a product variant, which is a dish you sell, or a prep ingredient, which is something you make, like a sauce or a dough. Cost the prep recipe once with its yield and use that ingredient by weight or volume in any number of dishes. Nesting can go as deep as you need.
Which units can I use?
Weight (mg, g, kg, oz, lb, t), volume (ml, l, fl oz, pt, qt, gal) and count (unit, piece, pack, box, carton, bottle). A recipe line can use any unit in the same family as the ingredient's base unit; grams against a kilogram ingredient converts automatically. Count units do not convert into weight or volume, and a line that cannot convert is flagged "Cannot calculate" rather than guessed.
What price does the margin use?
The sell price of the variant the recipe outputs, exactly as it appears on your menu. Gross profit is that price minus cost per portion; gross margin is gross profit as a percentage of the price. Change either side and the figures update.
What happens if an ingredient has no cost?
The recipe's cost and margin show as "Cannot calculate" instead of a partial total that quietly counts the ingredient as £0. The ingredient list shows Cost as "Not set", so you can see what to fill in.
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