Type your dishes, their food cost and what you charge. Set a target margin and the planner shows your gross profit, flags weak dishes and suggests the price to hit your goal.
| Dish | Food cost | Your price | Gross profit | Margin | Suggested price | Status |
|---|
Margin is gross profit as a share of your selling price: (price minus food cost) divided by price. The suggested price hits your target margin on the same food cost. Figures exclude VAT and labour.
Related tools: cost each dish first with the recipe cost calculator, design the finished menu in the menu builder, tighten ordering with par stock and see all kitchen tools.
Understand gross profit and menu engineering in plain English.
Menu engineering is the practice of analysing each dish by its popularity and its gross profit, then sorting them into Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles and Dogs so you know what to promote, reprice, rework or remove. The planner does this automatically.
Take the selling price, subtract the food cost, then divide the result by the selling price to get GP percent. Enter your price and cost for each dish and the planner shows gross profit in pounds and as a percentage instantly.
A common UK target is a gross profit of about 65 to 70 percent on food, though it varies by concept. The planner flags dishes that fall below your target so you can act.
Every dish is placed on the menu engineering grid as a Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle or Dog, so you can promote your Stars, reprice your Puzzles and cut your Dogs.