Work out the food cost percentage of a single dish from its ingredients, or of the whole restaurant for a week or a month from your stock and purchases.
For one dish: Food cost % = cost of the ingredients in one plate ÷ selling price (before tax) × 100.
For a week or a month: Food cost % = (opening stock + purchases − closing stock) ÷ food sales × 100. The top half is what you used; the bottom half is what you sold. Use the same period for both.
A plate of paneer butter masala uses paneer costing 36, gravy ingredients costing 18 and butter and garnish costing 8: a plate cost of 62. Sold at 240 before tax, its food cost is 62 ÷ 240 × 100 = 25.8%, and each plate leaves 178 towards everything else.
For a month: opening stock of 80,000, purchases of 2,40,000 and closing stock of 70,000 mean 2,50,000 of food was used. With food sales of 8,00,000, food cost is 2,50,000 ÷ 8,00,000 × 100 = 31.25%.
There is no universal right figure. Many operators aim for the high 20s to mid 30s as a rough rule of thumb, but formats differ a lot. The more useful comparison is a dish against its own recipe cost, and a month against the months before it.
EasyBills costs every dish from its recipe, tracks stock as plates are sold, and keeps real books, so food cost, margin and profit are always up to date.
For a period: (opening stock + purchases − closing stock) ÷ food sales × 100. For a single dish: the cost of its ingredients ÷ its selling price before tax × 100.
Without. Tax collected on the bill is not your revenue, so food cost is measured against the price before tax. The calculator takes off the tax for you if your menu prices include it.
It depends on the format. Many operators aim for the high 20s to mid 30s as a rough rule of thumb; a drinks-heavy menu can run a higher food cost and still be healthy. Compare against your own recipes and your own past months.
The gap between actual food cost (from stock and purchases) and theoretical food cost (from your recipes) is usually over-portioning, unrecorded wastage, staff meals and comps, supplier price changes, or receiving errors.