Food cost that matches how the menu is served

Two things were quietly flattering the food cost figures on your menus. Both are fixed.

Before tax, not after

If you enter prices including tax, the tax was being counted as money the food was paid from. It isn’t: it goes to the government.

A $110 set menu with 10% GST is $100 of revenue. A $33 plate against it is a 33% food cost, not 30%. 1pm now takes the tax out before it works out food cost and margin, and says so under the figure, for example “against $100.00 per head before tax”. The Menu food cost report does the same. If you enter prices before tax, nothing changes.

Guests choose one

A choice of two mains, or an alternate drop, means each guest eats one dish from that course, not both. Costing added up every dish in the course, so a menu with a beef or fish main looked like it cost a plate of each.

Tick Guests choose one beside the course name. The roll-up then counts that course once, at its most expensive costed dish, which keeps your margin true whichever way the room orders. Leave it unticked for shared courses like canapés and sides, where every guest gets everything.

Plate cost, food cost and margin walks through the numbers.