How to cost a recipe from a vendor invoice

Your invoice tells you what you paid for a case. Your recipe needs the cost of the 4 ounces on the plate. Here is the path between them.

Step 1. Find the price per unit you actually bought.

Take the line from the invoice. Example: butter, unsalted AA, 36 pounds for $108.00. That is $3.00 per pound, or $0.1875 per ounce.

Step 2. Adjust for yield.

If you trim or lose product, divide by the usable share. Tenderloin at $15.00 per pound with 80 percent usable costs $18.75 per usable pound.

Step 3. Multiply by the amount in the recipe.

4 ounces of butter at $0.1875 is $0.75. 8 ounces of trimmed tenderloin at $18.75 per pound is $9.38.

Step 4. Add up every ingredient on the plate.

Include the small ones: oil, salt, garnish, sauce. Total is your plate cost.

Step 5. Compare to the menu price.

Plate cost divided by menu price is your food cost percentage.

Try it on the food cost percentage calculator.

Step 6. Repeat when the invoice changes.

This is the step most kitchens skip. A 9 percent jump in tenderloin moves every dish that uses it.

Common mistakes

Mixing units (cases, pounds, each, ounces) without converting.
Pack size changes: a vendor swaps a 10 pound bag for 8 pounds at nearly the same price.
Treating a missing price as zero, which makes a plate look cheaper than it is.

RestaurantOpsApp does steps 1 through 6 from a photo. It shows what it read, stops when a pack size disagrees with your records, and leaves missing prices blank instead of zero.