MDMLFree calculator
Food cost calculator. Your percentage, and the dollars behind it.
Food cost percentage is the food you used divided by your food sales. The food you used is your beginning inventory, plus purchases, minus your ending inventory. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
For a week or a month
- Food used
- $13,000.00
- Left after food
- $28,000.00
- Food cost at target
- $12,300.00
For one plate
- Menu price at target
- $14.17
How to calculate food cost
Use the same dates for every number, and count the way you counted last time. The percentage only means something next to your own past periods.
Food cost % = (beginning inventory + purchases - ending inventory) / food sales x 100
- Count at the startAdd up the food on hand at what you paid for it. Last period's ending count works.
- Add what you boughtEvery food invoice dated in the period, delivered and received. Leave out paper goods and cleaning supplies, or count them every time.
- Count at the endSame shelves, same method. Food you still have isn't a cost yet, so it comes off.
- Divide by food salesSales of food for the same dates, before tax and tips. Leave drinks out if you track them on their own.
- Check one plateDivide what a plate costs by its menu price. A plate well above your overall number is where to look first.
A worked example
A made-up restaurant over one month, the numbers the calculator opens with.
| Beginning inventory | $8,200.00 |
|---|---|
| Plus purchases | $12,400.00 |
| Minus ending inventory | $7,600.00 |
| Food used | $13,000.00 |
| Food sales | $41,000.00 |
| Food cost | 31.7% |
| Food cost at a 30% target | $12,300.00 |
| Over target | $700.00 |
One plate that costs $4.25 on a $13.50 menu price is a 31.5% food cost. At 30%, it would sell for $14.17.
Pick your target from your own menu and your own past numbers. Food cost differs a lot by what you sell, so this page doesn't give a single right answer.
Tired of counting for this? Counts that learn, orders that add up.See Inventory
More free calculators
- Recipe cost calculatorCost per portion from pack prices, with unit conversions and trim loss.
- Cake pricing calculatorA price from supplies, your hours and overhead, per cake and per serving.
- Startup cost calculatorOne-time costs, months of runway and a cushion, against the cash you have.
- Restaurant labor cost calculatorLabor cost percentage, cost per shift and sales per labor hour.
- Landscaping estimate worksheetPrice a landscaping or lawn care job from crew hours, materials and margin.