Restaurant Food Cost and Menu Pricing Calculator

About this template

This restaurant food cost workbook is for cafe, restaurant and food business owners who want to know what every dish earns, not only what the month earned. It costs each menu item from its ingredients, shows gross profit per dish, and keeps the kitchen's books in the same file.

Please read: This is a tracker tool only, not financial, tax, legal, medical or any other professional advice or advisory service. It records and calculates what you enter; you are solely responsible for checking all figures, rates, dates and results and for every decision you make. By purchasing, downloading or using it, you accept these terms (your statutory consumer rights are not affected).

Gross profit for each dish

Gross profit is a number per dish, not a number per month. A dish at 65% selling 44 a week and a dish at 77% selling 148 a week are different problems, and a single monthly food cost percentage cannot tell them apart. The Menu and Components tabs work as a food cost calculator: they build each dish's portion cost from its ingredients, so menu pricing starts from real figures.

A ledger written for hospitality

The books open on lines a kitchen actually uses, not a generic shop chart of accounts.

• Income lines: Food sales, Drink sales, Delivery platforms and Private hire
• Expense lines: Food purchases, Drink purchases, Staff wages and Platform commission, and more

Delivery platform sales and the commission they take sit on their own lines, so you can see what that channel really leaves you.

Twelve connected tabs

Start Here, Setup, Menu, Components, Income, Expenses, Inventory, Monthly, Quarterly, Profit and Loss, Balances and Dashboard.

• 500 income rows and 500 expense rows
• An Inventory tab that works as an inventory tracker beside the ledger
• Monthly and quarterly totals, which is how tax gets filed
• A profit and loss built from the same two lists
• Account balances, so the file knows what the business holds
• A dashboard that reads all of it

A worked year and a blank copy

The filled copy runs a busy year: 366 income entries and 498 expense entries at a 16.5% margin. The blank copy is ready for your own menu, and the Start Here tab walks you through setup in a few minutes.

This is a bookkeeping spreadsheet, not an accountant. Tax rates and what you can claim are yours to set and yours to check.

Works with

• Microsoft Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365, on Windows and Mac, and LibreOffice
• Google Sheets with a free Google account. The Google Sheets version is a real workbook you take a copy of, not a PDF with a link in it.
• No dynamic arrays, no macros, no add-ins and no subscription

What you download

• Two Excel workbooks: the filled example and a blank one
• The instruction guide, with one-click links to the Google Sheets versions (filled and blank)
• The terms of use as a PDF

Your files are ready the moment payment clears, for personal and business use on your own devices. Please do not share or resell them. Questions? Use our contact page and we will help.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work in Excel and Google Sheets?

Yes. The Excel workbooks run on Excel 2016 or later on Windows and Mac, and the instruction guide has one-click links to copy the Google Sheets versions with a free Google account.

Can I see the gross profit of each dish?

Yes. The Menu and Components tabs cost each dish from its ingredients, so every menu item shows its own gross profit rather than one monthly percentage.

Can I track delivery platform sales separately?

Yes. Delivery platforms is its own income line and Platform commission is its own expense line.

Does it connect to my till or POS?

You enter or paste your sales and purchases into the Income and Expenses tabs. The file uses no add-ins or macros.

Will it work out my tax?

No. It gives monthly and quarterly totals and a profit and loss. Tax rates and what you can claim are yours to set and check.