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Best software for calculating food cost?

195K views 43 replies 30 participants last post by  granola girl 
#1 ·
I am a personal chef expanding into catering.  I need a good program to help with calculating food costs.  Any suggestions?  Pros/Cons?

Thanks!
 
#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
I've been using MasterCook for about 12 years as a personal chef as well as a restaurant owner and it has served me well, especially when the price is about $20

Take a look at [product="27030"]Mastercook V14 [/product] , the new owners of MasterCook who are planning to upgrade it as well.

It does recipe costing per serving, menu costing, shopping lists, recipe scaling and, if you use FireFox as your browser and RecipeFox as an add-on, you can capture internet recipes with a single click from over 300 websites, even more than one at a time.
 
#3 ·
I'm curious why you need a program? It's a very simple process to figure out food cost.

Here's an example and bear with me on the prices because i'm making them up.

Grilled Strip Steak with sauteed mushrooms and onions for $27

Let's say the steak you get is $15 a pound and you buy a ten pound strip. That's 10x15= $150 strip

You have 160 oz of steak and it cost $150...so 150/160 will get you $0.94 per oz

You serve a 12 oz steak. So 12x0.94= $11.28 for your steak

The shittake mushrooms you buy are $20 a case and you get 10 pounds per case 

You have 160 oz of mushrooms and it cost $20...so 20/160 will get you $0.13 per oz

You serve 4 oz mushrooms. So 4x0.13= $0.52 for your mushrooms

The onions you buy are $9 per bag and you get 50 pounds per case 

You have 800 oz of onions but after peeling you can only use 700 oz and it cost $9...so 9/700 will get you $0.02 per oz

You serve 4 oz mushrooms. So 4x0.02= $0.08 for your onions

You use 1 oz of butter to saute the mushrooms and onions together.

Butter is $4 a pound so 4/16= $0.25 an ounce

You use 1 oz so 1x0.25= $0.25

Salt is always said to be $0.10 as is pepper so that's an extra $0.20 per dish

So you add all the totals for the cost of the food

11.28+0.52+0.08+0.25+0.20= $12.25

For the Food cost % you take what you pay for the ingredients divided by what it's sold for.

12.25/27= 45%

That may see like a high food cost but it's most likely close to a steak entree. Plus you'll be making $14.75 for every steak you sell.

So you're catering? You cater a party for 50 steaks and you spend 16 hours preparing the food.

50x14.75= $737.50

737.50/16= 46.01 an hour...not too bad!!!

I know there's a thousnad other things to consider other than simply the ingredients, ie gas, water, elecricity, waste, advertisements, accidents, the list goes on. But you were simply asking for food cost. There's the longest possible answer :)
 
#42 ·
I'm curious why you need a program? It's a very simple process to figure out food cost.

Here's an example and bear with me on the prices because i'm making them up.

Grilled Strip Steak with sauteed mushrooms and onions for $27

Let's say the steak you get is $15 a pound and you buy a ten pound strip. That's 10x15= $150 strip

You have 160 oz of steak and it cost $150...so 150/160 will get you $0.94 per oz

You serve a 12 oz steak. So 12x0.94= $11.28 for your steak

The shittake mushrooms you buy are $20 a case and you get 10 pounds per case

You have 160 oz of mushrooms and it cost $20...so 20/160 will get you $0.13 per oz

You serve 4 oz mushrooms. So 4x0.13= $0.52 for your mushrooms

The onions you buy are $9 per bag and you get 50 pounds per case

You have 800 oz of onions but after peeling you can only use 700 oz and it cost $9...so 9/700 will get you $0.02 per oz

You serve 4 oz mushrooms. So 4x0.02= $0.08 for your onions

You use 1 oz of butter to saute the mushrooms and onions together.

Butter is $4 a pound so 4/16= $0.25 an ounce

You use 1 oz so 1x0.25= $0.25

Salt is always said to be $0.10 as is pepper so that's an extra $0.20 per dish

So you add all the totals for the cost of the food

11.28+0.52+0.08+0.25+0.20= $12.25

For the Food cost % you take what you pay for the ingredients divided by what it's sold for.

12.25/27= 45%

That may see like a high food cost but it's most likely close to a steak entree. Plus you'll be making $14.75 for every steak you sell.

So you're catering? You cater a party for 50 steaks and you spend 16 hours preparing the food.

50x14.75= $737.50

737.50/16= 46.01 an hour...not too bad!!!

I know there's a thousnad other things to consider other than simply the ingredients, ie gas, water, elecricity, waste, advertisements, accidents, the list goes on. But you were simply asking for food cost. There's the longest possible answer :)
Thanks for your patience! This helps!
 
#4 ·
Agree You dont need program  make your own geared to your needs.... You know your cost and you know size of portion  in ounces, the rest is  easy.
 
#5 ·
After reading ADB and EDB responses, I realized I misread the OP and have to concur, for costing standard menu items, a simple spreadsheet or even pencil and paper is all that is necessary. A Google search will turn up several free spreadsheets, try searching culinary spreadsheets
 
#7 ·
I've just taken over a kitchen that has had no costing/controls set in place.... being rather overwhelmed with the task at hand I was looking for a program that wouldn't break the bank but user friendly for me to literally input the information/prices and or recipes and it would spit out my food cost for that menu item.... is this program master cook what you would recommend? I would normally do it via spreadsheets, but time is of essence as well i'm trying to lessen the load on my plate..... thanks for any help! Nicole
 
#8 ·
Nicole,

Mastercook might work, however, Mastercook does NOT interface with purchase invoices!

All pricing must be manually input by ingredient and it does not provide separation by vendor. It would be tedious to adjust ingredient costs on any periodic basis.

With new ownership, perhaps the ingredient pricing process may change.

Remember, it is only a $20 program!
 
 
#11 ·
Master cook is the worst program you can use. Besides all the problems, if you ever need to transfer it to a Mac, good luck. It can be done but you will get a few headaches. Closest program I found that is thus far the best one out there is Cookn for Mac. The only thing missing on it though is the food cost for each dish, spice,marinade you made. Far superior than MCook. 
 
#12 ·
Mastercook 14 is in beta testing (I know, because I'm a beta tester /img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif) with release scheduled shortly. Bookmark http://www.mastercook.com/ for updates, just looked and the schedule is for release this month (June 2013)

Though only for PCs, the new owners of Mastercook are projecting a "cross platform", i.e. Mac, Linux, etc., version will follow the release of v14.
 
#15 ·
Update!

Mastercook 14 will be available starting at 6:00 am on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 for download!

I believe current users of v11 may receive a discount.

Mastercook 14 includes a one year subscription to a new Mastercook web site that provides on-line storage of your recipes, accessible with any internet capable device
 
 
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#17 ·
Mastercook does have an Import Assistant that allows copy/paste.

Additionally, Mastercook will directly import text files with a minor amount of editing and formatting, not Word files, text, through the use of a generic import. It does require the separation of the sections of a recipe in a specific order as well as the insertion of a recipe start identifier such as @@@@@.

Also, through the use of http://www.notetab.com and some http://recipetools.gotdns.com/, the process can be easily automated.
 
#19 ·
Ok so I have read quite all of the responses and though they are all sound advise I will throw my two cents in anyway!

I have used a program called Resort Executive from http://www.resortsoftware.com for many years. I started with their program called resort chef and over the yeas as my roles have changed I updated to resort restaurant then resort hotel and exec. Read about them to determine which is best for you.

Why?......

Advantages - Although, as a few have said recipe costing is easy and can be done with a simple spread sheet (true!) I chose to begin a recipe database with these programs, and through trail and error I have come up with a system that works for me and I can take with me to any job in any part of the world without re-writing recipe costings. The program allows for accurate costings...... Far, far beyond and far more accurate than a spreadsheet will ever do for you. If you take the time input yields / wastage etc it's amazing what your actual costs are! The exec and restaurant programs allow for vendors, invoice input and updates your costing each and every time as well as the ability to do menu engineering, prep lists, market lists, recipe scaling, order list per supplier (that can be printed to a fax sheet). Recipe costing has become easier as now all my base stocks and base sauces, dressing etc are separated and I just add them to a new "plated" recipe and it has served me well..... I have over 500 recipes in there now and it is easy to search, i have categorized them into multiple segments ie - salads, vegetarian, Asian, French ...etc ....and if I want to find, say a vegan French salad I just click on those tabs and the list appears!

Down side - To get it set up takes time and occasional frustration! - Getting vendors in, each item, the cost and purchase weights etc is a lot of work. .....And I wish they had a cloud based search feature for a phone app!

The hotel and Executive version allows for multiple outlets, (executive version allows multiple venues) and labor costing (though I don't tend to use that feature). I have been part of three restaurant openings and a resort hotel with multiple outlets and banqueting over the past six yeas and with a few tweaks here and there it has been a great and accurate tool. Though it is only as accurate as the information you put into it.

...... and I'm obsessed with order!

Good luck!
 
#22 ·
It really depends on how intensive you need the program to be. The ideal system is tied into your POS so that inventory management is comprehensive, but this often requires expensive add-ons, especially with Halo or Aloha. Software like CostGuard, KitchenCut and MasterCook have a lot of features and are all fine products, with features that often extend into other operations. Simpler programs like CostGizmo are inexpensive but efficient calculators, with little learning curve, useful for most small restaurant and catering business. There are a lot of free spreadsheets, but they usually don't take care of the most tedious part of costing, which is conversions between weight and volume (or count). Since recipes are generally measured in volume but most goods are purchased by weight (at least in the U.S.), you want a calculator that can allow for easy conversions. Optimally, you should be able to enter the ingredients as purchased, establish a conversion once at any scale, and enter your recipes as made.

The question is really what do you want to do with the costing information. If it needs to dynamically integrate into your daily operations, then you'll need to put some money into comprehensive software that has all the whistles and bells you need. If you just need to maintain accurate Cost of Goods by recipe, a good Excel program or spreadsheet can serve your needs for under sixty bucks. It doesn't matter if the software has a thousand features, if you are only going to use a handful.
 
#26 ·
I wasn't referring to the company US foods, I was referring to the fact that Kitchen cut software was showing british pounds not us currency, and wanted to make sure the recipe food costs were based on US food cost, and not European.  Thanks for the input though
 
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