Recipe costing for one kitchen is a bill of materials. Recipe costing for a group is that bill, shared, with a price that is allowed to differ by branch. The single-dish method, yield, and a free template are in how to cost a recipe. AKLI is built for the second problem: one method, local invoices, and a plate cost that moves when a delivery does. The product for that network is software for multi-branch groups.
Build the recipe so it can be reused
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Write quantities in stock units (g, ml, each), not in “a handful.”
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Put yield on the ingredient or the sub-recipe. If 1 kg of raw product yields 800 g, the dish uses 800 g of the yielded item or 1 kg including the loss. Pick one convention and do not mix them.
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Cost sub-recipes (sauces, doughs, marinades, butchered proteins) as their own items, then add them to the selling recipe by quantity. Copying the sauce ingredients into twelve dishes means twelve edits when the butter price moves.
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Keep a batch size on produced items so a central kitchen can cost a hotel pan and an outlet can deplete portions.
Price is not the same as the method
The recipe (what is in the dish) should be identical if the guest is promised the same plate. The purchase price often is not. A group buying locally in Doha and Dubai should not pretend those invoices are one cell. Share the recipe. AKLI costs recipes at weighted average cost on the branch that holds the stock: a new delivery at a new price moves the average. Theoretical food cost at each site then uses that site’s average.
When the price changes, every recipe that contains the ingredient has to move. Doing that by hand is why cost cards are updated “quarterly.” AKLI recalculates from the weighted average so the card is a view, not a second data entry. See recipe costing.
Worked sketch
A sauce recipe uses 2 kg of a base and yields 1.8 kg after reduction. A selling dish uses 90 g of sauce. The sauce cost per kilogram is (ingredient cost of the batch) ÷ 1.8. The dish carries 0.09 times that kilogram cost, plus its other ingredients. If the base price rises, the sauce and every dish that uses it rise together. If only one branch received the higher price, only that branch’s theoretical cost rises.
Connect it to what you sold
Recipe cost times quantity sold is theoretical food cost. It becomes a management number when you subtract it from actual COGS. Without sales quantities (from a POS import or a CSV) you still have a plate cost, which is enough to price a menu. You do not have variance. AKLI treats the import as optional on purpose. The comparison with a cost typed into a till is AKLI versus POS-only costing.
Central production
If a commissary produces the sauce, cost it there, transfer the yielded sauce as an item, and let the outlet’s recipe consume that item. Do not cost the raw base again at the outlet or the group pays for the butter twice on paper. Branch stock and transfers are covered under multi-branch inventory, cloud kitchens, and central production.
Questions operators ask
Should every branch use the same ingredient price?
The recipe should be identical if the guest is promised the same plate. The purchase price often is not. Share the recipe. AKLI costs recipes at weighted average cost on the branch that holds the stock. A new delivery at a new price moves the average. Theoretical food cost at each site then uses that site’s average.
Where does yield go on a sauce?
A sauce that uses 2 kg of a base and yields 1.8 kg after reduction is costed per kilogram as the ingredient cost of the batch divided by 1.8. A dish that uses 90 g carries 0.09 times that kilogram cost, plus its other ingredients.
Is a plate cost the same as variance?
Recipe cost times quantity sold is theoretical food cost. Without sales quantities, from a POS import or a CSV, you still have a plate cost. You do not have variance.