Food cost calculator

Cost of goods sold

COGS = opening inventory + purchases − closing inventory

Food cost percentage

Food cost % = COGS ÷ food sales × 100

Worked example

12,000 + 8,000 − 9,000 = 11,000 COGS. 11,000 ÷ 35,000 food sales = 31.4%. Illustration, not a customer result.

What each input means

Opening and closing inventory are the food you counted, valued at cost. Purchases are supplier invoices for food that landed in the same period, plus transfers in if you treat them as purchases, minus transfers out. That inventory identity is the COGS formula. Food sales are the retail sales of food in that same period. Keep the count dates and the sales dates aligned. A week of sales against a month of invoices is not a food cost percentage.

Leave beverage out of food sales if the percentage is meant to manage the kitchen. Leave labor out of the numerator. A credit note booked in the next period overstates purchases in this one. A transfer the commissary sent and the outlet did not receive moves the percentage to the wrong branch. Those cases are written up in how to calculate food cost percentage and purchasing variance and goods received.

Theoretical cost and variance

Theoretical food cost is recipe cost multiplied by quantity sold. It is not a substitute for COGS. Plate cost itself is how to cost a recipe. If you enter a theoretical percentage, variance on this page is in percentage points: actual food cost percentage minus that figure. It is not a SAR amount. A positive variance means actual ran higher than the recipes explained. The gap can be waste, portioning, comps, a bad count, or an invoice. The calculator does not name which. Read theoretical versus actual food cost and waste and variance.

Opening inventory 12,000, purchases 8,000, closing inventory 9,000, food sales 35,000. Cost of goods sold is 11,000. Actual food cost is 31.4%. If theoretical food cost for the same week was 28%, variance is 3.4 percentage points. These figures are an illustration. AKLI runs the same identity per branch from your counts, invoices, and recipes. See food cost control.

This is one of five free calculators. To turn a target percentage into a menu price with VAT and rounding, use the menu price calculator; to set a par and a reorder point, the par level calculator; to cost what the kitchen throws away, the food waste cost calculator; to add or remove GCC VAT, the VAT calculator. Published food cost medians, with sources, are on the statistics page. All of them are listed on free tools.

Use the calculator

Turn an opening count, purchases, a closing count, and food sales into cost of goods sold and a food cost percentage. An optional theoretical percentage shows the gap. Inputs stay in the link.

1. Align the period. Use the same start and end for the opening count, the closing count, purchases, and food sales. A week of sales against a month of invoices is not a food cost percentage.
2. Value stock at cost. Opening and closing inventory are the food you counted, valued at cost, not at menu price.
3. Add purchases that landed. Purchases are supplier invoices for food in that period, plus transfers in if you treat them as purchases, minus transfers out. A credit note belongs in the period it corrects.
4. Divide by food sales. Cost of goods sold equals opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory. Food cost percentage equals that cost divided by food sales, times 100. Leave beverage out of food sales if the percentage is meant to manage the kitchen. Leave labor out of the numerator.
5. Compare with theoretical cost if you have it. Theoretical food cost is recipe cost multiplied by quantity sold. Variance on this page is in percentage points: actual food cost percentage minus the theoretical percentage you type. It is not a currency amount. The gap can be waste, portioning, comps, a count, or an invoice. The calculator does not name which.

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