Restaurant Profitability Blog

Recipe Costing Technology Made by Chefs, for Chefs

Recipe Costing Technology Made by Chefs, for Chefs

August 5, 2021 Orderly , , ,

An easy way to ensure you are profitable is to align the cost of your recipes with your selling price.

At the end of the day running a restaurant is a numbers game. Plain and simple, but let’s be honest, not everyone is a numbers person.

I remember costing out recipes and menus in my old kitchen.

I would spend hours in the kitchen like a mad scientist in his lab, diving into math problems, the likes of which I haven’t seen since high school. I was converting ounces to quarts or asking myself “How many grams in a fluid cup?”

I was portioning, cutting, measuring and weighing the breakdown of every ingredient in my recipes, down to the grain of rice. “I would have the most comprehensive recipes ever!” I thought.

After HOURS of work, I was finally able to sit back in the glory of my achievement and look at my finalized menu.

That’s when I began to realize that the margins on some of my recipes weren’t where they once had been. With the rising prices of ingredients, some of my most popular menu items were LOSING me money. To top it all off, my distributors were sending substitutions for products I had never purchased before.

This meant that if one ingredient changed or there was a price increase, I would have to go back into my spreadsheets and constantly update product changes and prices. What a headache.

Now some restaurants are blessed to have full time staff members to manage the numbers.

But not me.

Aside from being a chef, I unwillingly also signed up to be the in-house plumber, fridge repairman, and personal therapist for the wait staff. On top of that I was also expected to be the numbers person.

The number of hats I was wearing aside from running the kitchen was growing, and all the moving parts involved in costing out my menu were completely out of my control. So unfortunately, like many chefs, recipe costing got put on the back burner.

The Problem

The problem with recipe costing is that there are so many variables constantly changing.

Ingredient prices are skyrocketing, vendors are substituting ingredients you typically buy due to product shortages, and on a busy Friday night you run out to the local store to pick up supplies.

The price you paid for ground beef pre-pandemic is nowhere close to what you are paying today, meaning your margins have shrunk immensely on your burger.

Unless you are inspecting every invoice that comes through your door with a magnifying glass and noting ingredient price trends, you have no idea what menu items are costing you today.

This is bad. Every day that you are unaware of your profit margins is a day that you could potentially be bleeding money!

The Solution

Hopefully by now you get the gist of this post. Recipe Costing is SO important but also extremely difficult to maintain.

Orderly was developed for chefs, by chefs, to be the easiest and most reliable food costing tool on the market. The less time you spend in our software the more time you have to do what you truly love!

Simply build your recipes in Orderly once.  One time.

That’s it.

With every invoice that comes into the system, Orderly will automatically update the ingredient price showing you the true cost of the recipe today and the current margins based off your selling price!

This allows you to make many updates and revisions as a problem arises.

Buying a new ingredient or your vendor sent a substitution? No problem!

Orderly groups together substitute ingredients with the products you typically buy.

This means that regardless of whether you bought Hormel Apple Wood Smoked Bacon last week or Oscar Myer Apple Wood Smoked Bacon this week, Orderly will group these like items together and use them interchangeably in your recipes depending on which item you bought most recently, giving you the most up today price for every menu item you build in Orderly!

Recipe costing is something that NEEDS to be done to ensure you are running a profitable business.

FINALLY, a recipe costing solution resilient to substitutions and supplier changes. 

Say goodbye to daily recipe maintenance!

Ready to put your recipe costing on autopilot and receive up-to-date food cost insights?

Reach out today and our team will be happy to discuss how Orderly can help!

OrderlyRecipe Costing Technology Made by Chefs, for Chefs
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The Technology Solution to Your Inventory Troubles

The Technology Solution to Your Inventory Troubles

July 15, 2021 Orderly ,

 Orderly experts recently sat down with Steve Moody, our Digital Product Marketing Manager, to discuss his experience with inventory during his career as a Chef.

Find out how he tackled the tedious task and the game changing solution he found that made the process quick and easy.

Taking inventory was like nails on a chalk board. While chewing on a broken bottle. In a burning building.

But worse.

Inventory management for a restaurant can be a cross between gibberish and long division. In fact, it’s such a pain that the task can often fall to the bottom of the to-do list, where it sits unchecked for the week. Then weeks turn into months.

I don’t need to explain why taking inventory is important. You know it’s important.

I remember my old restaurant days. Sunday night was our designated inventory day. The kitchen team would break up the inventory list so we could get through it quicker. I’d take the walk-in; Jenny took dry goods; Ben took the alcohol closet; we all rushed to count what was on the shelves and filled in our spreadsheets.

Needless to say, the problem with our inventory process was immediately clear.

Nothing ever lined up correctly.

Big ticket items were always being counted lower than expected and out of nowhere someone would stumble upon three 50lb bags of AP flour.

Our kitchen was a disorganized mess. Items were spread out EVERYWHERE, making counting them extremely difficult.

Lemons? They could be found in the bar area, walk-in fridge, even dry storage.

See that case of avocados over there?  I would count it as half a case. Jenny would count it as half a case half the time and two-thirds the rest of the times and Ben walked right by it just trying to get out of the restaurant before midnight. Counting discrepancies were unavoidable.

At the end of the day, we were spending so much time taking inventory and the information we received was still wrong.

By the time we got our Cost of Goods Sold and inventory for May it was the second week of June. We were always reacting on old information instead of course-correcting immediately.

There had to be a better way.

Enter Orderly.

The solution to this inventory problem is to implement a system that transcends the variability of your staff, doesn’t require hours of work on your end and gives you up to date reporting so that you can make decisions today before you have a problem tomorrow.

Orderly simulates an inventory and backs into your weekly Cost of Goods Sold without you having to count a single product! No more relying on Ben and Jenny to take inventory!

By simply snapping photos of invoices and entering POS sales data, you will receive weekly Cost of Goods Sold, highlighting where potential problems may be costing you!

Prefer to take a physical inventory? Orderly has you covered!

Easily set up your inventory by using Orderly’s categories OR build custom “shelf to sheet” inventory lists. Milk lives in the walk-in, flour in Dry Storage, you get the idea.

As you count, on hand dollar amounts will be automatically calculated and beginning and ending inventories will show you exactly what you went through over a given period.

Orderly will continue working for you, whether your team has hours to spend counting inventory this week or they need to rely on our auto-COGS next week.

Rising prices of ingredients, over ordering and product waste can all lead to a high food cost.

Knowing that you have a high food cost is one thing. Identifying why your food cost is high is like finding a needle in a haystack. Orderly is going to help you shrink that haystack, so you can easily find the needle and the culprit for your rising food costs.

Would you rather spend 5 hours a week counting inventory or 5 minutes a day in Orderly?

Schedule a live walkthrough of Orderly’s food cost management solution!

OrderlyThe Technology Solution to Your Inventory Troubles
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Work Smarter – Not Harder. Recipe Costing Made Easy

Work Smarter – Not Harder. Recipe Costing Made Easy

May 20, 2021 Andy Rosenbloom

We’re probably not the first to tell you that recipe costing is one of the critical practices undertaken by successful restaurant operators, right? However, we may be the first to tell you that it’s a time-sucking detail that many use incorrectly.

Before you aim for that little “x” on the top tab, let’s take a closer look at just what we mean.

The Process of Recipe Costing

First, we’d like to share that recipe costing is not a one-time occurrence—it’s an ongoing process. When food costs change with the rise and fall of market rates, your recipe costs change.

When suppliers change, your recipe costs change. When you decide to add a little more oregano and a little less thyme, your recipe costs change.

We’re sure you’re getting the picture.

But wait, there’s more.

First, you list out all of your ingredients for one of your dishes. Second, you list the purchased unit and the price per unit. Now, factor in your yield to come up with your actual unit cost.

From there, you can calculate your unit serving cost by converting pounds to cups, cups to tablespoons, pounds to teaspoons, etc.

Now times your portion size by your unit serving. Then add up all your ingredients.

Oh, wait, don’t forget your waste and overhead percentages. Phew, I’m tired.

Do you know why you’re doing all of this? Is it because someone decided that restauranteurs and operators have too much time on their hands?

The actual purpose behind plate costing is so that you can price your menu items in a manner that ensures you’ll make money in the restaurant game—keeping your food costs in the magical realm of 25-35%, depending on the type of restaurant.

And while we are all about data, we prefer data that is usable and reliable. How often are you going to calculate recipe costs and then change menu prices to reflect your findings?

While an essential and integral part of a restaurant’s success, knowing your food costs and cost of goods sold (COGS) on an ongoing basis can result in increased profits and much less painful number crunching.

Food Costs Vs. Cost of Goods Sold

COGS is the cost of the products used to make the products you sell. Let’s say you’re going to calculate your COGS and food costs every week (the minimum amount recommended). The formula reads:

Beginning value of inventory at the start of the week + purchases made during the week – the value of inventory at the end of the week.

Now, to determine food cost, divide your COGS by your total food sales and times it by 100 to view your food cost percentage.

That number will tell you if you’ve hit the food cost you’re aiming for. Are you in the 25-35% mark? As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

Increasing Profits

As much as you enjoy the restaurant industry, at the end of the day, you have to make a profit. While margins are thin, it can be done. If you perform the calculations and find higher food costs than anticipated, you’ve got a few options.

You can adjust your menu prices, find suppliers with the same quality products at lower costs, buy in bulk, or reduce portion sizes.

Once you’ve determined which change is best for your business, be sure to track your sales and food costs and see how the changes impacted them.

An Easier Way

If you’re still counting inventory via tally sheets and long hours in walk-in refrigerators and dry storage, you’re probably wondering how this calculation can save you time over recipe costing.

You’re also probably not in the mood to hear that food costing must be done regularly for operators to reap their monetary reward.

What if we told you that it doesn’t have to be so hard? What if you could take a look at a simple, organized dashboard that lets you know your food costs every week?

That’s where we come in. The Orderly Food Cost Dashboard contains the key metrics you need: food spend, sales, purchases, and COGS. And it’s updated every week.

Simply snap photos or import your invoices and update your weekly sales via your POS, and Orderly will do the rest for you.

Don’t live in the dark ages. Bring some Orderly to your life and business.

Andy RosenbloomWork Smarter – Not Harder. Recipe Costing Made Easy
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How to Calculate Your Restaurant Inventory Par Levels

How to Calculate Your Restaurant Inventory Par Levels

October 11, 2018 Ben Baggett

Your restaurant’s inventory par levels and food costs go hand in hand.

It’s one of the hardest things to juggle… Having enough inventory to meet demand each week, but also keeping it low, as to avoid stockpiling or food waste.

We mentioned this in our last article, but keeping track of inventory (and your par levels) is essential to the success of your restaurant.

Lower inventory levels help:

Ben BaggettHow to Calculate Your Restaurant Inventory Par Levels
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What is Food Cost Variance and How Do You Control it?

What is Food Cost Variance and How Do You Control it?

September 27, 2018 Ben Baggett

How often do you check the prices of your ingredients?

Every delivery? Once a week? Once a month? You’re expecting your food cost to be around a very specific number. Your supplier didn’t mention any major changes in price, so why should you have to worry? You’re getting a good deal after all, right?

But prices are seasonal, and will often change. Small increments here and there. Sometimes they may go unnoticed. Sometimes you may catch them.

In an ideal world, your food cost would be exactly what you expect every single time. But unfortunately, that’s not how the supplier industry works.

So what is food cost variance and how can you keep it under control? Below we’ve outlined what food cost variance (as called cost variance) is and a few ways you can keep it under control.

Ben BaggettWhat is Food Cost Variance and How Do You Control it?
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How to Calculate Your Inventory Turnover Rate (And Why it’s Important)

How to Calculate Your Inventory Turnover Rate (And Why it’s Important)

September 20, 2018 Ben Baggett

Do you know if you’re using your inventory efficiently?

Or how many days you’re holding inventory?

Managing your restaurant’s inventory sometimes get pushed to the backburner.

Invoices stack up. Servers call in. Managers show up late. And payroll has to get done.

You have a million things to think about every day and inventory management isn’t always a top priority.

But understanding your inventory is vital to the success of your restaurant.

You should have a thorough understanding of your inventory turnover rate, how many days its held on average, and how that compares to others in your market.

Ben BaggettHow to Calculate Your Inventory Turnover Rate (And Why it’s Important)
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Restaurant Food Waste: The Silent Killer

Restaurant Food Waste: The Silent Killer

September 13, 2018 Danny Barry

You’re busy.

Well, ever since you opened your restaurant, you’re never not busy.

You’re being pulled in a million different directions at all times. You’re covering for a waiter who skipped his shift. A customer is causing a scene. A fight just broke out in the kitchen.

With all that going on, you just haven’t had the time – or energy – to focus on reducing your restaurant’s food waste.

You’re not keeping track of your orders. Instead, you’re just placing the same ones over and over. Who has time to analyze all that stuff?

Well, when you don’t analyze that “stuff”, you’re throwing out hundreds of dollars a week in wasted food.

And you have nothing in place to help with your restaurant food waste management.

But, you can reduce food waste in your restaurant in a ton of ways, including inventory management, smarter ordering decisions, and more.

Stop letting restaurant food waste kill your profits.

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Danny BarryRestaurant Food Waste: The Silent Killer
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5 Processes for How to Lower Your Restaurant Food Costs

5 Processes for How to Lower Your Restaurant Food Costs

September 5, 2018 Danny Barry

According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry is projected to reach $997 billion in sales in 2023.

So.. why are you still struggling to turn a profit?

It’s probably because you’re not taking contol of your restaurant food costs.

Make a change and save your restaurant.

Here are a few places to start:

Danny Barry5 Processes for How to Lower Your Restaurant Food Costs
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