Know what every dish costs to make
Build a recipe for each dish from its ingredients and SeroPOS works out what it costs you to make. When ingredient prices move, you can update the menu price from the recipe for one product or the whole list.
Recipe costing in SeroPOS
Ingredients and quantities
List each ingredient with its quantity and unit, including sub-units such as grams of a kilo.
Groups or steps
Organise ingredients into groups or production steps, each with its own name and description.
Waste and extra cost
Add a waste percentage and an extra cost as a percentage of ingredients for packaging or labour.
Cost from purchases
Ingredient costs come from what you pay suppliers, so recipe cost follows real prices.
Update selling prices
Update a product's price from its recipe cost, one product at a time or in bulk.
Copy a recipe
Start a new recipe from an existing one, such as a large pizza built from the medium.
Know the real cost of every plate
Menu prices are often set once and left alone while cheese, oil and meat go up. Recipe costing in SeroPOS keeps the numbers honest. Each recipe is tied to a product or one of its variations. You list the ingredients, which are products in your catalogue, with how much of each goes in. SeroPOS multiplies those quantities by the ingredients' purchase cost and gives you the cost of the dish.
The ingredient quantities can use sub-units, so a recipe can call for 150 grams from a cheese you buy by the kilo. Ingredients that are made in-house, such as a sauce or a dough, can have their own recipes too, so their cost carries through into the dishes that use them and the whole menu stays costed.
Build a recipe
Open Manufacturing › Recipe in the back office and choose the product or variation, or copy from an existing recipe to save time. Add ingredients with their quantity and unit. Bigger recipes can be split into ingredient groups or production steps, each with a step name, a description and its own ingredients, which doubles as a prep sheet for the kitchen.
Then set the waste percentage, an extra cost as a percentage of ingredient cost, the total output quantity and any written instructions. View recipe shows the full breakdown. Waste covers trimmings and spills, and extra cost covers things like packaging, gas or labour that you want built into the cost of every portion.
- Product or variation the recipe makes
- Ingredients with quantity and sub-unit
- Ingredient groups or production steps
- Waste %, extra cost % and total output
- Recipe instructions
Set prices from the recipe
Once a dish has a cost, you can update its selling price from the recipe. Do it for one product while you are looking at it, or use the bulk update to refresh many products at once after a supplier price rise. Because ingredient costs follow your purchase prices, the recipe cost moves when you record a new purchase at a higher or lower price.
This keeps your food cost percentage close to the target you set, without a spreadsheet on the side. When a supplier puts up the price of a key ingredient, you can see straight away which dishes it touches and whether their prices still cover the new cost. Then decide whether to change the price, the portion or the supplier.
Recipes in the rest of SeroPOS
Recipes also drive production. When you run a batch of sauce, dough or baked goods in Manufacturing › Production, SeroPOS pulls the ingredients from the recipe, takes them out of stock and adds the finished product at the computed cost. The Manufacturing Report then shows total production and its cost, which also feeds profit and loss.
Recipes and production are part of the Pro plan. Pro is $50 a month for one location and five users, and you can try recipes and production during the 14-day free trial without entering a card. Start with your five best sellers, since they carry most of your food cost, then work through the rest of the menu.
Frequently asked questions
How does SeroPOS calculate the cost of a dish?
It multiplies each ingredient's quantity in the recipe by that ingredient's purchase cost, adds the waste percentage and any extra cost you set as a percentage of ingredients, and divides by the recipe's output quantity. The result is the cost of each unit you sell.
Can I update menu prices from recipe costs?
Yes. You can update a product's selling price from its recipe cost one product at a time, or update many products at once in bulk. This is useful after a supplier changes prices on a key ingredient. You decide when to apply the change.
Can a recipe use grams when I buy by the kilo?
Yes. Recipe ingredients take a quantity and a sub-unit, so you can buy cheese by the kilogram and use 150 grams in a dish, as long as the sub-unit is set up on the unit. Set up the sub-unit first under Units.
Which plan includes recipe costing?
Recipes and production are part of the Pro plan, at $50 a month for one location and five users. You can try them during the 14-day free trial without entering a card, which is a good time to cost your best-selling dishes and see how close their prices are to target.
Can recipes have steps?
Yes. Ingredients can be organised into groups or production steps. Each step has a name, a description and its own ingredients, which makes the recipe useful as a prep sheet as well as a cost sheet. Staff can view the recipe for guidance.