MenuCost is cloud-based food costing software for food and beverage businesses. It works out the true cost of every dish, drink and catering item you sell, so you can price your menu with confidence and run a more profitable business.
Instead of guessing costs or keeping complicated spreadsheets, you manage ingredients, recipes, staff costs and overhead in one place, and see exactly how much profit you make on every item.
With MenuCost you can
Build recipes with real ingredient costs, including wastage
See the true cost per serving: ingredients, packaging, labour and overhead
See how supplier price changes affect every recipe straight away
Spread rent, utilities, equipment and support staff fairly across your menu
Analyse margins across your whole menu and test changes with the What-If Simulator
Build catering quotes with the cost and profit already calculated
Track 14 major allergens across every recipe
Download a full Excel business report
Invite team members with tab-by-tab permissions
MenuCost runs at menucost.cloud in any web browser. There is nothing to install.
The first time you sign in, a short two-step setup asks for your business details. It takes 2 to 3 minutes, and you can change everything later in Account Settings.
Step 1: Business details
Field
What to enter
Business name
The name of your café, restaurant, bakery or food business
Owner name
Your full name as account owner
Business type
The type that best describes you, such as Coffee Shop, Bakery, Restaurant or Catering
Country
Where your business operates
Step 2: Currency and tax
Field
What to enter
Currency
Your local currency, such as SAR or AED
Tax name
The name of the tax in your region, such as VAT
Tax rate
The tax percentage, such as 15
Tax enabled
Turn on if you show tax in your pricing
Complete the second step to open your dashboard and start your free trial.
Follow this order the first time you set up MenuCost. Each step feeds the next, so your costs are complete when you build recipes.
Add your ingredients in Ingredients, with purchase prices, units and allergens. Use Bulk import if you have a spreadsheet.
Add your staff in Staff, marking kitchen and production staff as Direct and everyone else as Indirect.
Set up overhead in Overhead: rent, utilities, equipment, other costs and your monthly portions.
Build your menu items in Menu Items, adding ingredients, packaging and labour.
Review profitability in Profitability and on the Dashboard.
Download a report from Reports.
TipYou can start with ingredients only and add labour and overhead later. MenuCost totals whatever you've entered, but your margins are most accurate once all four cost layers are in.
ImportantChanging currency only changes how values are displayed. It does not convert your existing prices. If you switch currency after adding ingredients and menu items, update those prices yourself.
MenuCost supports 20 currencies:
Code
Currency
SAR
Saudi Riyal
AED
UAE Dirham
KWD
Kuwaiti Dinar
QAR
Qatari Riyal
BHD
Bahraini Dinar
OMR
Omani Rial
USD
US Dollar
GBP
British Pound
EUR
Euro
CAD
Canadian Dollar
AUD
Australian Dollar
INR
Indian Rupee
EGP
Egyptian Pound
JOD
Jordanian Dinar
TRY
Turkish Lira
PKR
Pakistani Rupee
PHP
Philippine Peso
SGD
Singapore Dollar
MYR
Malaysian Ringgit
LBP
Lebanese Pound
Number format
English: 1,234.56
European: 1.234,56
Date format
DD/MM/YYYY, common in the GCC, UK and Europe
MM/DD/YYYY, common in the United States
YYYY-MM-DD, the international standard
NotePrices in MenuCost are entered and shown without tax. Tax is handled separately when enabled.
Your target food cost is the highest food cost you want, as a percentage of the selling price. MenuCost uses it to colour-code items, flag items needing attention, and suggest prices.
Go to Account Settings, Preferences.
Enter your target in Target Food Cost %, for example 30.
Click Save.
Common targets, as a starting point:
Item type
Common target range
Coffee drinks
20% to 30%
Bakery items
25% to 35%
Restaurant main courses
28% to 35%
Catering
25% to 32%
Your target affects the colours in Profitability, the alerts on the Dashboard, the colours in the Excel report and the Suggested Price in each recipe.
Each account is set up for one business. If your businesses share a kitchen, you can organise recipes by category instead. For fully separate businesses, use a separate account for each.
Is my data secure?
Yes. Each account's data is kept separate and is only visible to you and the team members you invite.
Can I export my data?
Yes. Download the full Excel business report from the Reports tab at any time.
My settings won't save. What should I do?
Refresh the page and try again. If it still fails, clear your browser cache or try another browser, then contact support@menucost.net.
Your plan includes 1 admin user. Each additional team member is $16.99 per month, billed annually. The Subscription tab shows your total, including active team members. See Inviting a team member.
Every cost in MenuCost starts with your ingredient library: everything you buy and use, including packaging. Each ingredient stores its name, category, purchase price and quantity, purchase and usage units, supplier, allergens and price history.
Once an ingredient is in the library, you can add it to any recipe and MenuCost calculates its cost from the quantity used. Change its price once, and every recipe that uses it updates.
Getting units right keeps every recipe cost accurate. The purchase unit is how you buy an ingredient. The usage unit is how you measure it in a recipe. The purchase quantity is how many usage units one purchase contains.
Price per usage unit = Purchase price ÷ Purchase quantity
You buy
You measure in
Purchase quantity
Example price per unit
25 kg bag of flour at SAR 45
Grams
25,000
SAR 45 ÷ 25,000 = SAR 0.0018 per g
1 liter of milk at SAR 6.50
Millilitres
1,000
SAR 0.0065 per ml
1 dozen eggs at SAR 14
Pieces
12
SAR 1.17 per egg
Box of 50 cups at SAR 30
Pieces
50
SAR 0.60 per cup
MenuCost calculates the price per usage unit for you, marked as automatic. If you add 250 ml of milk to a recipe, MenuCost multiplies 250 by SAR 0.0065 to get SAR 1.63.
TipIf you buy and use an ingredient in the same unit, set the purchase quantity to 1.
MenuCost tracks 14 major allergens. Set them once on each ingredient, and they flow into every recipe that uses it.
Allergen
Common sources
Gluten
Wheat, rye, barley, oats
Dairy (milk)
Milk, cheese, butter, cream
Eggs
Whole eggs, egg white, egg yolk
Nuts
Almonds, cashews, walnuts, pistachios
Peanuts
Peanuts and peanut products
Sesame
Sesame seeds, tahini, sesame oil
Soy
Soya, soy sauce, tofu
Fish
All fish
Crustaceans
Prawns, crab, lobster, shrimp
Sulphites
Dried fruit, wine, vinegar
Celery
Celery, celeriac, celery seed
Mustard
Mustard seed, powder and sauce
Lupin
Lupin flour and seeds
Molluscs
Squid, oysters, mussels, clams
Contains, May contain or No
Contains: the ingredient definitely contains the allergen
May contain: a trace risk from shared production or processing
No: the allergen isn't present
Open the ingredient (or add a new one).
Go to the Allergen information section.
Set each allergen to Contains, May contain or No.
Click Save Ingredient.
ImportantAlways check allergens against your supplier's specification sheet. MenuCost's allergen data is only as accurate as the information you enter.
Every price change is recorded automatically, so you can see how costs have moved.
Open the ingredient with the pencil icon.
Scroll to Price History to see each change: old price, new price and date.
A history entry is created when you change a price by editing, or when an Excel import changes an existing ingredient's price. No entry is created for a new ingredient or when the price stays the same.
Open it in Excel or Google Sheets. It includes an instructions sheet and example rows.
2. Fill it in
Don't rename, remove or add columns
Delete the example rows
Use one of the 12 category names exactly as written
Enter prices as plain numbers, without currency symbols
Allergen columns accept Yes, May Contain or No. Blanks count as No.
Save as .xlsx. In Google Sheets, use File, Download, Microsoft Excel.
Column
Required
Name
Yes
Category
Yes
Purchase Unit
Yes
Purchase Price
Yes
Purchase Quantity
Yes
Usage Unit
Yes
Supplier Name
No
Notes
No
14 allergen columns (Contains Gluten, Contains Dairy and so on)
No
3. Import
Go to Ingredients and click Import from Excel.
Choose your file.
Review the preview, which flags any rows with problems.
Click Import Ingredients.
Existing ingredients
If a row's name matches an ingredient already in your library, the import updates that ingredient instead of creating a duplicate. Price changes are recorded in price history and every affected recipe recalculates.
Result
Meaning
Imported
A new ingredient was added
Updated
An existing ingredient was updated
Price changed
The price changed, history was recorded and recipes updated
Failed
The row couldn't be imported. The message explains why.
Common reasons a row fails: a required field is empty, the category isn't valid, the price isn't a number, or a matching name uses a different unit.
Each menu item is one dish, drink or product, built as a recipe. For every item MenuCost calculates, per serving: ingredient cost, packaging cost, labour cost, overhead, total cost, gross profit, profit margin, food cost % and a suggested price.
The cost panel updates live as you build, so you know the cost before you set a price.
The recipe builder has three sections: Recipe Ingredients, Packaging Items and Labour. Each starts with an empty row, ready to fill in.
Click the ingredient search box in a row and start typing.
Choose the ingredient. The unit fills in automatically.
Enter the quantity used in the whole recipe, not per serving.
Add a wastage % if part of the ingredient is lost in preparation.
Click + Add Ingredient for another row.
Wastage
Wastage covers what's lost in preparation, like peeling, trimming or evaporation. To end up with the usable amount, you need to start with more:
Effective quantity = Quantity ÷ (1 − Wastage % ÷ 100)
Line cost = Effective quantity × Unit price
Example: 100 g of onion with 20% wastage
100 ÷ 0.80 = 125 g needed
125 g × SAR 0.012 = SAR 1.50
NoteYou can't add the same ingredient twice. Increase the quantity on the existing row instead. A section always keeps at least one row.
Food cost % looks at ingredients only. Profit margin looks at the full cost, including labour and overhead. That's why a food cost of 30% doesn't mean a 70% margin: the gap is your packaging, labour and overhead.
NoteFor recipes with more than one serving, the panel also shows overhead per serving multiplied by the number of servings, for the whole batch.
Click the pencil icon, make your changes, and click Save Menu Item.
Copy
Copy an item to create a variation, such as a large size, an oat milk version or a delivery version with different packaging. Click the copy icon. A copy named [Name] (copy) opens in edit mode for you to rename and adjust.
Archive
Archive seasonal or paused items instead of deleting them. Click the archive icon. To find archived items, switch the list to Archived. To restore one, open it, set the status to Active and save.
Delete
Click the trash icon and confirm.
ImportantDeleted menu items can't be recovered. Archive instead if you might need the recipe again.
Click the download icon on any item. The PDF includes your business name and logo, the item details, the ingredient, packaging and labour breakdowns, overhead, the cost summary (cost, price, profit, margin, food cost %), allergens and the date.
No ingredient has been selected yet, or the quantities are 0.
My price is below my cost. What should I do?
The margin shows in red. Use the Suggested Price as a guide, or test price changes with the What-If Simulator in Profitability.
Can I add an ingredient that isn't in my library?
Not directly. Add it in Ingredients first, then it appears in the recipe builder.
Why don't my ingredient rows add up to the panel total?
Rows show the cost for the whole batch. The panel shows the cost per serving, divided by serving size.
Can one item have a different overhead from the rest?
Overhead per item comes from your Overhead settings and applies to all items. You can override it by editing the overhead cost field on a specific menu item.
Every staff member counts toward your costs in one of two ways: directly, through the labour in each recipe, or indirectly, through overhead. MenuCost captures the full cost of employment: salary, allowances, end of service provision, social insurance and health insurance.
Enter the base pay before allowances. It must be more than 0.
Monthly working hours (Direct staff on monthly pay)
This turns a monthly salary into an hourly rate for recipes. The default is 208 hours, about 8 hours a day over 26 working days. Enter the hours this person actually works.
Hourly rate = (Monthly salary + Housing + Transport + Food + Communications allowances) ÷ Monthly working hours
The total monthly cost is what this person costs your business each month. For Indirect staff it feeds overhead. For Direct staff, the hourly rate used in recipes is based on salary plus allowances (see Pay and hourly rate).
Click the pencil icon, update any sub-tab, and click Save Staff Member.
For Direct staff, the hourly rate and every recipe using them update. For Indirect staff, the overhead per item updates across all menu items. A notification confirms the update.
Deactivate (recommended when someone leaves)
Open the staff member.
Set Status to Inactive and save.
They disappear from the recipe builder and from overhead, and their history is kept.
Delete
Click the trash icon and confirm.
ImportantDeleted staff can't be recovered. Recipes that used a deleted Direct staff member keep an empty labour row with no cost, so review those recipes.
Overhead is every business cost that isn't tied to one recipe: rent, electricity, water, gas, equipment, subscriptions, insurance and support staff. MenuCost adds them up and divides by how many items you make in a month to get one number, the overhead per item, which is added to every menu item.
Overhead per item = Total monthly overhead ÷ Monthly portions
Section
What it covers
Rent
Rent and the share of your space used for production
Utilities
Electricity, water and gas
Equipment
Monthly depreciation of equipment
Other overheads
Fixed recurring costs and variable monthly costs
Overhead summary
The total, your monthly portions and the overhead per item
Pricing from ingredients alone leads to underpricing. Example: a café costs a cappuccino at SAR 3.50 in ingredients and sells it for SAR 12, expecting SAR 8.50 profit. Once barista time and its share of rent, utilities, equipment and other costs are counted, the true cost is SAR 9.50, and the real profit is SAR 2.50 a cup.
MenuCost includes overhead in every cost breakdown automatically, so this gap doesn't happen.
Choose the payment period: weekly, monthly, quarterly, every 6 months or yearly.
Set the production allocation % (below).
Optionally add the effective date and lease review date, and save.
Payment period
Monthly equivalent
Weekly
Amount × 4.33
Monthly
Amount
Quarterly
Amount ÷ 3
Every 6 months
Amount ÷ 6
Yearly
Amount ÷ 12
Production allocation %
Only the space used to make food should be charged to recipes. Add up the production areas (kitchen, prep, bar, ingredient storage) and divide by the total area.
Production allocation % = Production area ÷ Total area × 100
Rent in overhead = Monthly rent × Production allocation %
Example: 35% of SAR 5,000 = SAR 1,750 a month
NoteIf you set a review date, MenuCost reminds you as it approaches so you can plan for a rent change.
Enter your recent monthly bills for electricity, water and gas. MenuCost uses a rolling average so one unusually high or low month doesn't distort your costs.
Go to Overhead, Utilities.
Enter each month's bill by type.
Save. The utilities total updates.
TipAdd each new bill as it arrives to keep the average current.
Costs that stay the same each period, such as a marketing retainer, software subscriptions or insurance. Enter the amount and how often you pay. MenuCost converts it to a monthly equivalent.
Variable monthly
Costs that change month to month, such as gas refills or waste collection. Enter the last three months and MenuCost uses the average. For example SAR 350, 300 and 400 average to SAR 350.
Staff overhead
The total monthly cost of your Indirect staff is added automatically from the Staff tab. Direct staff are excluded because they're already costed in recipes.
Enter the total number of items you make and sell in an average month, across your whole menu. The more portions, the less overhead each one carries: the same SAR 17,116.67 over 5,000 portions is SAR 3.42 per item.
ImportantUse a realistic estimate. Too high understates your costs; too low overstates them. Review it when your sales volume changes.
The overhead per item is added to every menu item's cost panel as the Overhead line. When you change rent, a bill, equipment, other overheads, indirect staff or monthly portions, MenuCost recalculates the overhead per item and updates every menu item, then confirms with a notification.
NoteOverhead per item is already per serving, so it isn't divided again by serving size.
The Profitability tab shows every active menu item side by side with its cost, price, profit, food cost and margin, grouped by category. Everything updates automatically as your costs change.
Food cost % only counts ingredients. Margin counts everything: ingredients, packaging, labour and overhead. An item can have a healthy food cost and still a thin margin if it takes a lot of staff time or packaging.
NoteFor recipes with several servings, all figures are per serving.
Summary cards show each category's number of items, average margin and average food cost. Use them to see which parts of your menu carry your profit, and which need attention as a group.
Items with a food cost above your target are flagged so they don't get missed. For each one, MenuCost shows the item, its food cost compared with your target, and its margin.
What you can do
Raise the price. The Suggested Price in the recipe shows the price that meets your target.
Adjust the portion or recipe
Switch to a better-value ingredient or supplier
Keep it as is, if it brings customers in, but know what it costs you
The simulator sits next to the profitability table and lets you test changes across your whole menu without touching your real data.
Slider
Range
What it changes
Ingredient cost change
−50% to +100%
Ingredient and packaging costs in every recipe
Labour cost change
−50% to +100%
Labour cost in every recipe
Selling price change
−30% to +100%
Every selling price
Open Profitability.
Move one or more sliders.
Watch the food cost, profit and margin of every item update.
Click Reset to return to your real numbers.
For example: if chicken is about to rise 15%, set the ingredient slider to +15% to see which items cross your target, then move the price slider to find the increase that brings them back.
NoteThe simulator never changes your recipes, prices or settings. To make a real change, update the ingredient, staff member or price directly.
MenuCost highlights your overall menu averages, your best performers by margin, and your weakest. Use them to decide what to promote, what to reprice and what to review.
Menu engineering combines two things: how profitable an item is and how popular it is. MenuCost gives you the profitability. Popularity comes from your sales, for example your POS reports.
Group
Profit
Popularity
What to do
Stars
High
High
Keep, feature and protect quality
Plowhorses
Low
High
Reprice carefully or lower the cost
Puzzles
High
Low
Promote, rename or reposition
Dogs
Low
Low
Rework or remove
Sort the profitability table by margin.
Mark each item's popularity using your sales data.
Place each item in a group and decide your action.
Test price changes in the What-If Simulator before you update the menu.
Each quote is built from recipes in your library, so every line carries its true cost per serving. As you build, MenuCost shows the event total, deposit, estimated cost, estimated profit and price per guest, before you commit to a price.
Each item has its own quantity: a breakfast might need 60 croissants and 40 coffees. If the version you'll serve differs from the standard recipe, mark the item as modified.
NoteItems must exist as recipes first, because the quote takes its cost from the recipe. Add new items in Menu Items, then they're available in every quote.
Extra charges
Add delivery, setup, staff and equipment rental charges as they apply. Each has its own field, so you only include what's relevant.
The top of the Catering Quotes tab shows your total quotes, win rate and open quotes, so you can see what's in progress and how well your quotes convert.
Open the .xlsx file in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.
The workbook has seven styled, colour-coded sheets covering your menu items, recipe details, ingredients, profitability, staff and payroll, overhead, and an allergen matrix. The allergen matrix shows red for Contains, yellow for May contain and green for allergen-free.
NoteThe report is a snapshot of your data when you click Download. After making changes, download it again.
TipDownload a copy at the end of every month, and after any big change such as a supplier increase, a new hire or a menu update.
You can invite team members, such as a head chef, kitchen manager or accountant, to use your MenuCost account. For each person you choose, tab by tab, whether they can view it, edit it, or neither.
Each additional team member costs $16.99 per month, billed annually. See Paying for team members.