Menu Profitability Analysis
See every item's margin — by category, by cost, by profit
The Profitability tab shows every menu item's cost, price, profit, food cost percentage, and margin — grouped by category, sortable by any column, and auto-flagged by performance. Know exactly which items are carrying your menu and which ones need attention.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Costing individual recipes tells you the cost — the Profitability tab shows you the picture
The Profitability tab brings every item together in one ranked, sortable view. Category summary cards show average margin and food cost percentage per section of the menu. The item table shows cost, price, profit, food cost percentage, and margin for every item side by side. A Suggestions panel highlights what the data is telling you. Everything updates automatically whenever a recipe or ingredient cost changes.
Example: A restaurant's Main Course category has 3 items averaging 77.4% margin and 19.6% food cost. Starters average 63.8% margin at 22.9% food cost. Salads average 59.5% at 33.7% food cost — flagged in amber because the food cost is approaching the 35% threshold. The Suggestions panel surfaces this: "Main Course is your best category with 77.4% average margin." The category cards make the comparison visible in seconds, without any manual calculation.
Menu Profitability Analysis gives you a clear view of every item's margin so you can focus on what's actually working — and fix what isn't.
HOW IT WORKS
Three things the Profitability tab shows you simultaneously
Category summary cards — your menu's performance by section
Each category on your menu (Main Course, Starters, Salads, Desserts, etc.) gets its own summary card showing the number of items, average margin percentage, and average food cost percentage. The food cost badge is colour-coded — green when healthy, amber when approaching the threshold. At a glance you can see which category is strongest and which needs a review.
Sortable item table — every metric for every item
Below the category cards, every active menu item is listed with six columns: Item name and category, Cost per serving, Selling price, Profit, Food Cost %, and Margin. Every column is sortable — click any header to reorder by that metric. The food cost percentage is shown as a colour-coded badge so performance flags are visible without reading every number. Margin values in green immediately identify your strongest performers.
Suggestions panel — what the data is telling you
The Suggestions panel reads your profitability data and surfaces the most useful insight from it — which category is performing best, which items may need repricing, or where your food cost is trending above target. The suggestion updates automatically as your data changes, so it always reflects the current state of your menu rather than a static note.
REAL EXAMPLE
What your menu profitability view looks like
A restaurant's full menu — category summary cards, item table with food cost badges and margin values, the legend for colour coding, and the live Suggestions panel.
The table is sorted by Margin descending — the Classic Beef Burger at 85.4% margin and 11.4% food cost is the standout performer. The Grilled Chicken Salad's food cost badge is amber at 33.7% — not critical, but approaching the threshold. The Suggestions panel names Main Course as the strongest category. All of this is visible in one view, without opening a single individual recipe.
WHAT YOU GET
What changes when you can see every item's margin
- Category performance at a glance. Summary cards for each menu section show average margin and food cost percentage with colour-coded badges. Know which part of your menu is carrying the most profit without reading through every item.
- Every metric for every item, sortable by any column. Cost, price, profit, food cost percentage, and margin — all visible for every item in one table. Sort by food cost to find your most expensive items. Sort by margin to rank your best performers. Click once to reorder.
- Food cost badges flag items before they become problems. The colour-coded food cost percentage badge on each row — green for healthy, amber for approaching threshold, red for above target — means problem items are visible without calculating anything. You see them the moment you open the tab.
- Suggestions that read your data for you. The Suggestions panel identifies your best-performing category and surfaces actionable observations from your profitability data — so the insight is delivered to you, not buried in numbers you have to interpret yourself.
QUESTIONS
Food Cost Percentage (FC%) is the proportion of the selling price taken up by the cost of the item. A 20% FC% means 20% of revenue goes to cover the item's production cost. Margin is the inverse — an 80% margin means 80% of revenue is retained as gross profit. They always move in opposite directions: a lower FC% means a higher margin. MenuCost shows both because different operators use different conventions. Most GCC F&B operators target an FC% of 25–35% for main course items.
The colour coding is based on your target food cost threshold — which you set in your account settings. Green means the item's food cost is at or below your target. Amber means it is within 15% above your target — approaching but not yet a problem. Red means it has exceeded the target. The legend at the bottom of the table explains the colour key. You can adjust your target threshold at any time and all badges update immediately.
Yes — every column header in the Profitability table is sortable. Click a header once to sort ascending, click again to sort descending. The sort arrows next to each header name indicate the current sort direction. Sorting by Food Cost % descending immediately shows your highest-cost items at the top. Sorting by Margin descending shows your most profitable items first.
The Suggestions panel reads your profitability data and surfaces the most actionable observation — for example, identifying your best-performing category, flagging a category whose food cost is trending above target, or noting when a single item is dragging down an otherwise healthy category average. The suggestion updates automatically as your data changes, so it always reflects your current menu position rather than a static note.
The Profitability tab reflects the true cost per serving for each item — which includes all four cost layers: ingredients, labour, packaging, and overhead. The cost figure shown in the table is the complete cost from your recipe, not just the ingredient cost. This means the food cost percentage and margin figures are based on what the item actually costs to produce, not an understatement that excludes labour and overhead
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