How do you calculate food cost percentage?

Work out cost of goods sold as opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory, then divide by food sales for the same period and multiply by 100.

What is cost of goods sold for a restaurant?

The cost of the ingredients actually used in the period: what you started with, plus what you bought, minus what was left at the end.

Should drinks be included?

Usually food and beverage are calculated separately because their cost percentages differ. Include beverages only if you want a combined figure and you also include beverage sales.

Does Restovax calculate this automatically?

Yes. With the inventory and recipe modules, Restovax tracks purchases and counts and reports food cost per dish and for the period, so you are not doing this by hand each month.

Restaurant food cost calculator

Enter the four figures below to get your cost of goods sold (COGS), your food cost percentage, and your gross profit on food for the period. Nothing is stored — the calculation runs in your browser.

Opening inventory value

Purchases in the period

Closing inventory value

Food sales in the period

Cost of goods sold (COGS)

Food cost percentage

Enter food sales to get a percentage

Gross profit on food

The formula

COGS = Opening inventory + Purchases − Closing inventory
Food cost % = COGS ÷ Food sales × 100
Gross profit on food = Food sales − COGS

What the food cost percentage tells you

It is the share of your food sales that was spent on the ingredients to produce them. Track it period to period: a rising percentage means ingredients cost more, portions grew, waste went up, or menu prices lagged behind cost increases.

Why there is no single right number

A target food cost percentage depends on your concept, location, supplier terms and menu mix. A steakhouse and a pizzeria have very different figures and both can be healthy. Use your own trend and your own margin targets rather than a number from an article.

Getting an accurate result

Opening and closing inventory should come from a real physical count valued at what you paid. Purchases are everything bought for the kitchen in the period. Food sales exclude drinks unless you are calculating a combined figure.

Frequently asked questions

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Let Restovax keep these numbers for you

Restovax tracks purchases, stock and expenses so your food cost and margin are always current, not a monthly spreadsheet job.

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