So, you are selling your number one dish for $8.99 and it amounts to 8% of your total sales…do you know how much this item is contributing to, or conversely, taking away from, your bottom line? If you are like most old school operators, you cost out your menu once or twice a year and hope for the best. However, if you want to have tight controls you need a good food and beverage software program to really identify problem areas.
Most all food and beverage software will calculate profit margins based on current costs, and in more sophisticated ones, automatically update recipe costs with any new ingredient pricing. That favorite recipe on the menu may be the loss leader that you did not realize. Imagine your fanciest chicken salad that you priced at 33% last fall, after this springs lettuce pricing and chicken prices skyrocketing due to Asian Bird Flu, for the last three months the food cost has been 42%. This could be costing you thousands of dollars in your operation.
Food costing software is a great starting purchase to get your hospitality operation under control. Once you have identified your menu costs, continue on with inventory, purchasing, and even catering. With a minimal investment you can realize tens of thousands of dollars per year in savings, money that was falling off the end of the table or being eaten by your guests.
If food and beverage software is a purchase that you have not thought about, or more commonly, are trying to put off because “you don’t think you need it,” consider this: food and beverage software, on average, saves a typical food service operation anywhere from 2 to 5 % of their costs. Do the math, if you do $2 million per year in sales and food and beverage software saved you even 1 %, that’s $20,000 annually back into your pocket… what kind of car are you driving now?
