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Food cost, suppliers and the back office

Practical advice on cost control, supplier management, and the technology reshaping food service.

Inside a walk-in cooler: a manager with a clipboard checking crates of produce against a delivery note, cold blue-white light with a yellow crate as the accent
Guides

Actual vs theoretical food cost: get variance under 2%

Actual vs theoretical food cost, worked on a salmon dish: the variance formula, why 2% is the benchmark, and five root causes, portioning to POS mapping.

· 8 min read
Two people in a quiet dining room between services comparing options on a tablet, printed checklist with yellow ticks on the table, soft afternoon light
Guides

Restaurant inventory software: a 12-point buyer's checklist

12 questions to ask before buying restaurant inventory software: POS sync, invoice capture, pricing traps, and where MarginEdge, MarketMan and R365 fit.

· 8 min read
A restaurant owner at the bar counter before opening, coffee in hand, reviewing yesterday's numbers on a laptop (screen soft and out of focus), chairs still up on tables, a yellow notebook
Industry

Daily restaurant P&L: why month-end is too late

What a daily restaurant P&L includes, how to build it from POS sales, invoices and labor, prime cost targets, and the four numbers to check every morning.

· 8 min read
Bilz vs Haddock
Product

Bilz vs Haddock

Haddock turned down a friend’s restaurant for being too small. I looked into why — who Haddock is for, who Bilz is for, and what each really costs.

· 7 min read
A chef weighing diced salmon on a digital kitchen scale beside a handwritten recipe card and a small calculator, ingredients portioned in bowls, yellow tape label on a container
Guides

Recipe costing template with yield and a worked example

A recipe costing template, column by column, plus a worked salmon dish: yield, usable cost, portion cost, food cost percentage and the menu price formula.

· 8 min read
A chef at a steel prep counter comparing two paper supplier invoices side by side, a crate of tomatoes and a yellow highlighter nearby, morning light
Industry

Supplier price increases: how to catch creep on invoices

Suppliers rarely announce increases. How 2 to 4 percent a quarter hides in invoice totals, the line-item check that catches it, and alert thresholds.

· 8 min read
A line cook in a dry-storage room counting stock on a phone, shelves of labelled containers and sacks of flour, a yellow count sheet clipped to the shelf
Guides

How to take inventory in a restaurant: 30-minute blind count

How to take inventory in a restaurant in 30 minutes: a blind count procedure, shelf-order setup, daily, weekly and monthly lists, and variance thresholds.

· 8 min read
5 hidden costs destroying your restaurant margins
Industry

5 hidden costs of running a restaurant, and how to fix them

Invoice short-ships, portion drift, supplier price creep, dead stock and untracked comps: five margin leaks most P&Ls hide, with a quick check for each.

· 9 min read
How AI is transforming restaurant invoice processing
Industry

Restaurant invoice processing: how AI OCR works, and the ROI

Manual invoice entry costs managers hours a week. How AI OCR reads supplier invoices line by line, what accuracy to expect, and how to work out the ROI.

· 8 min read
The complete guide to food cost percentage
Guides

Food cost percentage: formula, benchmarks, how to cut it

How to calculate food cost percentage from inventory and sales, what a good number is by concept, and five fixes that bring it down. Worked example inside.

· 8 min read