Food costing from A to Z: bases, dishes and what they use
A base you cook ahead, the dishes that use it, and what each one costs and burns.
On the computer, 11 steps
Guide 6 of 8 in Restaurant & kitchen
What you need
- Your ingredients, created and bought, so they have a cost.
- The recipe of each base you cook ahead, such as a sauce.
- The recipe of each dish, for one plate.
Start your free trial
Press Create an account below. Your free trial starts straight away, and no card is needed.
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Open the base
In Stock › Items, find the base and press the pencil. A new one starts from New item.

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Make it a base
Switch on Track stock, Has ingredients and Ingredient. Bought and Sold stay off.

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Its recipe, by the batch
In Ingredients, type what one batch makes, here 2 kg, and what it takes. The cost per kg shows below.

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Use it in a dish
In the dish’s Ingredients, add the base like any ingredient: 0.12 kg per plate.

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Every recipe, one card
Stock › Recipe Book shows each recipe with its cost and food-cost %. Press a card.

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What got dearer
Purchase prices going up lists the ingredients whose last delivery cost more.

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Read the tree
Press the arrow on the base to see its own recipe. Press again to close it.

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What one plate takes
Exploded turns the base back into raw ingredients and checks them against your stock.

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Cook the base
In Produced items, pick the base and type 2 kg. Its ingredients show, ready to leave the kitchen.

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Add
Press Add. The base enters stock, and its tomatoes, onions and oil leave it.

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Track its use
In the dish, click the base’s name. Pick a period: what you made, what it took and its cost.

Every day
- Record each batch you cook in Produced items.
- Sell in the app, so each plate takes its base out of stock.
- Check a base’s use when its stock does not add up.
What you see
The stew costs 165 KES a plate, 16 KES of it the base. Cooking 2 kg of base took 1.5 kg of tomatoes, 0.6 kg of onions and 0.15 l of oil.
Time and effort
Each base and dish needs its recipe once. After that, it is one line per batch you cook.
Common mistakes
- Writing a base for one portion. Write it for the batch you really cook, with its unit.
- Leaving Track stock off on a base you cook ahead. Then its stock is not followed.
- Forgetting to record a batch. The dishes then take a base that never entered stock.
Next step
More guides
- 1Take a table orderOrder for a table and send it to the kitchen.
- 2Follow kitchen ordersStart and finish each kitchen ticket.
- 3Close the billPrint the bill and take the payment.
- 4Write a recipeList the ingredients of a dish and see its cost.
- 5Check your food costSee which dishes cost too much to make.
- 8Compare the next two weeks with last month and last yearThe coming days against last month and last year.
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