🔥 Automatic expense categorisation is here! No more sorting invoices by hand.Show me →
English
Čeština
SlovenčinaFood cost management software for restaurants
Take control of food cost without a weekly stocktake. Live food cost %, drink cost and recipe margins from your invoices and POS — built for restaurants, pubs and cafés.
Schedule a demo
The hidden way food cost eats away your margin
Most operators only look at their food cost when the month closes — and by then the margin is already gone. Supplier prices have crept up, portioning has slipped, and there's no way to claw back what you've lost.
Live food cost %, 24/7
Dishboard reads your invoices and POS data 24/7. You see today's food cost ratio, this week's trend, and how each category is affected — without anyone typing a single number or doing manual admin.
Catch supplier price hikes before they hit the margin
Suppliers raise prices quietly. A few pence here, a couple of percent there — the costs add up even before the month-end reports lands on your desk. Dishboard tracks every price on every invoice, so the increase is immediately visible.
Weekly GP and Prime Cost, no accountant waiting
Food costs is only part of the picture. Gross profit and prime cost tell you whether the business is actually working. Dishboard calculates both on a weekly basis. No more waiting on your bookkeeper for your P&L.
What's normal? Food cost benchmarks by venue type
There's no single "right" food cost — it depends on your type of venue. The table below shows what we generally see when speaking to operators.
| Venue type | Typical food cost | Gross profit target |
|---|---|---|
| Fine dining | 28–32% | 68–72% |
| Casual dining | 30–35% | 65–70% |
| Fast casual | 25–30% | 70–75% |
| Café / bistro | 25–30% | 70–75% |
| Pub (food-led) | 30–35% | 65–70% |
| Pub (wet-led) — drink cost | 20–25% | 75–80% |
If your food cost is above 38% for 4+ weeks, something is off — supplier prices, portioning, or waste. Dishboard spots it in real time so you can fix the cause, not react to the month-end.
Built around how restaurants actually operate
Built for the realities of UK hospitality — VAT splits, HMRC reporting, and the integrations operators actually use.
Handles VAT on food (0% / 20% split)
Hot food, cold food, eat-in, takeaway — Dishboard handles the rules so the books stay clean.
HMRC-friendly reporting
Align with your accountant on the categories to accurately map your costs.
Works with Square, Lightspeed, Toast, Xero, and more
Connect your POS and accounting software in minutes. No middleware, no exports.
See how restaurants use Dishboard to stay profitable
How Beverley Hills Diner & Bar saved £1,300 and cut finance time by hours
How Pub Automat saves up to 35 hours per month and reduces ‘pour cost’ thanks to Dishboard
How Ive from Bistro Lagom Eliminated 15 Spreadsheets
Why Dishboard, not a spreadsheet or Jelly/MarginEdge
There are several ways to track food cost. Here’s how Dishboard differs from the two most common.
 | Spreadsheet | Inventory-first tool | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to set up | 30–60 min | Weeks of templating | Days of stocktake |
| Data updates | Live (every shift) | Manual, weekly | After each stocktake |
| Stocktake required? | No | Yes | Yes, weekly |
Frequently Asked Questions
Food cost is the share of revenue spent on ingredients. The basic formula is (cost of goods sold ÷ food revenue) × 100. Most UK operators target 28–35%, depending on venue type.
It depends on the format. Fine dining typically runs 28–32%. Casual dining is closer to 30–35%. Cafés and fast casual sit around 25–30%. Pubs vary by mix — food-led pubs match casual dining, wet-led pubs measure drink cost separately at 20–25%.
Not for cost tracking. Dishboard calculates food cost from invoices and POS data. Some teams still stocktake monthly for variance analysis, but it’s not required for the numbers to work.
Yes. Drink cost and pour cost are tracked separately from food, which is essential for wet-led venues. Food cost, drink cost and pour cost all sit on the same dashboard.
Dishboard connects to Square, Lightspeed, Epos Now, Toast and Zettle on the POS side, and Xero for accounting. Setup is API-based — no manual exports needed.
Dishboard separates 0% and 20% VAT lines automatically based on the invoice. Hot food, cold food, eat-in, takeaway — all handled correctly for HMRC reporting.
Most accounts are live in 30–60 minutes. POS and accounting integrations connect via API; supplier invoices flow in from the next billing cycle.
Yes. Multi-location accounts give you food cost per venue and a consolidated view across the whole group.
Ready to see your real food cost?
It takes 20 minutes. We’ll show you your live food cost with your own data.
Schedule a demo