Know every cost.
Set every price.
Final Menu reads your invoices, keeps live ingredient prices, and turns them into instant recipe costs and menu margins. So you stop guessing and start pricing with confidence.
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Example
House Cheeseburger
- Beef chuck, 8 oz$3.84
- Brioche bun$0.62
- Aged cheddar, 1 oz$0.71
- Bacon, 2 strips$0.94
- Lettuce, tomato, sauce$0.55
Powerful Features
Everything you need to price your menu
From invoice to recipe cost to suggested menu price, we've automated the tedious math behind every dish.
AI Document Processing
Drop in invoices from any vendor. Our AI extracts every ingredient and price instantly from PDFs or photos.
Recipe Management
Automatic cost calculation per serving using real-time ingredient prices. Track yields and prep times.
Dynamic Menu Pricing
Get price suggestions based on your real costs and target margins. See exactly what each dish should sell for.
Price History & Trends
Track every ingredient's cost over time and watch your margins move as supplier prices change.
From Invoice to Menu in Minutes
Eliminate manual data entry. Final Menu handles the messy paperwork so you can focus on the food.
Upload Documents
Drag and drop invoices, recipes, or snap photos with your phone.
AI Analysis
We extract ingredients and prices, then roll them into your recipe costs.
Get Results
Instant food costs, margin analysis, and optimized menu prices.
The math behind the menu
How to calculate food cost percentage
Food cost percentage is the cost of a dish's ingredients divided by its menu price, multiplied by 100. It tells you how much of every dollar a dish earns is spent on the ingredients that made it. A plate with $6.66 of ingredients selling at $20.80 runs a 32% food cost.
food cost % = (ingredient cost ÷ menu price) × 100
- Ingredient cost — House Cheeseburger
- $6.66
- Menu price
- $20.80
- Food cost percentage
- 32%
- Gross profit margin
- 68%
Food cost percentage and gross profit margin are the same measurement read from opposite ends: a 32% food cost is a 68% margin. Most full-service restaurants aim for roughly 28–35% food cost, but the workable range depends on format — quick service often runs lower, steakhouses and seafood higher. The number that matters is your real one per dish, because it moves every time a supplier price does. Work out your own dishes with the free food cost calculator.
How to price a menu item
Start from the true plate cost, then apply one pricing rule consistently. There are four standard methods, and they are one equation stated four different ways — which is why quoting your target as a multiplier rather than a margin quietly changes the price.
| Method | Formula | A $6.66 plate becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Gross profit margin | price = cost ÷ (1 − target margin) | ≈ $20.80 at a 68% target margin |
| Food cost percentage | price = cost ÷ target food cost | ≈ $20.80 at a 32% target food cost |
| Cost-plus markup | price = cost + (cost × markup) | $19.98 at a 200% markup |
| Cost multiplier | price = cost × multiplier | $19.98 at a 3× multiplier |
The same plate prices at $20.80 under a 68% margin target and $19.98 under a 3× multiplier — an 82¢ gap per cover that compounds across a service. Final Menu supports all four methods, applies your chosen one across the whole menu, and recalculates the suggested price the moment an ingredient cost changes on a new invoice. Compare the four pricing methods in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Final Menu and the food-costing math behind it. Can't find the answer you're looking for? Contact our support team.