Eight calculators for restaurants
Cost price, recommended selling price, break-even point, the gap between a delivery note and its invoice, the allergen table… Eight calculators that run in the browser, included in Margeo and open from the demo.
The eight calculators
- Recipe cost price — the true food cost of a dish,
trim losses included. A 50% loss doubles the cost of an
ingredient: it is divided,
quantity × price ÷ (1 − loss), not added. - Selling price of a dish — from food cost to menu price, by target food-cost percentage, by multiplier or by cash margin, with the applicable VAT rate.
- Multiplier — the step from food cost to price, and what the multiplier hides when the dish is cheap.
- Prime cost — food cost plus fully loaded payroll. This is the ratio that predicts whether a business survives: above 70%, no other line of the accounts rescues profitability.
- Break-even point — the turnover at which the month is covered.
- Delivery discrepancy — what was delivered set against what was invoiced, line by line, with the complaint ready to send.
- Allergen table — the declaration of the fourteen allergens you have to display (EU Regulation 1169/2011).
- Wine list pricing — whether a wine list holds together, bottle by bottle.
Your recipes never leave your browser
The maths runs on your machine: none of your recipe data is sent anywhere or kept. The calculators are included in Margeo — the demo is enough to try them, with an email address and no credit card. What they do not do is keep your figures up to date all year — that is the job of the margin software, which reads the invoices and recalculates without re-keying.
Frequently asked questions
How do you work out the cost price of a dish?
By adding up the cost of each ingredient at the quantity actually used
— so after trimming. That is where the trap is: the loss is divided. A
fillet bought at €20/kg with 50% trim comes out at €40 per usable kilo,
not €30. The formula is quantity × price ÷ (1 − loss).
What counts as a good prime cost?
Below 65%, there is enough left to pay the rent, the energy and the insurance and still show a result. Between 65 and 70%, the balance holds with no room for error. Above 70%, the problem is no longer in fixed costs: it is in the menu or in the rota.
Should we think in percentages or in cash margin?
In cash. A dish at 25% food cost that brings in €6 matters less than a dish at 35% that brings in €14. It is the euros that pay the rent, not the percentages.
Do I need an account to use them?
Access to Margeo, yes. The quickest way in is the demo: an email address opens it, with no credit card, and the calculators are there exactly as they are in an account. They were open to anyone until 22 September 2026; they are now a feature of the software.
Are my recipes saved anywhere?
No. The calculators run in the browser: nothing you type leaves your device.
Get access to the tools
Leave your details to open the Margeo demo straight away, calculators included.
The tools are ready
They open in a new tab, on the Margeo site. The demo asks for an email address there — once, separately from this one — then opens the application in read-only mode: the calculators sit at the bottom of the menu. They and the menu are in English; a few of the deeper screens are still in French.
Read next
- Margeo, margin software for restaurants — what the calculators do once, kept up to date all year.
- Working out the ROI of an automation.