Overview
Platero helps catering kitchens understand the costs behind their events by connecting menu items, recipes, supplier purchases, and inventory information.
This gives your team visibility into both expected costs and actual food costs.
Costing
Costing helps you understand the expected cost of producing your menu items.
Platero uses your recipes and ingredient costs to calculate theoretical food costs, giving you a baseline for understanding what your food should cost.
Insights
Insights help you compare expected costs with actual results.
By combining recipe information, supplier purchases, and inventory changes, Platero helps you understand changes in food costs and make more informed decisions.
Theoretical Food Cost vs Actual Food Cost
Understand the difference between what your food should cost based on your recipes and what your kitchen actually spent.
Theoretical Food Cost
Theoretical food cost represents what your food cost should be based on your recipes, portions, and ingredient costs.
In Platero, theoretical food cost is created from your recipe information and ingredient pricing. When recipes are connected to menu items, Platero calculates the expected cost to produce those items.
This gives your kitchen a baseline for understanding the expected food cost of an event or menu.
Actual Food Cost
Actual food cost represents what your kitchen actually spent on food during a specific period.
Unlike theoretical food cost, actual food cost accounts for real purchasing activity and changes in inventory.
How Platero Calculates Actual Food Cost
Platero calculates actual food cost using:
- Beginning Inventory
- Purchases
- Ending Inventory
Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Ending Inventory = Actual Food Cost
Beginning Inventory
The value of food inventory available at the beginning of the tracking period.
Purchases
Food purchases imported from supplier invoices during the tracking period.
Ending Inventory
The value of remaining food inventory at the end of the tracking period.
Using Food Cost Insights
Comparing theoretical food cost and actual food cost helps your kitchen understand the difference between expected and real-world results.
Platero helps identify changes between your recipe standards and actual food spending, giving your team better visibility into:
- Ingredient cost changes
- Purchasing trends
- Menu cost accuracy
- Event profitability