Menu Planning Tool

When to use this tool

Use it before changing a menu — food, drink or both — or before changing a single item, to forecast whether the change will be more profitable. You can also use it after a change, to check whether it actually paid off.

Currency, tax & royalties

These live in the toolbar and work the same on every tool:

Currency

Pick your currency from the selector — it relabels the tax field to match your region.

Tax rate

Type your tax rate in the field beside the currency, or set it to 0 if you don’t want to factor in tax.

Royalties / commission

Optional. Switch on “Factor in royalties or commission” to open a panel where you set the rate with the slider (or type it exactly), rename it Royalty or Commission, and charge it on net or gross sales.

Menu planning features

What you enter for this tool, and what it gives back:

Current menu

The baseline you’re comparing from — today’s menu, or a past one (e.g. before a change you made last year). For each item set Food or Drink, its cost (ex tax), sale price (inc tax) and units sold. Rename it to suit.

Proposed menu

The menu you’re comparing against — a change you’re weighing up, or one you’ve already made. Units start matched to the baseline for a like‑for‑like read; change them only if you expect different sales.

Budgeted C.O.S / GP

Your food and drink cost‑of‑sales targets — or switch to gross profit. Each menu is checked against the blended target, weighted by its food/drink mix.

Your data

These buttons sit in the “Your data” panel at the foot of the page; the first five are the same on every tool:

Download template

Downloads a blank Excel template you can fill in offline.

Upload template

Reads a filled‑in template back in and fills the tool in one go.

Save scenario

Saves both menus and your settings to a file you can back up or share.

Load scenario

Re‑opens a comparison you saved earlier.

PDF report

Generates a clean PDF of the analysis, ready to save, print or share.

Paste from GoodTill

Opens a box where you paste the Product report from GoodTill, the hospitality EPOS (till) system — item names, quantities and unit prices are read in automatically (add food costs after).

Import menus

Inside that box, turns the pasted GoodTill data into menu rows — fill one side for the current menu, both for a current‑vs‑proposed comparison.

Jargon buster

Contribution

Net revenue less cost of sales and any royalty or commission — what a sale adds before labour and overheads.

Cost of sales (C.O.S)

What the product costs you to make or buy — ingredients, packaging and waste — usually shown as a % of net revenue. Excludes labour and overheads.

Gross profit & %

Net revenue less cost of sales; the % expresses it as a share of net revenue — the mirror of cost‑of‑sales %.

Gross revenue

The total the customer pays, including tax.

Labour

The wage cost of the staff involved, usually shown as a cash figure or a % of net revenue.

Margin of safety

How far sales could fall before you stop making a profit — the cushion between your forecast and break‑even.

Net revenue

Gross revenue with tax removed — all the margin maths is worked on this figure.

Royalty / commission

A fee paid as a % of each sale, charged on net or gross. Optional — switch it on only if your business pays one.

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