One of the guidelines I used was to do an inventory. To create a comprehensive budget, you must start by controlling the costs and prices of your food, which represents 26% of beverages. In the short term, this will help you calculate how much in dollars you can safely spend on new inventory for the month. And in the long term, you can forecast revenues, plan menus, and even start budgeting for the coming seasons.
The percentage of the cost of healthy food is between 25 and 35 percent, but don't worry if your percentage is higher than this percentage. If you spend more on food, you may not spend as much on labor or rent, which ultimately balances out. When you see a food that has been in your pantry for a while, invent a recipe that includes or uses that ingredient and add it to your list of special products of the day. This forces you to use the oldest foods first and ensures that you always have fresh ingredients.
Reviewing your inventory regularly can give you an idea of how and at what rate your food is being used or wasted. Opening a restaurant presents a number of challenges and questions that can be difficult to address and answer whether you're new to the restaurant industry or if you've been working in it for years. One of the biggest mistakes a restaurant owner can make when it comes to food costs is taking suppliers for granted. By setting goals for your restaurant and making some small changes, such as taking an inventory, changing your food orders and using your food creatively, you can have a big impact on your profit margin.
Therefore, if your staff knows how much food costs and how to use it correctly, they will be more careful when preparing the food and dividing the dishes into portions. For a restaurant to remain profitable, the food inventory must not exceed 28 to 30 percent of its gross revenues, while labor costs must fall between 22 and 45 percent. Serving smaller portions also has many benefits, in addition to reducing food costs, such as being able to create more refined meals and diversifying the offer. The best way to calculate the real cost of food is to divide the COGS by the sales of food, multiplied by 100.
No matter how long you've been with a business, take the time to count and weigh the food that comes through the door to make sure you're getting what you're paying for. A major contributor to the problem of food waste is the restaurant industry, and all that waste can hurt your profits. Calculating food costs in a restaurant can be a time-consuming task, but keeping your finances on budget could help you save time, money and food in the long run. Hostesses and waiters should know how to perform other people's work tasks, and waiters should be able to bring food to tables when the service is busy.
Use portion control tools for restaurants, such as portioning scales and spoons, to serve the right amount of food to your customers. The most common practices that generate waste are inadequate storage and handling of food, not accurately measuring portion sizes, preparing large quantities of food in advance, and buying too much inventory.
