Cost calculations

Calculate production costs for your recipes and items for sale.


Set up ingredients

In Fillet, ingredients are the building blocks of everything you do.

You can enter many different details for an Ingredient, like nutrition or edible portion.

Tip: To set up a new ingredient quickly, simply enter its name and a price — you’ll need these to do cost calculations.

To set up a new ingredient price, enter a unit of measurement, the quantity per unit, and a monetary amount.

If you often switch between mass and volume measurements, it’s a good idea to set up density for your key ingredients.


Set up recipes

In Fillet, recipes are the workhorse of your cost calculations.

Tip: To quickly set up a new recipe, all you need to do is add some ingredients.

Or add a recipe into another recipe (sub-recipes) to do advanced cost calculations.

You can also set up custom units of measurement for recipe yield, for example, “slices”, “loaves”, “bowls”. Or use the default yield unit, “servings”.

In Fillet, recipes are flexible and powerful. Stack recipes together to create menu items, which are your products for sale.

When you create a recipe, you can design it to be a base recipe, or a foundation recipe that you use in many different products. Or you can set it up to be used on its own — even if a menu item contains a single recipe and nothing else, you can still calculate profit.

In a recipe, Fillet shows you a breakdown of cost: the cost of each component, and food cost versus labor cost.²

Fillet automatically calculates the cost of a recipe using your ingredient prices and activities.


Set up to calculate labor cost

In Fillet, activities are tasks with a cost per hour.

You can create activities in the Labor tab of the Fillet web app.

Tip: To set up a new activity, all you need to do is enter its name and a cost per hour ($).

Whether you have a team or work alone, you can use activities to factor in labor cost.

The Labor feature helps you to track and understand the production cost of your menu items and recipes: Food cost plus labor cost gives you the total cost of producing your items for sale.²


Inventory and Ordering

Send orders to your suppliers. Manage ingredients in your inventory.


Set up vendors and prices

In Fillet, your suppliers are part of your cost calculations. They’re also a key part of the Orders feature.

Tip: To set up a new vendor, simply add an ingredient price under their name.

Ingredient prices are the other key part of Fillet’s Orders feature. You can create prices in the Ingredient tab and the Vendors or Prices tab. Keep your vendors’ products and prices up-to-date, and avoid issues when ordering.


Set up inventory locations

With Fillet’s Inventory feature, you can easily manage the ingredients that you have in stock.

Tip: To set up a new inventory location, simply enter a name. Then you can use it for your inventory counts.

You can set up as many Inventory locations as you need.

If you have a single kitchen, you still have plenty of options. You can simply create one Inventory location, for example, “Kitchen”. Or you can get more complex, for example, “Reach-in refrigerator”, “Walk-in refrigerator”, “Undercounter refrigerator”, “Bar fridge”, etc.

If your business stocks ingredients in several different locations, you can create Inventory locations for each one. For example, “Main kitchen”, “Mobile kitchen”, “Warehouse”.


Prepare items for sale

See costs versus profits. Get ready to sell your products.


Set up menu items

In Fillet, menu items are the final finished product — this is what you sell to your customers.

Tip: To quickly set up a menu item, simply add some components and set a price for sale.

In a menu item, Fillet shows you a breakdown of cost: the cost of each component, and food cost versus labor cost.¹

Fillet automatically calculates the percentage of cost versus profit — if you change your sell price, Fillet automatically recalculates profit for you.


Set up Business Profile

Fillet’s Business Profile section is quick and easy to set up. It’s also a key part of Fillet’s Orders and Sales features.

Tip: To quickly set up your Business Profile, simply enter your business name and phone number.

When you send an order to a vendor, supplier, or purveyor, they also receive the information in your Business Profile.

When you share your menu online using menu.show, your customers can conveniently see your business contact information.


¹ In Fillet, total cost is what’s commonly known as “cost of goods sold” (COGS), which does not include overhead expenses.

² Currently, the Labor feature is available exclusively on the web app. Learn more about Fillet web app