Percy Plate is a web-based food cost calculator for food trucks, caterers, cottage food producers, and small restaurant owners. It lets you enter your ingredients and what you pay for them, build recipes, and instantly see the cost per serving and recommended sell price based on your target food cost percentage.

Yes. Percy Plate has a free plan that lets you create up to 10 ingredients and 5 recipes to calculate food cost. A paid subscription ($14.99/month or $119.99/year) unlocks unlimited ingredients and recipes plus inventory tracking, revenue reporting, menu engineering, Prime Cost, AI invoice scanning, FDA nutrition facts labels, FDA ingredient labels, and label printing.

How does Percy Plate calculate food cost?

You enter each ingredient, the unit you buy it in (lb, oz, gallon, etc.), and what you pay per unit. When you build a recipe, Percy Plate converts the recipe quantities to your purchase units, calculates the cost of each ingredient used, and divides by the number of servings to give you a cost per serving. It also shows the food cost percentage and a suggested sell price.

Can Percy Plate generate nutrition facts labels?

Yes. Percy Plate can look up nutrition data from the USDA FoodData Central database for each ingredient, then automatically calculate the per-serving nutrition for a recipe. It generates an FDA-format Nutrition Facts panel that can be printed directly to thermal labels (Brother, Dymo, Zebra) or Avery sheet labels in sizes 2x4 inch and 3.33x4 inch.

Can Percy Plate generate an ingredient list label?

Yes. Percy Plate generates an FDA-compliant ingredient label that lists ingredients by weight (heaviest first), automatically detects the top 9 FDA allergens, and includes your business name and net weight. Labels can be printed to thermal printers or Avery sheet labels.

What label printers work with Percy Plate?

Percy Plate supports thermal label printers including Brother QL series (DK-1202 2x4 inch labels), Dymo LabelWriter (30334 and similar), and Zebra desktop printers. It also supports Avery 5163 (2x4 inch) and Avery 5164 (3.33x4 inch) sheet labels for standard desktop printers.

Who is Percy Plate designed for?

Percy Plate is designed for small food business owners including food truck operators, cottage food producers, caterers, small restaurant owners, and anyone who sells homemade or prepared food and needs to track ingredient costs, price their menu, and produce product labels.

Does Percy Plate work on mobile?

Yes. Percy Plate is a web application that works on any device with a modern browser, including phones and tablets. You can look up ingredient costs, update recipe quantities, and check your food cost percentage from anywhere.

How do you calculate food cost percentage?

Food cost percentage = (ingredient cost per serving ÷ menu price) × 100. For example, if your ingredients cost $3.50 and you sell the dish for $12.00, your food cost percentage is 29.2%. Most food businesses target 28–35%. To set a price from a target, divide ingredient cost by your target: $3.50 ÷ 0.30 = $11.67 suggested price at 30% food cost.

What is a good food cost percentage for a small food business or bakery?

Most food businesses target a food cost percentage between 28% and 35%. Bakeries and cottage food producers often achieve lower food cost percentages (20–28%) because flour, sugar, and butter are inexpensive relative to retail prices. Full-service restaurants tend to run 30–35%. The right target depends on your labor costs, overhead, and pricing power in your market.

How do I calculate the cost per serving of a recipe?

Add up the ingredient cost for the full batch, then divide by the number of servings. For each ingredient, multiply the quantity used by the cost per unit (converting units as needed). For example: 8 oz flour at $0.89/lb = $0.89 ÷ 16 × 8 = $0.44. Sum all ingredient costs, then divide by servings. Percy Plate does this calculation automatically once you enter your ingredient prices and recipe quantities.

How does yield percentage affect recipe costing?

Yield percentage accounts for trim loss, cooking shrinkage, and waste. If you buy 1 lb of chicken but only 0.75 lb is usable after trimming, your yield is 75%. To get accurate food costs, divide the as-purchased cost by the yield percentage: $4.00/lb ÷ 0.75 = $5.33 per usable pound. Percy Plate lets you set a yield percentage (AP to EP) on any ingredient so your recipe costs reflect what you actually use.

What is the best recipe costing software for a small food business?

The best recipe costing software for a small food business depends on your needs. Percy Plate ($14.99/month) is built specifically for cottage food producers, food trucks, caterers, and small restaurants — it includes recipe costing, menu pricing, FDA ingredient labels, nutrition facts labels, inventory tracking, and revenue reporting. Competitors like meez start at $24/month and scale to $199/month. Square and Toast do not include recipe costing natively.

Is there free recipe costing software for home bakers or cottage food businesses?

Yes. Percy Plate has a free plan that includes recipe food cost calculation and menu pricing suggestions. The free plan lets you create up to 10 ingredients and 5 recipes. For unlimited recipes, FDA labels, nutrition facts, and inventory tracking, the paid plan is $14.99/month or $119.99/year. No credit card is required to start.

How do I price homemade baked goods to make a profit?

Start with your ingredient cost per batch, then divide by the number of units to get ingredient cost per item. Add packaging (boxes, bags, labels) as a per-unit cost. Then set a target food cost percentage — most cottage food bakers aim for 25–35% — and divide your total ingredient cost by that percentage to get a minimum price. For example: $0.85 ingredient cost per cookie ÷ 0.30 = $2.83 minimum price at 30% food cost. Factor in your time and overhead to ensure you are actually profitable, not just covering ingredients.

What are the labeling requirements for cottage food products?

Most states require cottage food labels to include: (1) the product name, (2) your name and home address, (3) a list of ingredients in descending order by weight, (4) a disclosure statement such as 'Made in a home kitchen not inspected by the state or local health department,' and (5) allergen declarations for any of the 9 major FDA allergens present. Some states also require net weight. Requirements vary by state — check your state's cottage food law for specifics. Nutrition Facts panels are generally not required for cottage food operations below a certain revenue threshold.

Do I need a nutrition facts label on my cottage food products?

Most cottage food producers are exempt from FDA Nutrition Facts label requirements under the small business exemption (fewer than 100 full-time employees and fewer than 100,000 units sold annually). However, you must still list ingredients in descending order by weight and declare all major allergens. Some states impose additional requirements. When in doubt, check your state's cottage food law and the FDA's small business labeling exemptions.

What allergens must I disclose on a homemade food label?

FDA requires disclosure of 9 major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. These must be declared on all food labels, including cottage food products — even if a full Nutrition Facts panel is not required. The standard format is a 'Contains:' statement after the ingredient list, for example: 'Contains: Wheat, Eggs, Milk.' Percy Plate detects all 9 allergens automatically from your ingredient names.

How do I create a nutrition facts label for homemade food?

To create a Nutrition Facts label for homemade food: (1) look up the nutrition data for each ingredient using the USDA FoodData Central database, (2) calculate the per-serving amounts for calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein, sodium, and other nutrients, (3) format the panel according to FDA guidelines with serving size, servings per container, and daily value percentages. Percy Plate automates this — it looks up USDA nutrition data for your ingredients, calculates per-serving totals, and generates a print-ready FDA-format Nutrition Facts label for thermal or sheet labels.

How do I list ingredients in the correct order on a food label?

FDA regulations require ingredients to be listed in descending order by weight — the ingredient present in the greatest amount by weight must appear first. For example, if your muffin contains more flour than sugar, flour must be listed first. Sub-ingredients (like those in a chocolate chip) must be listed in parentheses immediately after the component. Percy Plate sorts ingredients automatically by weight when generating your label.

What information is required on a homemade food product label?

A complete homemade food label generally requires: (1) the name of the food, (2) the net quantity (weight or count), (3) an ingredient list in descending order by weight, (4) allergen declarations for all 9 major FDA allergens, (5) your business name and address, and (6) for cottage food specifically, a state-required disclosure statement such as 'Made in a home kitchen not inspected by the state health department.' Nutrition Facts panels are usually optional for small cottage food producers below certain revenue thresholds.

By Heidi Macomber · September 30, 2026

How to Audit Supplier Charges: Catch the Hidden Fees Eating Your Food Margin

You negotiated a price. You got a handshake and a price sheet. Six months later, your ingredient costs are up 8% and you cannot explain why. The invoice price on chicken looks right. The case count matches. So where did the money go? It went into the charges layer. The freight minimums, the fuel adjustments, the restocking fees, the missed rebates, the promotional allowances you earned and never claimed. This is a guide to auditing the charges that live below the line item, where most operators never look.

The Difference Between Price and Cost

Your unit price is what you pay for the product. Your total cost is what you actually spend to get that product onto your shelf. Those are two different numbers, and the gap between them is where suppliers quietly grow their margin.

Most food business owners audit the first number. They check the price per pound of brisket against the quote. That is the easy part. Almost nobody audits the second number, because it requires reading the bottom third of every invoice and understanding what each charge means.

If your food cost percentage keeps climbing and your recipe costs have not changed, the problem is almost certainly in the charges layer, not the ingredient pricing.

The Six Charge Categories to Audit

Pull your last three invoices from each supplier. Go to the section below the line items. Here is what you are looking for.

1. Delivery and freight charges

Every distributor has a freight policy. The most common structure: free delivery above a minimum order size, and a fee below it. The fees range from $15 to $75 per delivery depending on your region and distributor.

What goes wrong: The minimum creeps up without notice. You signed up when the minimum was $250. Six months later it is $400, and you are still placing $300 orders and paying a $35 delivery fee every time. That is $140 a month on four weekly drops, or $1,680 a year, for nothing.

What to check: Find the current minimum order for free delivery in writing from your rep. Compare it to your average order size over the last 90 days. If you are paying freight on more than 20% of your orders, either consolidate orders or renegotiate the minimum.

2. Fuel surcharges

Fuel surcharges were designed to be temporary. They are tied to a diesel price benchmark, and they are supposed to scale up and down with that benchmark. In practice, they scale up quickly and down slowly, or not at all.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes weekly national diesel prices, and most fuel surcharge policies reference a specific diesel price threshold. If your invoice still shows a fuel surcharge, look up the current EIA benchmark, compare it to the threshold in your supplier's policy, and see whether the surcharge should still be active. Often it should not.

What to check: Ask your rep for the fuel surcharge policy in writing. It should specify the diesel price threshold at which the surcharge activates and the per-case or percentage formula. If they cannot produce a policy document, the surcharge is discretionary. Discretionary charges are negotiable.

3. Restocking and returns

This is money flowing the wrong direction. You ordered something. You need to send it back. The supplier charges you a restocking fee, typically 15 to 25% of the product value.

What goes wrong: Two things. First, you are paying restocking on items that were the supplier's error, not yours. Short-dated product, wrong pack size, damaged goods. Those should be credited in full with no restocking fee. Second, you are not capturing credits for product you returned at all. The driver picks up the case, you assume the credit will show up on the next invoice, and it does not.

What to check: Pull your last 12 months of invoices. Search for any line that says "credit" or begins with a negative sign. Now compare that to your own log of returns and rejections. If you returned six cases of bad produce over the quarter and only see two credits on the invoices, you are missing four.

4. Volume rebates and promotional allowances

This is the charge category that works in your favor, if you claim it. Many distributors and manufacturers offer rebates based on annual purchase volume, or promotional allowances tied to featuring a product on your menu. These are real money. They are also the easiest money to lose, because they require you to ask for them.

The National Restaurant Association's annual State of the Industry reporting has noted that food and beverage costs remain a top-three operating expense for operators, which makes capturing every available rebate and allowance directly material to margin. A 1% annual rebate on $150,000 in purchases is $1,500. That is a month of liability insurance, or a new prep table.

What to check: Ask your rep directly: "What volume rebates and promotional allowances am I eligible for, and what do I need to do to claim them?" Get the answer in writing. Then track your eligibility monthly. Do not assume the supplier will apply the credit automatically. They will not.

5. Contract versus billed discrepancies

If you have a written pricing agreement with a supplier, that document is your audit baseline. The agreement specifies unit prices, contract term, and any conditions that allow price changes. Your job is to compare billed prices to contracted prices on every invoice, not just when something feels off.

What goes wrong: Suppliers introduce a "market adjustment" or "commodity surcharge" line item that effectively overrides the contracted price without renegotiating the contract. This is common with proteins, dairy, and cooking oil. The contract says you pay $2.85 a pound for chicken. The invoice shows $2.85. But there is a separate $0.12 per pound "market adjustment" line buried lower on the invoice. Your real cost is $2.97.

What to check: Read every invoice line, not just the unit price column. If you see a surcharge or adjustment line that is not in your contract, challenge it. A signed pricing agreement is enforceable. If the supplier wants to change the price, they need to renegotiate the contract, not add a line item.

6. Tax and fee errors

Sales tax rules on food purchases vary by state and by product category. In many states, food purchased for resale is exempt from sales tax. But invoices sometimes carry tax on items that should be exempt, either because the supplier's system misclassified the item or because your tax exemption certificate is not on file.

What to check: Verify your resale exemption certificate is on file with every supplier. Then scan the tax line on each invoice. If you are being charged tax on bulk ingredients intended for resale, you are owed a credit.

The Quarterly Charge Audit

This takes about 90 minutes per supplier. Do it once a quarter. The amount you recover will pay for the time many times over.

Pull the last 13 weeks of invoices for each supplier.
Build a spreadsheet with one row per invoice and columns for: invoice date, product subtotal, delivery fee, fuel surcharge, restocking fees, rebates applied, tax, and total billed.
Calculate your effective markup. Take total billed minus product subtotal, divide by product subtotal. This is the percentage you are paying above the line-item prices. For most operators, this should be under 3%. If it is over 5%, you have a problem.
Identify the largest charge lines and trace each one back to a policy or contract. If you cannot find the policy, the charge is negotiable or removable.
Document every discrepancy and send a single consolidated email to your rep requesting credits and policy clarification.

One consolidated request gets taken more seriously than six scattered complaints. Suppliers respond to organized customers differently than they respond to ones who seem like they will forget about it.

Download the free Percy Plate quarterly charge audit spreadsheet here - one tab for the audit log, one that rolls totals up by supplier, and the effective markup and flag columns calculate themselves.

What to Do When You Find Overcharges

Do not be angry. Be specific.

Email your sales rep with the invoice number, the line item, the contracted or policy rate, the billed rate, and the dollar amount of the discrepancy. Ask for a credit on the next invoice. Most reps will issue it without argument because they know the charges are indefensible.

If the rep pushes back, escalate to the branch manager or credit department. The further up the chain you go, the more likely the company is to have documented policies that favor you.

Keep a running log of every discrepancy found, every credit requested, and every credit received. After two or three quarters, you will have a pattern. If one supplier consistently overcharges and another does not, that is useful information at renewal time.

How Percy Plate Helps

Percy Plate tracks your ingredient costs and purchase history so you can see the real landed cost of every item you buy, not just the invoice unit price. When a charge layer inflates your effective cost, it shows up in your actual food cost percentage. That is usually the first signal that something is wrong below the line item.

Start free at percyplate.com.

Related Guides

Vendor Negotiation and Invoice Auditing - How to audit invoice line items and negotiate better unit prices
Supplier Price Tracking - How to track ingredient price changes over time and catch price creep
Restaurant Inventory Management and Par Levels - The receiving and counting system that catches shortages before they cost you
Why Your Food Costs Keep Creeping Up - Other reasons your food cost percentage rises when you are not looking

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