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.

Restaurant Percentages: Every Ratio Owners Must Track

By Heidi Macomber · July 25, 2026 (updated July 28, 2026)

Walk into any thriving restaurant and ask the owner how business is going, and you will rarely hear a dollar figure. You will hear a percentage. "Food cost is at 31." "Labor just crept to 34." "Prime cost is sitting right at 58." That is because in the restaurant industry, percentages are the universal language of financial health. A single number like $12,000 in weekly food purchases means almost nothing on its own. But food cost at 31 percent of sales tells you instantly whether the kitchen is running tight or bleeding cash.

This guide covers every restaurant percentage that actually matters. These are the ratios lenders look at before approving a loan, the ratios experienced operators review every week, and the ratios that separate restaurants that survive from restaurants that quietly bleed out over twelve months. If you are new to the industry, think of this as your financial dashboard. If you have been running a kitchen for years, use it to check whether you are tracking the right numbers at the right frequency.

Why Percentages Matter More Than Dollar Amounts

Restaurant sales fluctuate constantly. A Friday night might bring in four times the revenue of a slow Tuesday lunch. Dollar-based metrics swing wildly with volume, which makes them nearly useless for comparison. Percentages normalize those swings. Food cost percentage tells you whether your ingredient spending is proportional to your revenue, regardless of whether you served 50 covers or 500.

This is why the most experienced operators think almost exclusively in ratios. If your food cost percentage holds steady at 30 percent whether you do $10,000 or $40,000 in weekly sales, your kitchen is running with discipline. If the percentage spikes when volume drops, you have a scaling problem, waste problem, or portioning problem that dollar tracking would never reveal.

Percentages also make benchmarking possible. You can compare your restaurant against industry averages, against your own performance over time, and against different locations if you run multiple units. None of that works with raw dollars.

The Core Restaurant Percentages

Below are the percentage-based ratios that every restaurant owner and manager should know. Each one answers a specific question about the business.

1. Food Cost Percentage

Formula: (Cost of Goods Sold for Food / Food Sales) x 100

Food cost percentage measures how much of your food revenue goes toward the ingredients on the plate. The industry benchmark ranges from 28 to 35 percent, with most full-service restaurants landing around 30 to 32 percent. Quick-service and fast-casual operations often run slightly lower, while high-end restaurants with premium ingredients may run higher but compensate with higher menu prices.

To calculate food cost percentage accurately, you need to take a physical inventory at the start and end of your period, not just add up invoices. The proper calculation uses the COGS formula: beginning inventory plus purchases minus ending inventory. This gives you what you actually used, not what you bought. The difference matters enormously, because purchases include stockpiled inventory that has not yet hit the line.

A food cost percentage that climbs week over week is the earliest warning sign of several problems: rising supplier prices, portion drift, excessive waste, or theft. Catching it early through weekly tracking is far cheaper than discovering it on a monthly profit and loss statement.

2. Beverage and Pour Cost Percentage

Formula: (Cost of Goods Sold for Beverages / Beverage Sales) x 100

Beverages are tracked separately from food because the economics are dramatically different. Liquor pour cost typically runs 18 to 24 percent, beer runs 24 to 30 percent, and wine runs 30 to 40 percent. Because beverages carry much lower cost percentages than food, even a modest bar program can dramatically improve overall profitability.

The reason pour cost is so much lower is that a shot of liquor costs roughly a dollar but sells for eight to twelve dollars. The markup is substantial, which is why operators who neglect their bar program are leaving serious margin on the table. Tracking pour cost separately from food cost lets you see which side of the business is actually driving profit.

Pour cost percentage also catches overpouring, which is one of the most common profit leaks in any bar. A bartender who free-pours generously can quietly push pour cost from 20 percent to 28 percent without anyone noticing unless you are measuring.

3. Labor Cost Percentage

Formula: (Total Labor Cost / Total Sales) x 100

Labor cost percentage includes wages, salaries, payroll taxes, and benefits for every employee in the building, from the dishwasher to the general manager. The target range is 25 to 35 percent of total sales. Fine dining and high-touch concepts run higher because they require more staff per cover. Counter-service concepts run lower.

The most common mistake operators make with labor cost percentage is only looking at the aggregate number. A total labor cost of 32 percent might look fine, but if front-of-house labor is at 12 percent and back-of-house labor is at 20 percent, your kitchen is likely understaffed relative to your dining room, or your menu is too labor-intensive for your price points.

Tracking labor cost percentage daily and comparing it against your projected sales lets you make real-time scheduling cuts. Many operators use a target labor percentage for each day part and adjust staffing the moment actual sales fall short of projections.

4. Prime Cost Percentage

Formula: (Food Cost + Beverage Cost + Total Labor Cost) / Total Sales) x 100

Prime cost is the single most important number in the restaurant industry. It combines all your product costs and all your labor costs into one ratio, and the benchmark is 60 percent or less of total sales. If your prime cost is at or below 60 percent, your restaurant has enough gross profit left over to cover rent, utilities, insurance, marketing, and still produce a reasonable profit. If prime cost exceeds 65 percent, the restaurant is almost certainly losing money or barely breaking even.

Prime cost is powerful because it forces you to see food and labor as connected systems. You cannot fix prime cost by hammering food cost alone if labor is bloated, and you cannot fix it by cutting labor if food cost is out of control. The two have to be managed together against a single target.

Savvy operators track prime cost every week. A weekly prime cost review catches problems while they are still small. A monthly or quarterly review lets overspending compound for weeks before anyone notices.

5. Rent or Occupancy Cost Percentage

Formula: (Total Occupancy Cost / Total Sales) x 100

Occupancy cost includes rent, property taxes, building insurance, and common area maintenance charges. The benchmark is 6 to 10 percent of total sales. Exceeding 10 percent is a serious red flag because occupancy cost is essentially fixed. You cannot renegotiate your lease downward just because sales dropped, which means a high rent percentage becomes a trap during slow seasons.

This is why location selection is so critical. A high-rent location only works if it delivers proportionally high sales volume. Many restaurants fail not because their food or labor costs were bad, but because they committed to a lease that consumed 12 or 14 percent of sales and left no room to absorb a downturn.

If your occupancy cost percentage is above 10 percent, the only long-term fixes are increasing sales to dilute the ratio or renegotiating the lease. Neither is easy, which is why this number deserves attention before you sign a lease, not after.

6. Gross Profit Margin

Formula: ((Total Sales - Cost of Goods Sold) / Total Sales) x 100

Gross profit margin, sometimes called gross margin, is what remains after you subtract the cost of the food and beverages you sold. For a typical full-service restaurant, gross profit margin lands around 65 to 70 percent. This is the pool of money that has to cover everything else: labor, rent, utilities, marketing, and hopefully profit.

Gross profit margin is different from prime cost, though they are related. Prime cost subtracts both COGS and labor from sales. Gross profit margin only subtracts COGS. Looking at both together tells you whether your pricing is strong enough and whether your labor is proportionate to your gross profit.

7. Operating Expense Percentages

Beyond the big ratios, several smaller expense percentages deserve regular monitoring. These rarely sink a restaurant on their own, but collectively they can erode profitability if left unchecked.

Utilities: 4 to 7 percent of sales. Spikes often indicate equipment problems or poor energy management.
Marketing and advertising: 2 to 5 percent of sales. Higher for new restaurants building awareness, lower for established concepts.
Repairs and maintenance: 1 to 3 percent of sales. Chronically high numbers signal aging equipment that needs replacement.
Credit card processing fees: 2 to 3 percent of sales. Often overlooked but a real cost that can be reduced by negotiating rates.
Administrative and office: 2 to 4 percent of sales. Includes software, accounting, legal, and office supplies.

8. Net Profit Margin

Formula: (Net Profit / Total Sales) x 100

Net profit margin is what remains after every single expense is paid. For full-service restaurants, a healthy net profit margin is 5 to 10 percent. Fast-casual and quick-service restaurants can achieve 10 to 15 percent because their labor and occupancy costs are lower. Anything below 3 percent means the restaurant is on the edge, one bad month away from trouble.

Net profit margin is the scoreboard number, but it is also the last number you should look at when diagnosing problems. By the time net profit margin drops, the cause is usually traceable to a deterioration in food cost percentage, labor percentage, or prime cost weeks or months earlier. Net profit tells you that something went wrong. The operating percentages tell you what and when.

How Often to Track Each Percentage

Not every percentage needs the same tracking frequency. The cost-based percentages that drive daily decisions should be reviewed weekly. The fixed-cost and summary percentages can be reviewed monthly. Here is a practical cadence.

Weekly: Food cost percentage, pour cost percentage, labor cost percentage, and prime cost percentage. These move fast and respond to immediate interventions. Waiting a month to review them means letting a small problem become a large one.

Monthly: Gross profit margin, occupancy cost percentage, operating expense percentages, and net profit margin. These are slower-moving and are best reviewed alongside a complete profit and loss statement at month-end.

Quarterly: Compare every percentage against the prior quarter and the same quarter from the previous year. Seasonal patterns matter. A labor cost percentage that rises every summer may reflect legitimate seasonal hiring rather than a problem.

Common Percentage Mistakes to Avoid

The first mistake is mixing total sales with category sales when calculating cost percentages. Food cost percentage should divide food COGS by food sales, not total sales. If you have a strong bar program, dividing food cost by total sales will make your food cost percentage look artificially healthy and hide real problems in the kitchen.

The second mistake is ignoring the relationship between percentages. A food cost percentage of 27 percent looks excellent until you realize labor is at 38 percent because the menu requires excessive prep. Prime cost exists precisely to prevent this kind of blind spot.

The third mistake is treating industry benchmarks as targets rather than context. A 30 percent food cost is average, not optimal. Your optimal percentage depends on your concept, price point, and competitive position. A fine dining restaurant may deliberately run higher food cost because ingredient quality is the entire value proposition, and they compensate with higher gross profit per cover.

The fourth mistake is tracking percentages without acting on them. A weekly food cost report that nobody reads is worthless. The value of percentage tracking comes from the conversations and decisions it triggers: adjusting a recipe, cutting a shift, renegotiating a supplier, or repricing a menu item.

Building Your Percentage Dashboard

The goal is not to memorize formulas but to build a repeatable system that surfaces these numbers automatically. At minimum, your point-of-sale system should give you daily sales by category. Your inventory counts should feed into a weekly COGS calculation. Your payroll system should export labor cost by day part. And all of it should roll up into a weekly prime cost report that takes ten minutes to review.

If you are still tracking these numbers in a spreadsheet, that is a fine starting point, but the manual effort tends to cause operators to skip weeks, and skipped weeks are where profit leaks hide. The businesses that consistently hit their target percentages are the ones that have made the tracking frictionless.

Start with prime cost. If you only track one restaurant percentage, make it prime cost. It captures the two largest and most controllable expense categories in a single number, and hitting 60 percent or below virtually guarantees that the rest of the percentages have room to fall into place. From there, layer in food cost, labor cost, and pour cost as weekly tracking categories, and save the occupancy and net profit numbers for your monthly review.

Restaurant profitability is not about one brilliant decision. It is about tracking the right percentages consistently, noticing the drift early, and making small corrections before they compound. Master these ratios and you will always know, to within a few points, exactly how healthy your business is.

Related Guides

Restaurant Prime Cost Explained: The Number That Predicts Survival — Prime cost as the key survival number
Labor Cost Percentage: How to Schedule Staff Without Wrecking Your Margins — Labor cost percentage and scheduling
How to Calculate Food Cost Percentage: A Complete Guide for Restaurants — Food cost percentage calculation
Food Cost vs. Total Cost: What's the Difference? — Food cost vs total cost context

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