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.

Percy Plate vs Excel

Why food businesses outgrow spreadsheets — and what to use instead

Excel can calculate recipe costs — if you build the formulas, maintain the price list, handle unit conversion manually, and never copy a sheet wrong. Percy Plate does all of that automatically, plus generates your FDA labels.

Where spreadsheets fall short for food businesses

You spend more time on the spreadsheet than on your food

Building a recipe costing spreadsheet that actually works — with unit conversion, sub-recipes, and automatic price updates — takes days. Maintaining it takes hours every month.

One broken formula gives you wrong costs everywhere

A single broken VLOOKUP or circular reference in Excel silently produces incorrect food costs. You might be pricing your bestseller wrong for months without knowing it.

It doesn't generate your labels

Even a perfect Excel recipe costing spreadsheet can't generate FDA ingredient labels or Nutrition Facts panels. That's a separate tool, a separate cost, and more manual work.

It doesn't work well on your phone

You're not always at a desk. Checking food costs in the kitchen, updating a price at the supplier, or reviewing margins at a farmers market is painful in Excel on mobile.

Feature comparison

✓ Included~ Partial / requires manual setup✗ Not available

Feature	Percy Plate $14.99/mo	Excel / Google Sheets
Monthly cost¹	$14.99/mo	$9.99+/mo
Recipe cost calculation²	✓	~
Automatic unit conversion³	✓	✗
Menu price suggestions⁴	✓	~
Ingredient price tracking⁵	✓	~
Live cost updates⁶	✓	✗
Sub-recipe support⁷	✓	~
Batch scaling⁸	✓	~
FDA ingredient label generator	✓	✗
Allergen auto-detection	✓	✗
Nutrition facts label generator	✓	✗
Inventory tracking⁹	✓	~
Revenue & tax reporting	✓	✗
Works on mobile¹⁰	✓	~
Breaks when you copy it¹¹	✗	✓

Not ready to decide? Email yourself this comparison.

¹Excel requires Microsoft 365 ($9.99–$29.99/mo). Percy Plate is $14.99/mo — for $5 more than Excel alone you get recipe costing, inventory, revenue tracking, FDA labels, and more.

²Excel can calculate recipe costs if you build the formulas yourself. A typical recipe costing spreadsheet takes 2–4 hours to build correctly and breaks when you copy it.

³Excel has no built-in unit conversion for cooking units. You must manually enter conversion factors for every ingredient (cups to oz, oz to lb, etc.) and maintain them yourself.

⁴You can write a formula in Excel, but it applies to one cell. Percy Plate applies your target food cost % to every recipe at once.

⁵Excel can hold a price list, but updating it doesn't automatically flow to every recipe that uses that ingredient — you have to update each recipe separately or maintain complex linked sheets.

⁶When a supplier price changes, Percy Plate updates every recipe instantly. In Excel, you update the price list and hope every formula reference is correct — one broken VLOOKUP silently gives you wrong costs.

⁷Nested sub-recipes in Excel require careful formula linking across sheets. Most people eventually give up and hard-code sub-recipe costs, which go stale.

⁸Excel can scale quantities if your formulas are set up correctly. Percy Plate scales any recipe in one click and generates a shopping list.

⁹Excel can track inventory counts, but calculating COGS from count changes requires careful setup and is easy to corrupt with a paste error.

¹⁰Excel mobile works for viewing but editing formulas, pasting, and maintaining linked sheets is painful on a phone.

¹¹Spreadsheet formula references are fragile. Copying a sheet, adding rows, or restructuring often breaks VLOOKUP/INDEX references silently.

Common questions

Can't I just use a free recipe costing spreadsheet template?

You can, and many people start there. The problem is that free templates handle simple cases — a list of ingredients with manually entered costs per oz. They break down when you need unit conversion (buying by the pound, measuring in cups), sub-recipes, or automatic cost updates when prices change. Most food business owners outgrow a spreadsheet within a few months.

Is Percy Plate just a more expensive spreadsheet?

Percy Plate costs $14.99/month — about $5 more than Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99/mo), which you need to run Excel. For that $5 you get automatic unit conversion, recipe cost updates when ingredient prices change, FDA ingredient labels and nutrition facts, inventory tracking, and revenue reporting — none of which a spreadsheet does without significant custom work.

What if I'm already using Excel for recipe costing?

Most food business owners who switch to Percy Plate from Excel report that setup takes 1–2 hours and they immediately have more accurate food costs than their spreadsheet was giving them. You can import your existing ingredient list and build recipes from scratch — Percy Plate handles the math and structure so you can focus on the food.

Does Percy Plate replace Excel entirely?

For food costing, ingredient tracking, label generation, and revenue reporting — yes. For other business tasks (bookkeeping, scheduling, general data tracking) you may still want a spreadsheet. Percy Plate is purpose-built for the food costing and compliance side of running a food business.

Ready to stop fighting your spreadsheet?

Set up your ingredients, build your recipes, and have accurate food costs in under an hour. No formula maintenance, no broken references.

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