What is the Food cost cockpit?

The Food cost cockpit helps the executive chef to manage food costs and plan the daily purchases so they are aligned with the food revenue stream. The Food cost cockpit is always part of a labor cockpit − usually the kitchen, breakfast or a restaurant cockpit. This module is used by the Food cost cockpit owner, head chef and sous chef.

To access the Food Cost cockpit, navigate to the Kitchen Labor cockpit and select the “Food Cost” radio button from the main breadcrumb bar at the top of the screen.

How is it used?

Summarize all delivery notes and enter total cost of goods purchased (without VAT and rebates) on the matching day in PMI.

1. Regular purchases for short-term consumption (working stock) should only be inserted in the field Daily Food Purchase.
2. A purchase for an event (e.g. banquet) should be entered on the day of delivery in addition to an entry in inventory column on the day of consumption. You do not need to delete this purchase from the inventory column after consumption. PMI will only calculate today and onwards.
3. A seasonal consumption, e.g. Christmas dinner, should be inserted as a daily purchase. Additionally, it could be inserted as extraordinary inventory to increase the closing balance. The closing balance is revised as you are consuming this purchase.
4. Insert daily comments for special events.
5. Remember to save your data.

The closing balance should always be the current stock value. This value can increase or decrease several times during the month.

At the bottom of the table there is a calculation for month-to-date and month-end. The Purchase column sums up purchases for the month. The Total column shows goods sold for the period (opening balance + purchases – closing balance). Column 3 shows the total food revenue.

The first time you start using the food cost cockpit, enter the closing balance for the previous month, which will give you an opening balance. Opening balance can not be entered anywhere. This is only a carry-over from last month’s closing balance. The closing balance must be entered at the end of each month to find the correct food cost.

Even if your property is not taking stock at the end of the month, something still needs to be entered in this column. You can estimate your inventory, use par stock or copy opening stock. If opening and closing stock is the same, it is assumed that all your purchases have been sold.

Ideally you could work with par stock, which is your ideal inventory that you always have on hand.

Turnover days refers to the number of days you keep your stock on hand. The fewer days, the better, as this indicates the food is fresh and you don’t have cash tied up in the store room.