THE BASICS
What is Food Cost Software
Food cost software tracks what every dish on your menu actually costs to make, and updates that number automatically as supplier prices change.
No spreadsheets. Built for restaurant operators.
HOW IT WORKS
How Cactus Tracks Your Food Cost
From invoice to live cost per dish - automatically.
1
Scan invoices
Snap or upload - Cactus reads every line item.
2
Prices auto-update
A price rise updates every recipe using it.
3
See cost per dish
Every item shows its real food cost %.
4
Get alerted
Flags any dish over your target %.
Know which dishes are cutting into your profit — and by how much.
Get recipe book for your entire menu
Check and edit ingredients, unit, quantity used for any recipe
Search ingredients from inventory and directly add them to your recipe.
Syncs modifiers from your POS automatically
Deducts exact ingredients with every sale
Stays updated when your menu changes
The operators who track food cost weekly outperform those who don't by a significant margin.
Average restaurant net margin
3%-5%
Razor thin margins
Revenue spent on food cost
28%-35%
Your largest controllable expense
$20,000
Per year on $1M revenue
Savings with 2% improvement
Most operators don't know their real food cost until the end of the month - if they track it at all. By then, price increases from distributors, over-portioning, and waste have already eaten into profits.
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Frequently asked questions
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Step 1: Jump in - no signup needed
Click here or the link below and choose the demo account. You're inside the calculator in under 5 seconds.
Step 2: Find your restaurant
Type your restaurant name. Pick any menu item from the results and hit "Get details."
Step 3: Get your numbers
Instantly see your food cost percentage and find out how much you could save with better tracking.
Free - No signup needed.
