# Restaurant Costing — User Manual

Welcome! This guide will walk you through everything you can do with Restaurant Costing.  
We've written it so anyone can follow along — no technical experience needed.

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## Table of Contents

1.  [What is Restaurant Costing?](#what-is-restaurant-costing)
2.  [Getting Started — The Dashboard](#getting-started--the-dashboard)
3.  [Ingredients — Your Food Library](#ingredients--your-food-library)
4.  [Recipes — Building & Costing Dishes](#recipes--building--costing-dishes)
5.  [Inventory — Stock & Ordering](#inventory--stock--ordering)
6.  [Settings — Customizing RC](#settings--customizing-rc)
7.  [Backup & Restore — Protect Your Data](#backup--restore--protect-your-data)
8.  [Import / Export](#import--export)
9.  [User Roles — Who Can Do What](#user-roles--who-can-do-what)
10. [Common Questions](#common-questions)

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## What is Restaurant Costing?

Restaurant Costing (RC for short) is a tool that helps you:

-   **Track every ingredient** you buy — what it costs, what's in it, who you buy it from
-   **Build recipes** and see exactly how much each dish costs you to make
-   **Calculate nutrition** for every recipe (calories, protein, fat, etc.)
-   **Manage inventory** — know what you have, what you need, and when to reorder
-   **Print order sheets** for your suppliers

Think of it as the brain behind your kitchen. Once your ingredients and recipes are in the system, RC does all the math for you.

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## Getting Started — The Dashboard

When you first log in, you'll land on the **Dashboard**.  
This is your home screen. It shows a quick snapshot of your data:

-   **How many ingredients** you have in your library
-   **How many recipes** you've created
-   **Your inventory count** (how many stock counts you've done)
-   **Quick links** to Ingredients, Recipes, Inventory, and Settings

From here, you can click **Manage** under any section to jump straight there.

> **Tip:** The version number (e.g. v0.4.2) is shown at the top of every page — useful if you ever need support.

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## Ingredients — Your Food Library

Ingredients are the building blocks of everything. Every item you buy — from salt to steak — lives here.

### Viewing Your Ingredients

Go to **Restaurant Costing → Ingredients** in the left menu.

You'll see a list of all your ingredients with:

-   **Name** — what you call it
-   **Product Type** — the category (Produce, Meat, Dairy, etc.)
-   **Product Size** — how much one unit is (e.g. "454 g" or "1 L")
-   **Food Cost** — how much one unit costs you
-   **Sub Recipe** — a checkmark if this ingredient is actually a recipe you make in-house

### Adding a New Ingredient

1.  Click the **Add Ingredient** button at the top
2.  A window (called a modal) will pop up
3.  Fill in the fields:

    | Field | What to put |
    |-------|-------------|
    | Name | The ingredient name (e.g. "Chicken breast, raw") |
    | Product Type | What category it belongs to. Click the **+** to add a new type |
    | Supplier | Who you buy it from. Click the **+** to add a new supplier |
    | Area | Where it's stored (e.g. "Walk-in Cooler"). Click **+** to add |
    | Reference unit | Is it weighed in **g** (grams), **ml** (millilitres), or counted as **ea** (each)? |
    | Product Size | The package size you buy (e.g. "1 kg" or "4 L") |
    | Weight | How much one reference unit weighs in grams |
    | Package size (qty) | How many units are in the package you buy |
    | Package cost | What you pay for the whole package |
    | Food cost | What one unit costs (click **Calculate** to auto-fill from package cost ÷ size × weight) |
    | Min Level | The lowest stock level before you should reorder |

4.  Click **Save**

> **Tip:** Don't know the food cost? Fill in the Package Cost and Package Size, then click **Calculate** — it does the math for you.

### Editing an Ingredient

Click any ingredient name in the list to open it. Make your changes and click **Save**.

### Deleting an Ingredient

Open the ingredient, scroll to the bottom of the window, and click the red **Delete** button.  
It will ask you to confirm — this prevents accidental deletions.

### Copying an Ingredient

Click **Copy to New** at the bottom of the ingredient window. This creates a duplicate you can tweak — handy when ingredients are similar.

### Nutrition Info

For each ingredient, you can enter nutrition details per 100g (or per reference amount):

-   Calories, Total Fat, Saturated Fat, Trans Fat
-   Total Carbs, Fibre, Sugar
-   Cholesterol, Protein, Sodium
-   Vit A, Vit C, Potassium, Calcium, Iron

These are used later when calculating recipe nutrition.

### Filters

Use the **Filters** bar above the ingredient list to narrow things down:

-   **Search** by name
-   **Filter by Product Type** or **Supplier**
-   **Show Inactive** — check this to see ingredients you've turned off

### Sub-Recipes (Made In-House)

Some ingredients aren't bought — they're made. For example, "Caesar Dressing" might be a recipe you make.  
These are called **Sub-Recipes**. They show a checked box in the Sub Recipe column.

When you open a sub-recipe ingredient, most fields are locked — RC calculates the cost automatically from the original recipe.  
Click **Edit Source Recipe →** to go to the recipe and make changes.

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## Recipes — Building & Costing Dishes

This is the heart of RC. Recipes calculate exactly what each dish costs to make.

### Viewing Your Recipes

Go to **Restaurant Costing → Recipes**.

You'll see a list with:

-   **Recipe Name**
-   **Menu Type** — the category (Appetizers, Mains, Desserts, etc.)
-   **Sub-Recipe** — a check if this recipe is also available as an ingredient
-   **Portions** — how many servings this recipe makes
-   **Menu Price** — what you charge for it
-   **Status** — Active or Inactive

### Adding a New Recipe

1.  Click the **Add Recipe** button at the top
2.  Fill in the basics:

    -   **Recipe Name**
    -   **Recipe Makes (Portions)** — how many servings this recipe makes
    -   **Menu Type** — what category it belongs to (you can manage these in Settings)
    -   **Menu Price** — what the customer pays

3.  **Add ingredients** — start typing an ingredient name and select it from the list. For each ingredient:

    -   **Quantity** — how much you use (e.g. 200)
    -   **Unit** — g, ml, or ea
    -   The **Cost** and **Nutrition** columns fill in automatically from your ingredient library

4.  **Add method steps** — click the method column next to each ingredient to type a step

5.  **Add Prep Labour** — in the right column, click to add prep tasks with time estimates

6.  Click **Save**

### Understanding the Costing Panel

On the right side of the recipe editor, you'll see a summary:

-   **Ingredient Cost** — total cost of all ingredients per portion
-   **Prep Cost** — labour cost per portion (based on your labour rate and minutes)
-   **Total Cost** — ingredient cost + prep cost
-   **Menu Price** — what you charge
-   **Gross Margin** — profit percentage (menu price minus total cost)
-   **Food Cost %** — ingredient cost ÷ menu price (industry target is usually 28–35%)
-   **Nutrition / portion** — calories, fat, protein, etc. per serving

> **Note:** If an ingredient is missing nutrition data, you'll see a red warning. The nutrition numbers won't be accurate until you fill in the missing info on that ingredient.

### Sub-Recipes (Using a Recipe as an Ingredient)

If a recipe is also used as an ingredient in other recipes (like a sauce or dressing), check **Add as Ingredient** near the recipe name.  
This makes the recipe available as an ingredient everywhere else, with its cost and weight calculated automatically.

### Scaling Recipes

To see what a recipe costs at different portion sizes:

1.  Click **Scale Recipe**
2.  Enter the number of portions you want
3.  Check **Print Scaled Recipe** when printing if needed

### Printing a Recipe

Click **Print** next to any recipe in the list. This opens a clean printer-friendly view.

### Setting a Recipe Inactive

Open the recipe and click **Set Inactive** at the top. Inactive recipes are hidden from most lists (you can check "Show Inactive" to see them).

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## Inventory — Stock & Ordering

Inventory helps you track what you have in stock and what you need to order.

### Creating an Inventory Count

1.  Go to **Restaurant Costing → Inventory**
2.  Click **New Inventory**
3.  For each ingredient, enter:

    -   **Order Qty** — how many you need to order
    -   The current stock level is shown for reference

4.  Ingredients are grouped by their **Area** (e.g. Walk-in Cooler, Dry Storage) to make counting easier
5.  Click **Save**

### Viewing Past Inventories

The Inventory list shows all your past counts with the date.  
Click **Edit** to review or change a past inventory, **Delete** to remove it, or **Print/Order** to generate order sheets.

### Print/Order — Ordering from Suppliers

The Print/Order window groups items by supplier, so you can:

-   **Print** an order list for each supplier
-   **Email** an order to suppliers who accept email orders
-   **Print All** — everything at once
-   **Print Not Ordered** — only items you haven't ordered yet

Suppliers marked "Email Orders" will show a **Resend Order** button instead of Print.

> **Tip:** Check **Do Not Print Empty Rows** to skip suppliers with no items to order.

### Editing Areas

Click **Edit Areas** on the Inventory page to manage your storage locations. Areas help organize your inventory counts.

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## Settings — Customizing RC

Go to **Restaurant Costing → Settings** to adjust how RC works.

### Display Settings

-   **Hide Nutrition** — check this if you don't use the nutrition features. It hides all nutrition fields across the plugin.

### Management

Quick access to:

-   **My Restaurant Info** — your business name, address, phone, email, and logo
-   **Manage Suppliers** — add, edit, or remove suppliers
-   **Manage Areas** — add, edit, or remove storage areas
-   **Manage Users** — control who can access RC (see User Roles below)
-   **Manage Menu Types** — add or remove recipe categories (Appetizers, Mains, etc.)

### Backup & Restore

See the [Backup & Restore](#backup--restore--protect-your-data) section below.

### Ingredients Data

-   **Upload foodmaster.csv** — replace the main ingredient database file
-   **Re-import** — import the ingredient file into RC. Check "Skip existing" to only add new items
-   **Export CSV** — download all your ingredients as a spreadsheet file

### View Plug-in Details / Changelog

Click these buttons to see information about the plugin and what changed in each version.

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## Backup & Restore — Protect Your Data

Making regular backups is important. RC makes it easy.

### Creating a Backup

1.  Go to **Settings → Backup & Restore**
2.  Click **Download Backup**
3.  A `.sql.gz` file will download — this is a compressed copy of all your data
4.  Store this file somewhere safe (not on your website)

### Restoring from a Backup

**Warning:** Restoring replaces ALL your current data. There's no undo.

1.  Go to **Settings → Backup & Restore**
2.  Click **Choose File** and select your `.sql.gz` backup
3.  Click **Restore Backup**
4.  Confirm that you want to replace your data

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## Import / Export

### Importing from FoodMaster CSV

If you have ingredient data in a spreadsheet, you can import it:

1.  Go to **Settings → Ingredients Data**
2.  Click **Upload** to replace the CSV file, or check **Skip existing** and click **Re-import** to add new items without changing existing ones
3.  The system will add new ingredients and update existing ones

### Exporting Ingredients

1.  Go to **Settings → Ingredients Data**
2.  Check **Export Sub-Recipes** if you want to include recipe-based ingredients
3.  Click **Export CSV** to download

### Exporting Suppliers

On the Suppliers page, click **Export CSV** at the bottom to download your supplier list.

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## User Roles — Who Can Do What

RC has three user levels:

| Role | What they can do |
|------|------------------|
| **Manager** | View ingredients, recipes, inventory. Run reports and print orders |
| **User** | Basic access — view recipes and ingredients |
| **Admin** | Full control — everything including settings, users, and deleting data |

Users are managed in **Settings → Manage Users**.  
Only Admins can add, edit, or remove users.

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## Common Questions

**Q: I added an ingredient but it doesn't show up in the recipe search.**  
A: Make sure the ingredient has a name and was saved. Try refreshing the page.

**Q: The nutrition numbers look wrong.**  
A: Check that all ingredients in the recipe have their nutrition info filled in. If any are missing, you'll see a red warning message.

**Q: I deleted something by accident.**  
A: If you have a backup, you can restore it. Otherwise, you'll need to re-enter the data.

**Q: How do I change my restaurant name / logo / contact info?**  
A: Go to **Settings → Management → My Restaurant Info**.

**Q: I added a Menu Type but it doesn't appear on the recipe page.**  
A: Refresh the page. Menu Types appear in the dropdown when adding/editing a recipe.

**Q: My recipe says "Not accurate" in red.**  
A: This means one or more ingredients are missing nutrition data. Edit the ingredient and add its nutrition info.

**Q: How do I hide nutrition if I don't need it?**  
A: Go to **Settings → Display Settings** and check **Hide Nutrition**.

**Q: Can I use RC on my phone?**  
A: Yes — the inventory entry page is designed to work well on phones for counting stock on the go.

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*Restaurant Costing v0.4.2 — User Manual v1*  
*Last updated: 2026-06-02*
