Menu Profit Matrix (Menu Engineering)
Excel (.xlsx) — also opens in Google Sheets & Numbers
A menu profit matrix (menu engineering) sorts every dish by two numbers: how many you sell and how much cash each one makes. This template does it in Excel or Google Sheets: enter units sold, food cost and sell price per dish, and it labels each one a Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle or Dog against your menu averages, with a plain-English action for each.
What's inside
- Auto-classifies every dish by popularity × profit
- Plain-English action for each: feature, re-cost, reprice or cut
- Whole-menu revenue, food cost and gross profit totals
- Built for cafes, restaurants and food trucks
What it does
Classic menu engineering without the consultancy invoice. List each dish with its sales count, food cost and menu price; the matrix auto-classifies every item by popularity × profit into Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles and Dogs, then gives a plain-English action for each: feature it, re-cost it, reprice it or cut it.
You also get whole-menu totals — revenue, food cost and gross profit — so the effect of any change is visible at menu level, not just dish level.
Who it's for
Cafés, restaurants and food trucks with an established menu and real sales data. This is the tool for the moment you suspect two dishes are quietly paying for the rest.
Worked example: a five-dish menu
The Menu Matrix tab opens with five dishes. Margin per dish is sell price minus food cost; each dish is then compared with the menu's average units sold (87.6) and average margin per dish (£11.00):
| Dish | Sold | Food cost | Price | Margin / dish | Total profit | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burger | 120 | £3.10 | £12.00 | £8.90 | £1,068.00 | Plowhorse |
| Steak | 22 | £9.50 | £26.00 | £16.50 | £363.00 | Puzzle |
| Caesar salad | 90 | £1.80 | £9.50 | £7.70 | £693.00 | Plowhorse |
| Lobster | 6 | £14.00 | £32.00 | £18.00 | £108.00 | Puzzle |
| Fries (side) | 200 | £0.60 | £4.50 | £3.90 | £780.00 | Plowhorse |
Totals for the period: revenue £3,959.00, food cost £947.00, gross profit £3,012.00. Nothing on this example menu is both popular and above-average margin, which is the point of running it: the best sellers (burger, Caesar, fries) earn less cash per plate than the menu average, and the two high-margin dishes barely sell.
What each category tells you to do
- Star (popular, high margin): feature it and don't discount it.
- Plowhorse (popular, low margin): re-cost it or nudge the price up. Small changes here move the most money because the volume is high.
- Puzzle (high margin, low sales): reposition or upsell it: better menu placement, a clearer description, a server recommendation.
- Dog (low margin, low sales): remix the ingredients into something that sells, or cut it.
How to use it
- Pull units sold per dish for one period (a week or a month) from your till.
- Enter each dish's food cost per portion. If you don't have it, cost the dish first with the free food cost calculator or the Food Cost template.
- Enter the sell price ex-VAT. Typing VAT-inclusive prices overstates every margin by the VAT.
- Read the category and the "What to do" column, then change one or two dishes and run the next period to see the effect on total gross profit.
What it does not do
It works on cash margin per dish and units sold, the classic method. It does not include labour per dish, and a category is only as good as the sales period behind it: use a normal trading week, not a bank holiday. Up to 25 dishes per sheet.
Questions people ask
Is this a subscription?
No. It is a one-off £14.99, with no VAT charged: buy it once, download the file and it is yours to keep. It works offline.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets; the formulas carry over. It also opens in Apple Numbers.
Why cash margin and not GP %?
A dish at 60% GP that sells for £26 can make more money per plate than one at 75% that sells for £6. Menu engineering ranks dishes by the pounds they leave behind, then by how often they sell.
Should I include sides and drinks?
Include sides if they are ordered separately. Keep drinks on their own sheet, or use the Drinks Margin calculator; mixing them with mains skews the averages.
Goes well with
Try the numbers first, free: the food cost & GP calculator and the recipe costing tool run in your browser.