Weekly GP & Food-Cost % Tracker
Excel (.xlsx) — also opens in Google Sheets & Numbers
A weekly GP tracker turns two numbers you already have, sales and food cost, into food cost %, GP % and GP £ for every week, so a slipping margin shows up in week two rather than at the year-end accounts. This template holds 26 weeks in Excel or Google Sheets, with totals and an average food cost % underneath.
What's inside
- Food cost %, GP % and GP £ for every week
- Running totals and average at a glance
- See the trend before it costs you
- Up to 26 weeks per sheet
What it does
Type your weekly sales and food purchases; the tracker fills in food cost %, GP % and GP £ for every week, keeps running totals and an average, and shows how your margin is trending — up to 26 weeks per sheet.
Margins rarely collapse in a week. They slide, quietly, and this sheet is how you see the slide while it's still cheap to fix.
Who it's for
Owner-operators who check the numbers weekly (or want to start). Pairs naturally with the stock-take tracker: one measures the week, the other explains it.
Worked example: the first three weeks
The Weekly Tracker tab opens with three weeks filled in:
| Week | Sales | Food cost | Food cost % | GP % | GP £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | £5,200 | £1,610 | 31.0% | 69.0% | £3,590 |
| Wk 2 | £4,980 | £1,640 | 32.9% | 67.1% | £3,340 |
| Wk 3 | £5,610 | £1,680 | 29.9% | 70.1% | £3,930 |
| Total | £15,790 | £4,930 | 31.2% avg | £10,860 |
Week 2 is the one to look at: sales dropped £220 while food cost rose £30, so food cost jumped 1.9 points. One week like that is noise; three in a row is a supplier price rise, a portioning problem or waste, and it is far cheaper to catch at week three than at month twelve. The average is worked out on the totals (£4,930 ÷ £15,790), not as an average of the weekly percentages, so a quiet week doesn't distort it.
How to use it
- Pick one day to close the week and stick to it.
- Enter sales ex-VAT and food cost for the week: purchases from invoices, or better, food used from a stock take.
- Read food cost %, GP % and GP £, and compare the week with the average underneath.
- When a week moves more than a point or two, check supplier invoices and wastage for that week before it becomes the new normal.
What it does not do
It tracks food only: no labour, rent or drinks. If you enter purchases rather than food used, a big delivery in one week will make that week look worse and the next look better; the Stock-Take tracker fixes that by measuring what was actually used.
Questions people ask
Is this a subscription?
No. It is a one-off £8.99, 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.
What GP should I be aiming for?
Most UK kitchens aim for 65–70% GP on food, a 30–35% food cost on ex-VAT sales. See the UK food cost and GP benchmarks for figures by type of business.
Can I track more than 26 weeks?
Each sheet holds 26 weeks, half a year. Copy the tab for the next half and keep the first as your comparison.
Goes well with
Try the numbers first, free: the food cost & GP calculator and the recipe costing tool run in your browser.