Recipe management & costing
With BarBrain you cost food and drinks based on current purchase prices and have every recipe documented and ready to serve. You pull ingredients straight from your inventory. Recipe management is available as an add-on – €29 per month.
Recipe management
Recipes, purchase prices and selling prices belong together. In BarBrain you calculate the ingredient cost (cost of goods) of every dish and every drink automatically – and instantly see the ingredient cost ratio against the selling price.
Sample values
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Sample values
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A recipe's ingredient cost – often called cost of goods – is the sum of quantity × purchase price per ingredient. The ingredient cost ratio (cost-of-goods ratio) sets it against the net selling price. The calculation card shows this using a Gin & Tonic as an example. BarBrain does this automatically for every recipe – and updates the costing as soon as purchase prices change.
1 · Ingredients × purchase price
2 · Net selling price
3 · Result
Sample values. In BarBrain, purchase prices come automatically from your purchasing – if a price changes, the costing recalculates instantly.
Whether restaurant, bar or hotel: if you set prices by gut feeling or by what competitors charge, you're costing blind. Sound recipe costing in hospitality starts with the recipe – with exact quantities per portion, current purchase prices and the net selling price. From these you get the ingredient cost (cost of goods) and the ingredient cost ratio for every dish and every drink.
Small variances add up, especially in drinks and cocktail costing: 1 cl more per drink or a higher purchase price is barely noticeable in a single case, but very noticeable over a month. That's why BarBrain updates ingredient prices automatically from purchasing and recalculates the affected recipes. With the POS integration, recipes become the bridge between sales and stocktaking: sales × recipes give you target consumption, and the stocktake delivers actual consumption.
You'll find formulas, benchmarks and worked examples in our guides Calculating cost of goods and Costing in hospitality.
Free walkthrough and needs analysis for your venue.
You set everything up together with our team during onboarding.
First stocktake, first costing – and full cost transparency.
Still have questions? In the demo we answer them using your own product range.
You multiply the quantity of each ingredient by its purchase price per unit and add up the results – that's the ingredient cost, also called cost of goods. Divide it by the net selling price and you get the ingredient cost ratio (cost-of-goods ratio). BarBrain does this calculation automatically.
Yes. Drinks costing works just like food: you create the recipe with quantities in cl or ml, and BarBrain calculates the ingredient cost (cost of goods) and ingredient cost ratio. You reuse prep recipes such as syrups across several cocktails.
From your purchasing: ingredient prices update automatically, for example when you capture delivery notes with the AI delivery note scanner. If a purchase price changes, BarBrain recalculates every recipe containing that ingredient. Because recipe management is linked to inventory, you pull in existing ingredients directly.
Yes. You create base and prep recipes such as sauces or semi-finished products and reuse them in other recipes. If an ingredient changes, the recipes update automatically.
For all hospitality venues – bars, restaurants, nightclubs and hotels, from independent venues to chains.
No, recipe management is an add-on at €29 per month (net) for any inventory plan.
Yes, you can try BarBrain free for 30 days with no obligation.
Inventory, recipes, goods receipt and POS – one system instead of four separate tools.
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