Before you start — gather this for your month

Gather these numbers first, then enter your month in one go.

Sales for the month — Food Sales, Total Sales, and Covers
Waste for the month — discounts, QSA, and waste
Purchases for the month, split in two
- Food purchases
- Non-food purchases
What you classify as food counts toward your food cost; non-food stays out of food cost. Each restaurant decides what it includes in its food cost.
Inventory — beginning inventory and ending inventory for the month
BOH labor for the month
- Total hours for hourly staff
- Total salary dollars
Budgets for the month — the monthly budgets from your annual plan, so actuals compare against budget

Menu Engineering works by date range. Gather this before you use it.

Recipes: name (as in your POS), group or category, and cost
For your chosen date range, extract from your POS the number sold of each dish in that range, and use the total for the whole range.
Make sure each recipe name matches its POS item name, so quantities attach to the right recipe.

With these seven items ready, you can enter a full month without hunting for numbers halfway through.

Only if you use Menu Engineering