Recipe costing spreadsheet vs software: what changes when you switch

Almost every food business starts with a spreadsheet, and for a while that's the right choice. With two or three products, a handful of ingredients and one price, a spreadsheet costs nothing and does the job. Don't pay for software before you need it.

The trouble is that spreadsheets fail slowly, one recipe at a time, so it's hard to notice when you've outgrown yours.

The four places spreadsheets break

1. A supplier changes a price

Butter goes up 40p. Every recipe that uses butter now has the wrong cost until you find it and change it. If each recipe sheet has its own copy of the butter price, you're changing it ten times, and the one you miss is the one that loses you money.

2. You start using sub-recipes

A rough puff pastry goes into sausage rolls, pasties and apple turnovers. In a spreadsheet you either copy its ingredients into all three, or link sheets together with formulas that break when someone inserts a row.

3. You add a second price list

A café wants a wholesale price. Now there's a retail column and a wholesale column for every product, and when costs move, both need checking.

4. You need to make more than the recipe makes

The recipe makes 12 sausage rolls; this week's orders need 80. In a spreadsheet you multiply every ingredient by 6.67 by hand, at 6am, for every recipe, and then add up the pastry across three products.

What it costs you

None of these is hard on its own. Together they add up to an hour or two every week of updating, checking and multiplying. Miss a step and you end up with a best seller whose margin has slipped without anyone noticing.

What changes when you switch

• Each ingredient's price lives in one place. Change it once and every recipe, including sub-recipes, updates.
• Sub-recipes are costed once and used anywhere.
• Retail, wholesale and catering prices all work from the same cost.
• Recipes scale to your orders automatically.
• The shopping list is worked out from your orders and stock.

When to switch

A good rule: switch when you have more than about ten recipes, use any sub-recipes, or sell at more than one price. Before that, a well-built spreadsheet is fine. If you're unsure, cost one recipe in our free recipe cost calculator and compare it with your sheet.

MakrPrep does all of the above, and you can try it free for 14 days with the sample data before entering your own.