Free recipe costing spreadsheet template

A free Excel and Google Sheets template for costing recipes from real pack prices. Enter each ingredient once, build recipes from a dropdown, and get cost per portion, food cost %, and the price that hits your target. No email required.

For Google Sheets, open the .xlsx with File > Import. The formulas carry over.

What is in the template

• Ingredients tab. Ingredient, vendor, pack description, pack cost, pack size, unit, and usable yield %. Cost per usable unit is calculated for you.
• Recipe tab. Pick ingredients from a dropdown, enter the amount used, and see line cost, batch cost, cost per portion, food cost %, and the price at your target.
• Sample data. A costed cheeseburger so you can see how the formulas work before you replace it with your own.

How to use it

1. Enter every ingredient once with the pack cost and size from your latest invoice.
2. Set usable yield for anything you trim or cook down (see the yield and trim guide).
3. Copy the Recipe tab for each dish. Enter the amount used in the same unit as the pack size.
4. When a price changes, update it once on the Ingredients tab and every recipe tab picks it up.

When you outgrow it

Spreadsheets get hard when a sauce goes into a batch that goes into a dish, when recipes are measured in cups and bought by the pound, and when twenty prices change on every invoice. MenuForge handles nested batches, unit conversions, and invoice-driven price updates automatically. To be clear: MenuForge does not import this spreadsheet. Most kitchens start fresh with their top 10 dishes and use AI to draft recipes from a short description.

Questions