Entering a Recipe: Main Tab

Tips

CostGuard is great for drink recipes, simply add in all of your alcoholic beverages as ingredients, and then enter in your drink recipes. Just remember that most distilled beverages and wines are sold in litres whiles drink recipes are in fluid ounces. CostGuard will make the conversions for you. For more information, click here.

This is where you enter recipes into CostGuard. Entering a recipe consists of six tabs: Main, Ingredient, Category, Prep, Method and Nutrition. Each Tab has its own tutorial. If you need more information on a topic, then click the highlighted areas for further information.

The Main Tab is the first part of entering a recipe. It covers the Name, Yield, Portion and Pricing information for the recipe.

2. Use the mouse or the arrows to move to the Name Field. Type in the name of the recipe.

3. Move the cursor to the Type Field. Click the

to display the list of Recipe Types. Use the arrows or the mouse to highlight they type you want. Hit enter.

Each of the five different recipe types: Serving, Prep Recipe, Menu, Food List, and Prep Build have a different purpose. Serving is for dishes sold to guests. Prep Recipe is for bulk recipes such as soups. Menu is a recipe that contains the dishes that you sell. Food List generates a Requisition, and Prep Build accounts for Inventory and Prep Recipes. Further details on the recipe types and uses are available here.

4. Use the mouse or arrows to move to the Description Field. You can use this field for more information about the recipe.

You have 40 characters for a brief description; it is not required. If you need more room, then create a note on this item, click here for more information. If the recipe is in a cookbook or on a card, then use this field as a reminder for a bibliography entry. For more information on bibliography, click here.

5. Use the mouse or the arrows to move to the Yield Field. You need to type in a number and then click the

for the Unit popup menu. Highlight the unit and click OK

For this field to work correctly, you need both a number and a unit. Examples include “1 ea” for serving recipes, or “5 gallons” for a soup recipe. For more information on this section, click here.

6. Use the mouse or the arrows to move to the Portion Field. Click the

for the Unit popup menu. Highlight the unit and click OK. Note: this field does not need a number.

For a serving recipe, the portion is how you serve this dish to a customer, ea or serving. For a prep recipe, the portion is a unit (no quantity) that you will use in related portion recipes (e.g., floz). So use a portion unit that best describes how it is served, for example, soup as fluid ounces or chicken breasts as pieces. If this is a Prep Recipe, such as soup, later you will make a serving recipe that specifies how many fluid ounces are in a serving. Again, for more information on this section, click here.

7. If the Yield and Portion Units are compatible, then the Portions in Yield Field will calculate automatically. If they are not compatible, then you will need to use the mouse or arrows to move to that field and enter in the information.

An example of compatible units is gallons and fluid ounces, pounds and ounces, and quarts and scoop sizes. If, based on your experience, you need to change the yield to account for other factors, then simply override the automatic number. For units that are not compatible, you will need to type in the amount. Later, when you are finished typing in the ingredients, the cost factors will appear for you. For more information on the yields and portion fields, click here.

8. Use the mouse or the arrows to move to the Sells For Field. If this recipe is for a serving that is sold to a customer, enter in the menu price.

The other types of recipes, depending on your operation, may not have a menu price. If that is the case, leave this field blank. For more information on this box, click here.

9. If needed, use the mouse or the arrow to move to the Food Cost % field, and type the actual food cost percentage in.

You can use this field to suggest a menu price based on Target Food Cost Percentages. Since CostGuard can calculate costs with an overhead percentage added in, click here for more information.