Net cost and gross profit margins in real time

Also known as: cost, gross profit, GP, profit margin percentage, menu engineering.

For each size of every product in brasio, you can save the supplier’s net cost (cost excluding VAT). Using the selling price and the cost, brasio displays the gross margin and GP% in real time whilst you’re editing — the very same figures your manager uses to decide whether a dish is worth offering.

Entering the cost

1. In the POS, go to Admin → Catalogue and open the product.
2. Under Sizes, the net cost € column is for the supplier’s price excluding VAT.
3. Enter the cost for each size and save.

Tooltip on hover: Supplier’s net cost per unit (excl. VAT).

For products with packaging (kegs, wine bottles, spirits bottles), use the packaging model to have it calculated automatically. See The container model: barrels, bottles and spirits.

Viewing the margin in real time

Each size row has a margin tooltip showing:

• Margin {amount} — gross profit in euros per unit (price excluding VAT minus net cost).
• {gp}% GP — GP percentage (margin / price excluding VAT × 100).

Examples:

• A glass of house wine: selling price €4.50, VAT 10%, pre-VAT €4.09, cost €0.90 → margin €3.19 / gross profit 78%.
• A pint of craft beer: selling price €5.50, VAT 10%, pre-VAT €5.00, cost €1.80 → margin €3.20 / GP 64%.

The tooltip turns red when the margin falls below your menu engineering threshold (configurable; default 50%) so that products with low margins stand out when reviewing the menu.

Identifying products with low margins

The sales report under Admin → Sales groups items by product and size, so the Average price column reveals when the waiter is selecting the wrong size (typically because the wine is being sold almost exclusively by the glass with a low gross profit, rather than by the bottle with a high gross profit). Cross-reference Turnover with gross profit % to see what’s keeping your business afloat during the evening. See Sales report by product and size.

The other cost: ingredients and preparations

The above represents the cost of what you sell at the POS. If you also use kitchen traceability, there is a second cost: that of what you prepare:

1. When creating a batch of ingredients, enter the Pack cost — what you paid for this package, the total cost of the package, not the price per kilo or per litre. brasio calculates the unit price based on the quantity.
2. When you produce a recipe, the resulting batch shows its Batch cost and the cost per unit produced.

This way, you know how much a homemade burger costs you, not just how much a shop-bought one costs.

This is optional: without pack costs, traceability works just the same; the cost simply isn’t calculated. If the price of any of the packages used is missing, the production run is marked as Partial cost — the figure is real but incomplete, so don’t use it to set a price until it’s complete.

Two tips to save you hassle:

• The cost of the package is the total cost of the packaging. A 5 kg bag of flour costing €6.20 is entered as €6.20, not €1.24.
• This is the cost of that specific pack, not a list price. If the supplier increases the price, the next batch will show the new price, whilst previous batches will retain the amount you actually paid.

Visibility for owners only

Costs and margins are visible only to owner and manager roles. Waiters cannot see the cost column when editing — they cannot accidentally reveal the supplier’s price whilst chatting to a customer.

Best practice

• Update costs after every supplier price change, not just once a year. A 10 per cent increase by the supplier on the house wine represents a real change in gross profit; the catalogue must reflect this.
• Audit the gross profit percentage quarterly for your top 20 SKUs. Any downward trend indicates a supplier issue or a retail price that the POS system hasn’t updated.
• Use the packaging template for everything served in portions; doing the maths by hand for 40 spirits is where errors creep in.
• Reconcile with the till weekly. The total cost of goods should be close to sales-by-volume × cost-per-unit.

It’s not working

• GP% shows as empty: the size has no net cost in €. Enter it manually, or activate the packaging template.
• GP% shows 100%: the cost is zero. Either there genuinely is no cost (a free item) or you forgot to enter it.
• The selling price looks odd in the margin: the margin uses the price excluding VAT — check that the product’s VAT rate is correct. A wine taxed at 21% instead of 10% inflates the GP%.