Why a recipe cost is blank or wrong

What it is

Each recipe line's cost is its amount × the ingredient's price per unit, which comes from the ingredient's vendor items. When those don't line up, the line shows blank, $0 or far too much. The usual causes:

• Case price on a single unit: the recipe uses one item, but the price is for a case of 12.
• No yield: a sub-recipe with nothing under Makes can't give a cost per ounce or per shot.
• Weight vs volume: you buy it by the pound, the recipe uses teaspoons, and Kintow has no conversion between them.
• Duplicate ingredient: the recipe points at a copy with no vendor item behind it, so it has no price.

How it works

Open the recipe and find the line whose Cost is blank, $0 or much bigger than the rest. Then:

1. Open that ingredient. Check it has a vendor item with a price and the right pack size (a case of 6 half gallons, not 1 half gallon at the case price). See Get pack sizes right.
2. Compare units. If the recipe uses a slice, pump or shot and you buy by the loaf, bottle or pound, add a unit in Menu & Recipes > Units with New Item (slice = 1/20 of a loaf). Or add a conversion on the ingredient's Conversions tab.
3. Search for the ingredient's name. If there are two, point the recipe at the one linked to invoices and merge the other.
4. For a sub-recipe line, check the sub-recipe has a yield. See Build a sub-recipe with a yield.

×

Once the ingredient is fixed, the recipe cost updates on its own.

What to do with it

If your expected food costs (theoretical COGS) look too low overall, look for missing recipes: items that sell with no recipe, seasonal or catering items never built, modifiers like cold foam with no recipe, and POS modifiers renamed so their recipe stopped matching.

• Add missing recipes: Add a recipe to a menu item, Add recipes to modifiers.
• Check the result: Actual vs. theoretical COGS.