Free tool · four-quadrant matrix
Menu Engineering Worksheet
Enter original and new plate costs alongside selling prices and period units. Compare contribution and review changing menu quadrants before deciding what to do.
Marji
marji.co/tools/menu-engineering-worksheet
Compare your menu before and after ingredient cost changes. Enter costs and units for the same period. Sales volumes are entered by you; no POS connection is used.
Need a plate cost first? Cost one recipe. Learn how contribution differs from food cost percentage.
Re-run these numbers free at marji.co/tools/menu-engineering-worksheet. Results use the inputs shown. Review quantities, units, yields and supplier costs before making a menu decision. Ingredient contribution excludes other restaurant expenses.
Common questions
Where do I get the units sold?
Enter counts from your own item-sales records or a POS report for a clearly stated period. Use the same period across all dishes and note unusual trading days. This worksheet does not connect to your POS.
How is the popularity line calculated?
Total units divided by the number of items with sales, times 70%. This worksheet uses that convention as a review threshold. Zero-sales items remain unclassified; review why they did not sell separately.
Why isn't the contribution line just the average of the CM column?
Because that would let a rarely-sold luxury dish drag the line up and mislabel half your menu. This worksheet uses the weighted average — total contribution divided by total units — which is what the dishes you actually sell produce.
What should I do first?
Check the source costs and period counts first. Then review the dishes with the largest contribution change. A quadrant cannot tell you how guests will respond to a price change or whether a dish should be removed.
Should I cut every dog?
No. Some dishes earn their place for reasons the matrix can't see — a vegan entrée that lets a group of six book, a kid's plate, a dish regulars come in for. Also check what else uses its ingredients before cutting, or you may strand inventory and push another dish's cost up.
My plate costs are old. Does that matter?
Yes. A classification depends on the entered costs. Use reviewed quantities, units, yields and supplier costs. Enter the original and new cost to see the impact while holding the selling price and entered volumes constant.