Menu Engineering Report

This is the Menu Engineering Report

Where to find the report

• Backoffice --> Reporting --> Reports --> Sales folder --> Menu Engineering Report --> Select Date Range --> Execute

What it looks like

What Do the Product Classes Mean?

In this report, each item is assigned a Product Class based on its performance in two key areas:

• Profitability: How much profit each item generates.

• Popularity: How often the item is sold compared to others.

These two dimensions are used to group items into four main Product Classes:

⭐ Star

• High Profit + High Popularity

• These are your top-performing items. They sell well and generate strong profits.

• You want to promote and protect these items—they’re your menu heroes.

🧩 Puzzle

• High Profit + Low Popularity

• These items make good money but don’t sell often.

• Consider marketing them more or training staff to recommend them, as they have strong profit potential.

🐴 Plowhorse

• Low Profit + High Popularity

• These are your workhorse items—people love them, but they don’t generate much profit.

• You might explore ways to make them more profitable without losing their popularity (e.g., raising the price or adjusting ingredients).

❌ Dog

• Low Profit + Low Popularity

• These items neither sell well nor make good profit.

• It may be time to remove or rework these items unless they serve a strategic purpose (like customer expectations or brand identity).

 

Why Accurate Item Costs Matter

The Product Class for each item depends heavily on its profitability, and profitability is calculated using the Item Cost.

Here's how it works:

🔹 Profit = Sell Price – Item Cost

For example, if a drink sells for $10 and the ingredients cost $3, the profit is $7. That’s a high-profit item.

But if the item cost is entered incorrectly — say, it’s entered as $5 instead of $3 — then the system will calculate the profit as only $5 instead of $7. That difference can affect how the item is classified.

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If Item Costs Are Missing or Incorrect...

• The Total Profit, Item Cost %, and Profit Category will be inaccurate.

• That means the Product Class (Star, Puzzle, Plowhorse, Dog) might also be wrong.

• For example, an item might look like a Dog (low profit) when it's really a Star, just because the cost data is off.

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What to Do

To ensure your Menu Engineering Report is accurate:

• Double-check that all Item Costs are entered correctly in your system.

• Review any items that are unexpectedly marked as Dog or Plowhorse — incorrect costs might be the reason.

Accurate cost data = accurate insights!