A costing spreadsheet with forty rows hides more than it shows. This heatmap takes the same data, dish, price, cost, units sold, and turns it into a colour-ranked table: deep green for the dishes carrying your menu, red for the ones dragging it down. It's the fastest way to see where the margin actually lives.
Margin % per dish = (selling price minus plate cost) divided by selling price, times 100. Total contribution = per-dish margin times units sold.
| Dish | Price (₹) | Plate cost (₹) | Units sold | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Dish | Margin / plate | Margin % | Contribution | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Butter Chicken | ₹309.00 | 68.8% | ₹98,880.00 | 51.7% |
| 2 | Paneer Tikka | ₹239.00 | 68.5% | ₹43,020.00 | 22.5% |
| 3 | Masala Lemonade | ₹124.00 | 83.2% | ₹32,240.00 | 16.9% |
| 4 | Lamb Shank | ₹429.00 | 57.3% | ₹17,160.00 | 9.0% |
Heat colour follows margin %: green is healthy, red needs a re-price or a re-cost. Ranking follows total contribution, the rupees each dish actually brings in.
Both, which is why the tool shows both. A 75% margin dish that sells twice a week contributes less than a 55% dish that sells forty plates a day. Contribution tells you what funds the business, margin % tells you where re-pricing effort pays off fastest.
The mirror of food cost: at a 30% food cost target, dish margin is 70%. Beverages and starters often run higher, mains with expensive proteins lower. Worry less about a single universal number and more about dishes far below your own menu average.
The matrix classifies dishes into four strategic boxes using popularity and margin together. The heatmap is a straight ranking, better for scanning a long menu quickly and for spotting the exact dishes to re-cost. Run the heatmap first, then the matrix for strategy.
Classify every dish on your menu by profitability and popularity using the classic menu engineering matrix. Free tool, instant quadrants.
See how a recipe's cost and food-cost % move when seasonal ingredient prices spike. Compare current vs peak pricing side by side.