Service 01
Daily Takings & Bookkeeping
Tidy recording of daily sales, card and cash takings, and supplier costs — so your books reflect each trading day without extra admin.
$240 / month
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Service 03 — Menu & Margin Review
See which dishes truly work for your venue
A menu that sells well and a menu that earns well are not always the same thing. A plain look at the numbers behind each item gives you a clearer picture — and keeps the decisions where they belong: with you.
What this delivers
A clear, honest picture of your menu's contribution
Most venue owners have a feeling about which dishes perform well. This review replaces feeling with figures — the actual cost of each item against what it sells for, worked out clearly and presented without spin.
The findings are yours to use however you see fit. We present what the numbers show and offer our observations. What changes, if anything, stays entirely with you and your chef. There's no agenda here beyond giving you a clearer view of your own menu.
Item-by-item costs
Each dish and drink costed accurately from real ingredients
Gross margin clarity
What each item actually contributes, shown plainly
One-off engagement
A complete review, delivered once — no ongoing commitment
Your decisions, supported
Observations offered, not prescriptions — the menu stays yours
The gap many venues notice
Busy dishes don't always mean profitable dishes
It's a reasonably common situation in hospitality: a dish is ordered constantly, the kitchen runs it well, front of house recommends it without hesitation — and yet the margin behind it is thin. A popular item can quietly cost more than it earns once ingredients, preparation time, and wastage are factored in honestly.
On the other side, dishes that feel more niche or occasional sometimes carry much better margins. They might not appear on every table, but when they do, they contribute meaningfully. Without the numbers, this dynamic is invisible.
Most chefs and owners build menus from instinct, seasonal availability, and what they know their customers enjoy. That's entirely right — a menu should reflect a kitchen's character. But layering in a clear cost picture doesn't take anything away from that. It adds a dimension that's often missing.
This review is designed to surface that dimension in a way that's clear and non-prescriptive. The numbers inform; they don't dictate. What you do with them is completely up to you.
How we approach it
A methodical look, presented without jargon
We work through your menu item by item — food and drinks both, if you'd like. For each, we calculate the ingredient cost based on your current supplier prices, work out the gross margin against your selling price, and note anything that looks worth discussing.
The output is a clear document showing cost, margin, and a brief observation for each item. We also provide a summary that groups items by how they sit — strong contributors, mid-range performers, items where the margin is tighter than expected.
We present the findings and walk through them with you. There's no pressure attached to any of it. Some venues make immediate changes; others find it useful simply to know. Both are fine outcomes.
Full menu costed item by item
Every dish and drink assessed individually, based on your actual ingredient costs.
Gross margin calculated for each item
What each item retains after food cost — shown as both a value and a percentage.
Summary grouping by contribution level
Items grouped so you can see at a glance where the strong performers and the tighter margins sit.
Walkthrough and discussion included
We present findings in a conversation — you can ask questions, push back, or simply take the document away to consider.
What to expect
A contained, focused engagement
The menu review is a one-off piece of work with a clear beginning and end. Here's what the process typically looks like.
01
You share your menu and ingredient costs
A current menu and a rough picture of what you pay for key ingredients — nothing elaborate needed.
02
We work through the numbers
Each item costed carefully, margins calculated, and observations noted — typically within one to two weeks.
03
We present the findings
A walkthrough of the document — you and your chef, or just you, as you prefer. Questions welcome throughout.
04
The document is yours
A clear, formatted report to keep and refer back to — useful for future menu planning and supplier negotiations.
The investment
A one-off fee for a lasting resource
The Menu & Margin Review is priced at a flat $520. That covers the full review of your menu, the written report, and the walkthrough conversation. There are no ongoing charges and no subscription involved.
The report you receive remains useful well beyond the initial conversation. It's a reference document for future menu changes, a starting point for pricing reviews, and a useful reference when you're negotiating with suppliers.
If your menu changes significantly after a year or two and you'd like an updated review, that's available at the same rate. But there's no pressure — one review can provide value for a long time.
What's included
Full menu costing — food and drinks
Gross margin calculated per item (value and percentage)
Summary grouping by contribution level
Plain-language observations for each section
Findings walkthrough conversation (you and/or your chef)
Formatted report document to keep and reference
$520 one-off
Single payment. No subscription. No ongoing commitment.
Why it's worth doing
The value of knowing tends to compound
A menu review isn't a one-time fix — it's a piece of information that changes how you think about your menu from that point forward.
Informed menu changes
When you're considering adding or removing dishes, having a cost baseline makes those conversations much more grounded — with your chef, your team, and your bank.
Supplier negotiations
Knowing exactly what an ingredient costs you — and which dishes it feeds into — changes the dynamic when you're talking to suppliers about pricing. The numbers give you a clearer position.
Pricing confidence
Many venues undercharge on certain items not because they want to, but because they're not certain of the cost. This review removes that uncertainty and makes pricing adjustments easier to consider.
Realistic timeline
From the point of sharing your menu and ingredient costs, the review typically takes one to two weeks to complete. The walkthrough conversation runs thirty to forty-five minutes. There's nothing else required from you beyond that initial information.
Our commitment
Findings you can trust, presented without agenda
We don't have any interest in steering your menu in a particular direction. Our job is to present what the numbers show, as clearly as possible. If you disagree with a finding, or if the context means the numbers don't tell the full story, we want to understand that.
If you receive the report and feel it hasn't given you useful information — if the findings feel obviously wrong or the methodology didn't suit your menu's structure — tell us. We'll work through it with you and, where the review fell short, we'll put that right.
We've found that most venues come away from this review having learned something they didn't know before. Not always something dramatic — sometimes just a clearer confirmation of what they already suspected. Either way, that tends to feel worthwhile.
If you'd like to understand what the review process would look like for your specific menu before committing, we're happy to explain — just get in touch.
Getting started
From enquiry to findings in a few straightforward steps
The review is a self-contained engagement. Here's what it looks like from first contact to final document.
1
Get in touch
Drop a message to [email protected] or use the form below. Just a brief note about your venue and that you're interested in the menu review.
2
Share your menu and costs
A current menu and approximate ingredient costs — a spreadsheet, a document, whatever format you have. No specific template needed.
3
Receive the review
The full report lands within one to two weeks, followed by a walkthrough call — and then it's yours to keep and use as you see fit.
Menu & Margin Review
Find out what your menu is really earning
If a clearer picture of your margins would be useful — even just to confirm what you already think — we'd be glad to talk through the review and whether it suits your menu.
Get in touch about the menu reviewNo obligation. Just a conversation.
Other services
Explore what else Counterly offers
Service 02
Wages, Tips & Rota Costing
Careful handling of wages, tips, and service charges — with clear reporting on labor cost as a share of sales.
$9 / employee / month
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