Free Tool — Menu Engineering Calculator
Menu Engineering Calculator
Analyze your menu by profit and popularity — identify stars to promote, cash cows to feature, and dogs to remove or reprice.
Menu Items
| Item Name | Price (₹) | Cost (₹) | Margin (₹) | Margin % | Units Sold | Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dal Makhani | ₹200 | ₹50 | ₹150 | 75% | 200 | ⭐ Star |
| Butter Chicken | ₹350 | ₹100 | ₹250 | 71.4% | 150 | 🧩 Puzzle |
| Paneer Tikka | ₹280 | ₹80 | ₹200 | 71.4% | 120 | 🐕 Dog |
| Biryani | ₹400 | ₹120 | ₹280 | 70% | 80 | 🐕 Dog |
How to Use
High margin + High popularity. Promote these items.
High margin + Low popularity. Increase visibility.
Low margin + High popularity. Raise prices or reduce costs.
Low margin + Low popularity. Remove or reposition.
Stop guessing which items drive profit
Menu engineering is the practice of analyzing your menu items by contribution margin and popularity to identify which items are genuinely profitable and which are eating into your margins.
This tool classifies every item into one of four categories: Stars (high profit, high popularity) that should be promoted, Cash Cows (high profit, low popularity) that need visibility, Puzzles (low profit, high popularity) that need repricing, and Dogs (low profit, low popularity) that should be removed or repositioned. Input your menu items with their prices, costs and units sold — the calculator handles the rest.
Menu engineering calculator FAQs
Contribution margin is the profit per item before allocating fixed overhead costs (rent, salaries, etc.). It's the amount each sale contributes toward covering fixed costs and generating profit, calculated as Selling Price minus Cost of Goods Sold.
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Setu Dine tracks every item's cost and sales automatically, so you can run menu engineering analysis daily and spot profit-killing items before they hurt your bottom line.
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