Thank you for the link, I will look throught the site and grab some templates.
to clear up some of your guesses.
I have planned and opened business for myself others, but we worked with cash. I also started my current catering business with cash , so I have never had to present P&L’s to a lending institution to get a determination if someone was going to lend money or not. I am a little more analytical when it comes to money matters than relying on a forecast with no direct data to back it up. I plan on presenting a P&L to the lender, but what bothers me is no matter what numbers are listed, there is no proof of them being accurate until 12 months after opening when you have the sales/cost data to back them up.
The only way I see any accurate forecast being made is if their is already a business in operation and to go through their day to day ops to derive the numbers.
As for the comment about not including boxes, Boxes are not a “Food-Cost” they are a consumable item and they have a different column in my calculations. when I say food-cost, I am referring to edible products only, not consumables, chemical, or otherwise. The paper products get listed for consumables and added into my the total pricing structure in the end.
As per the 20% cost ratio.
Alright, lets use this standard pricing from a neaby business that will be a competitor of mine, they charge $14.00 for a thin crust 15" pie, I estimate their dough weight at 18 ounces, they use a 62% hydration for their dough. (i got that info from the owner during one of our conversations a few months back) Approx 1 pound of cheese, and I am guessing at about10 fluid ounces of tomato sauce thinned with water from a canned puree.
For each additional topping for that pie, they are charging $1.75 for both meats & veggies.
Sausage weight is under 1-pound, onion use is negligible, and maybe a hadful of canned mushrooms from a #10 can
Now lets look at the typical saus,mush,O pie. Pork butts for sausage are historically less then $1.25/LB for boneless butts. Loaf cheese is around $2.50/LB
So they are getting $19.25 for a 15" thin-crust pie, what would your food-cost percentage be using that $19.75 Price?
I am fairly sure it would be well under 30% and more like darn near 10%-12% cost ratio.
What do you come up with using the prices they are charging for a finished product?