Menu engineering

Menu engineering sorts your dishes by how popular they are and how much profit each plate makes, so you know which dishes to push, reprice, rework or drop. It's on the Analytics page under Menu engineering, with the Item performance table below it. Owners and managers can see it. Menu engineering is part of advanced analytics, included in the Growth plan and above and in the free trial.

How menu engineering works

Every dish that sold in the chosen period is placed on a chart:

• Popularity: its share of all dishes sold. A dish counts as popular if its share is at least 70% of the average share. For example, with 20 dishes the average share is 5%, so a dish needs about 3.5% of sales to be popular.
• Profit per plate: its price minus food cost. A dish counts as profitable if it earns at least the average profit per plate (weighted by how much each dish sells).

Dashed lines on the chart mark these two averages. They split dishes into four groups. The period and outlet filters at the top of Analytics apply here too.

The four groups and what to do

Next to the chart, each group shows how many dishes are in it and its top dishes by revenue.

Ideas for each group

• Stars: put them at the top of their section with a good photo. Don't include them in discounts, since they sell anyway.
• Plowhorses: raise the price a little, use a cheaper side, or pair them with a profitable add-on through smart upsell.
• Puzzles: better name and description, a new photo, or a badge. Featuring them in an offer on slow days also helps. See Dish details and photos.
• Dogs: fix the recipe cost or price, or mark them sold out and see if anyone misses them.

Review the matrix every month or two. Changes take a few weeks of sales to show.

Item performance table

Under the chart, Item performance lists your top 25 dishes by revenue with:

• Sold (quantity) and Revenue.
• Food cost as a percentage of revenue. It shows in red above 35%.
• Margin / plate.
• Class: Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle or Dog.

Setting up food costs so dishes can be classified

Menu engineering needs to know what each dish costs to make:

1. In Menu builder, open a dish and fill in Food cost (for dishes with sizes, Food cost (smallest size)).
2. Or build a recipe in Inventory, and AirQR works the cost out for you ("Calculated from the recipe in Inventory"). See Recipes and food cost.

The cost is saved on each order as it's sold. A dish is only classified once all its sales in the period have a cost. Dishes sold before you added a cost show "—" until the period covers only newer sales. You need at least three costed dishes before the chart appears.

Troubleshooting menu engineering

• "Add food costs to your menu items to unlock the menu-engineering matrix." Fewer than three dishes have costs. Add food costs, then wait for new sales.
• A dish shows "—" in Class. Some of its sales in this period happened before its cost was set. Pick a shorter period, or wait.
• A great dish is a Dog. Check its food cost is correct, and use a longer period (30 or 90 days) so a slow week doesn't mislead you.
• The section is locked or missing. Menu engineering is part of the Advanced analytics module: in the Growth plan and above, and it must be on in Settings → Modules. See I can't see a page or a menu item.