Leftovers at teardown
Enter what is left directly in the teardown list. That is what makes actual consumption calculable.
After the event
Food cost per event: what did the supplies cost?
The day was busy, the register adds up — and still nobody knows whether the festival paid off. Mobistro derives food cost from what was actually used: loaded quantity minus leftovers minus reported losses, valued at your purchase prices excluding sales tax.
Request free beta accessFree beta for selected operators in the US, Canada, UK, Switzerland, and Europe.
For operators who want to know which events carry themselves
Food trucks, market vendors and caterers running many small events rather than a few large ones. If you trade at three locations every week, without numbers you will not notice that one of them has been losing money for months.
From day-to-day operations
Revenue is known, cost is not
- The register says what came in; what went out sits on delivery notes in a box.
- Leftovers from the festival go back into storage and never appear in any calculation again.
- Breakage and shrinkage get noticed but not recorded.
- The accountant sees the whole picture at year end — far too late to decide whether that market is worth booking again.
Consumption, price, result
Food cost is not an estimate here. It comes from what the vehicle took out and did not bring back.
Losses with a reason
Breakage, loss, theft or other — kept separate from normal consumption so the number does not tell the wrong story.
Valued with your prices
The purchase price sits on the item, excluding sales tax and per stocked unit. If one is missing, Mobistro names the item instead of quietly calculating too low.
Planned against actual
Analytics puts planned and actual goods costs per event side by side, followed by the variance. Revenue, costs and what was left sit alongside — for the period too, against the one before it.
What you can judge after wrap-up
- 01
Did the festival carry itself?
Revenue, booth fee, staff, food cost and travel sit in one place instead of four.
- 02
Which market performs better?
Set the period against the one before it: this month against last, this season against the previous. A trend surfaces before it is a year old.
- 03
Where is too much coming back?
Leftovers and losses per item show where you routinely load more than you sell. The goods variance shows which event the plan missed.
- 04
What will this event cost?
While planning, Mobistro derives goods costs from recipes, servings and direct sales — and sets them against expected revenue in cost planning.
A clear boundary
Net figures, not a set of books
Mobistro works with amounts excluding sales tax: purchase prices, costs and the revenue you explicitly confirm as net at wrap-up. Explicitly recorded overhead allocations are included. Other fixed costs and depreciation are not added automatically; nothing here is a filing for the tax office. What you see is what was left after the costs you recorded — a basis for decisions, not a balance sheet.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the revenue figure come from?
You enter it yourself at wrap-up, excluding sales tax. Mobistro is not a POS and does not read sales from yours — your checkout stays exactly where it is.
How is food cost calculated?
From the loaded quantity, less leftovers and reported losses, valued at the item’s purchase price. If an item is missing its leftover figure or its price, no amount is shown — what is missing is named instead. At wrap-up you take that amount over with one click or enter it from your receipts.
Is the result my profit?
No. It is what was left after the costs you recorded — excluding sales tax and including explicitly recorded overhead allocations. Unrecorded fixed costs and depreciation are not added automatically. Enough to answer “is this market worth it?”, not enough for a tax return.
Do I have to maintain purchase prices?
For food cost, yes — otherwise there is nothing to value consumption against. The price sits on the item, excluding sales tax and per stocked unit; for items stocked by the case, Mobistro also shows the price per content unit.
Can I compare planned against actual?
Yes. At wrap-up, planned and actual figures sit side by side: net revenue, goods costs, other costs and what was left. You see the comparison as you enter the figures; it reaches analytics, with the goods variance per event, once the closing is finalized.
What about closings from before the switch to net figures?
They stay exactly as recorded and are labeled as previous cash records. Mobistro does not convert them to net after the fact and does not mix them with new net closings.
What did the supplies cost? Check after the event.
Record leftovers and losses, then review food cost for your event — free during beta.