Food Truck Event Calculator: Costs & Break-even

Work out your event costs.

Example values, not recommendations. Adjust prices, tax rates and costs for your business.

JavaScript is needed to calculate your own numbers. The complete worked example below is readable without it. Worked example

Step 1 of 3

Your entries stay in place when you go back.

What will this event cost you?

Event country

USD Change currency

Currency

Currency is set automatically. No conversion or changes to tax rates.

This standalone estimator uses your cost assumptions: exclude recoverable VAT, include non-recoverable taxes and full labor costs. In the Mobistro app, you enter confirmed net costs.

Estimate food & beverage costs as

Food & beverage costs (%)

Covers food and drinks together. Already prepared food that may go unsold? Choose a fixed amount.

Total staff hours

Cost per staff hour

3 people × 5 hours = 15 hours. Include prep, setup, cleanup and employer costs.

Vendor fee

Allocated overhead$0.00

For example, insurance, vehicle financing, storage or kitchen rent, software and depreciation. Enter only this event’s planned share and avoid costs you have already counted. It is an assumption, not a measured actual cost.

Calculate from monthly costs

Overhead for this event

Travel and other costs$90.00

Travel costs

Other costs

For example, propane, power, packaging or payment fees, if not already included. Enter revenue-share fees as an estimated amount.

Your event estimate

USD

Left after these costs

$870.00

Under your assumptions, something is left over.

When would these costs be covered?

These costs are covered at about 138 sales.

Assumes the same food-to-drink mix, prices and other event costs. This is not an attendance forecast.

Not a profit statement: Costs you haven’t entered and income taxes are not included.

Where your revenue before tax goes

Food & beverage costs: $690.00
Labor & other event costs: $740.00
Left over: $870.00

What your guests pay: $2,495.50
Of which tax on sales: $195.50
Revenue before tax: $2,300.00
Food & beverage costs: $690.00
Labor & other event costs: $740.00
Of which overhead (already included): $0.00
Total costs entered: $1,430.00

What if fewer people buy from you?

Scenario	Sales	Left over
20% fewer sales	240	$548.00
Your assumption	300	$870.00
20% more sales	360	$1,192.00

Each sales group is rounded to whole units. These are scenarios, not demand forecasts.

Your next event doesn’t have to start from scratch.

In Mobistro, plan with your recipes and items, apply business defaults and compare your plan with actual results after the event.

Request beta access for my business

Web app in beta · Invitations in stages · Free during beta; you choose whether to start a paid plan afterward.

Plan with Mobistro

Estimate one event. Plan your whole operation.

Here, you test an idea using averages. In the Mobistro web app, you plan the actual event with your business’s menu, costs and day-to-day workflows.

Estimate a food cost total

Calculate with your recipes, items and purchase prices.

Enter labor and travel again

Set up labor and travel costs once and apply them to new events.

Get a result for your assumptions

Plan expected sales and event prices; enter actual figures when closing the event and compare them with the plan.

Explore revenue and cost planning in the app

Real Mobistro web app: sample event cost planning with labor, vendor fee and the planned amount left after entered costs — Cost planning in the web app

Once you book, keep the planning moving.

These workflows are part of the web app. An iPad app for on-site work is planned. Your POS still handles the till; there is no automatic POS import. Entries from this calculator are not transferred to the app.

Request beta access for my business See plans for after the beta

Web app in beta · Invitations in stages · Free during beta; you choose whether to start a paid plan afterward.

One event, worked out step by step.

See how the calculation works with your selected pricing basis and currency. These hypothetical values are separate from your inputs, not industry benchmarks or recommended tax rates.

Example with prices before tax

200 food items + 100 drinks = 300 sales

Food: 200 × $10.00 · 8.5 % tax
Drinks: 100 × $3.00 · 8.5 % tax
Food & beverage costs: 30% of revenue before tax
Labor: 15 hours × 20 = 300. Vendor fee: 350, travel: 50, other: 40. Overhead allocated in this example: 0. Total: 740.

Revenue before tax: 200 × 10 + 100 × 3 = $2,300.00
What your guests pay: 2,300 × 1.085 = $2,495.50
Of which tax on sales: $2,495.50 − $2,300.00 = $195.50
Costs entered: 2,300 × 0.3 + 740 = $1,430.00
Left after these costs: $2,300.00 − $1,430.00 = $870.00

Break-even: round up 740 ÷ ((2,300 ÷ 300) × 0.70) = 138 sales.

How this event calculator works

Revenue before tax: For tax-inclusive prices: sales × price ÷ (1 + tax rate ÷ 100), separately for food and drinks. For prices before tax: sales × price. Sales tax is paid on top by the guest and is not part of revenue before tax. Revenue is rounded to cents per group.
Food and other costs: For a percentage: revenue before tax × food cost percentage ÷ 100. For a fixed food budget, the entire amount counts even if you sell less. Staff hours × hourly cost plus vendor fee, travel, other costs and allocated overhead make up the remaining costs. Revenue before tax minus all entered costs is “Left after these costs”.
Sales needed to break even: With a food cost percentage: other event costs ÷ (average price before tax × (1 − food cost percentage ÷ 100)). With a fixed food budget: (other event costs + food budget) ÷ average price before tax. Round up to whole sales. There is no reachable break-even if nothing positive remains per sale after variable food costs. With zero sales, the sales mix needed for the calculation is unknown.

Only included if you enter it

Your own time, packaging, waste, payment fees, power, insurance, rent, financing and depreciation are not added automatically. Enter suitable event shares and avoid counting costs twice. Income taxes, cash-flow timing and VAT refunds are not calculated. A food cost percentage does not model unsold prep; use a fixed total for that. This estimate does not decide whether you should book an event.

Questions about the event calculator

Is this calculator really free?

Yes. Use it without an account, email address or subscription. Your numbers are not stored or transmitted and disappear when you reload. The Mobistro web app has separate beta access and will offer paid plans afterward.

Does it work in the US and the EU?

Yes. Choose your event country to set its currency, which you can override. Also choose whether prices include tax or are before tax. Enter the rates that apply to food and drinks yourself. The page language does not determine your market; the example values are not tax presets.

Can I use different tax rates?

Food and drinks each have their own tax rate and average price. Revenue before tax is calculated separately and then added together. This simple calculator does not cover additional tax rates within a group.

What happens at 100% food cost or zero sales?

If nothing positive remains per sale after variable food costs, there is no reachable break-even. At zero sales, the calculator shows the fixed costs still incurred but no break-even: the sales mix and average price before tax are unknown.

How do operating costs differ between the calculator and the app?

This calculator already deducts the planned share you enter from “Left after these costs”. The existing app result, “Remaining after recorded costs”, shows the direct event result. A separate comparison after an operating cost share is being prepared for the app and has not been released. It is intended to accept known event amounts or optional amounts per operating day, with optional calculation from recurring annual costs and expected operating days. No mandatory annual planning is intended. The share remains planned even when compared with actual figures.

What does Mobistro do beyond this calculator?

The web app plans with specific recipes, items and expected sales instead of just averages. You can apply business defaults, set event prices and compare planned and actual figures at closeout. Prep, packing lists and vehicles are also part of event planning.

Make your next booking a well-planned event.

Get to know Mobistro with your business. Request beta access and explore how planning, prep and event closeout work together.

Request beta access for my business See plans for after the beta

Web app in beta · Invitations in stages · Free during beta; you choose whether to start a paid plan afterward.

A busy line. But what’s left over?

Work out your event costs.

Estimate one event. Plan your whole operation.

Once you book, keep the planning moving.

One event, worked out step by step.

Example with tax-inclusive prices

Example with prices before tax

How this event calculator works

Only included if you enter it

Questions about the event calculator

Make your next booking a well-planned event.