Franchise recipe management: one standard, every store’s real cost

A franchise with three or four stores has two jobs that pull against each other. The brand needs every store to make the same pizza. Each store needs to know what that pizza really costs it, at its own suppliers’ prices. Spreadsheets usually pick one: a master recipe book with one set of prices, or a copy per store that drifts apart.

Write the standard once

• One recipe per dish and size, with a weight for every ingredient, written and published by the brand.
• Dated changes. When a recipe changes, publish a new version with the day it starts, so every store switches on the same day and older days keep the recipe they were made with.
• Prep recipes too. Dough, sauces and dressings are recipes of their own, used inside the menu recipes, so a change to the sauce reaches every pizza that uses it.

Set standard prices, then let stores record reality

The brand sets a standard price for each ingredient, and every store starts from it. That gives a new store a costed menu on day one. After that, each store’s real costs take over:

• The deliveries a store records price its recipes from then on.
• A store can record its own cost for an ingredient when it pays something different, for example from a local supplier.
• The brand’s standard price fills any gap where a store has neither.

The result is one recipe with a different, true cost in each store. A store paying more for cheese shows a higher food cost on every pizza, which is exactly what the owner needs to see.

Allow exceptions, visibly

Sometimes a store has to differ: a local product, a regional price. Two rules keep that under control:

• Store prices on top of the brand’s. The brand sets a list price for each dish; a store can set its own, and the store’s price is the one its margins use.
• A store’s own recipe version when it truly needs one, kept as that store’s version rather than a silent edit to the brand recipe.

Compare stores side by side

A franchisor’s weekly questions are usually the same:

• What does each dish cost, and earn, in each store?
• Which stores sell it at a different price?
• Did every store finish its checklists and temperature checks, and sign off its days?

How Mezbano handles a franchise

Mezbano is built around this model. A brand writes and publishes menu and prep recipes once for every store, sets its standard ingredient prices (or imports them from a spreadsheet, checking every row before anything is saved) and writes the checklists its stores run. Each store records its deliveries and, where it needs to, its own costs, prices and recipe versions. The brand’s Menu prices page shows every dish’s list price, its cost from the brand’s ingredient prices, its recipe food cost and the stores that sell it at a different price, and Readiness shows each store’s last seven days side by side. See brands and many stores for the full list.