The £1000 Mistake Hiding in Plain Sight: Why “Set and Forget” Menu Costing Is Costing You More Than You Think

When you launch a new menu, you probably do what most hospitality operators do:

• You sit down with your food costings spreadsheet.

• You plug in your supplier prices.

• You check the GP on each dish.

• You make sure it all stacks up.

And it probably does. At the time.

But then months go by.

Suppliers quietly raise prices.
Seasonal products change.
Packaging sizes shift.
And suddenly your margins… don’t exist anymore.

Most independent venues only review their menu costings every 6 to 12 months, if that.

By then, the damage is done.

Sweetcorn Up 60% - And Nobody Noticed

One of our OMS users recently told us they were shocked to discover that the price of tinned sweetcorn from their supplier had gone up by over 60% in three months.

It was a key ingredient in their vegetarian dishes - and they were selling well. But they hadn’t updated the costings since the menu launched, so nobody realised those dishes had slipped into GP loss territory.

By the time they spotted it, they’d lost over £900 on those dishes alone.

The Gluten-Free Pizza Base That Cost a Chain Thousands

Another customer - an independent pizza chain using multiple suppliers - shared an even more painful story.

They do a great gluten-free pizza option. It’s popular, well-reviewed, and priced similarly to the regular pizzas.

But six months after their last menu review, they discovered the price of their gluten-free pizza base had quietly doubled.

Doubled.

And nobody noticed.

They’d been happily selling that option at a loss for half a year.

The Problem? Lack of Visibility.

These aren’t rare stories. We hear versions of this every week from operators across the country.

Not because people are careless - far from it.
Because the tools most venues use to manage menus are built for one-time setup, not ongoing tracking.

The old way of doing things looks like this:

• Manually update spreadsheets (when someone remembers)

• Hope suppliers warn you when prices change

• Review your menu once or twice a year

• Get a nasty surprise when your accountant flags a problem

It doesn’t work anymore. Costs are changing too fast, margins are too tight, and time is too short.

That’s Why We Built the OMS Menu Builder

At Orders Made Simple, we created a Menu Builder that connects what you’re ordering directly to what you’re serving.

That means:

✅ Your ingredient prices update automatically based on your actual supplier orders
✅ Your GP per dish is calculated in real time
✅ You can track rising costs before they impact your margins
✅ You get alerted when a dish needs to be reviewed
✅ No more guessing. No more nasty surprises.

You Don’t Need to Change How You Work - Just Get the Info You’re Missing

We’re not asking you to overhaul your menu process or start from scratch.

We’re just giving you real-time visibility so you can make smart decisions, fast.

If your chef swaps brands, or your supplier changes the price, or something goes out of stock - you’ll know exactly how that impacts your menu and your margins.

No more losses in the background.
No more accidentally selling bestsellers at a loss.
Just clear, confident control over your GP.

Want to See It in Action?

If any of this sounds uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone - and we can help.

Email info@ordersmadesimple.com to book a quick walkthrough of the OMS Menu Builder. We’ll show you exactly how it works - and how you can use it to protect your margins, without adding more admin.

Let’s make sure your next menu really makes you money.