Make the most of your menu with recipe management software

Here at Access, we specialise in arming hospitality operators with digital tools to help them manage their operations and inform their processes with data. In this article, we’re going to look at recipe management software and what it can offer businesses looking at recipe management. Including a few tips for recipe management best practices and how to choose the best recipe management software.  

What is a recipe management system? 

A recipe management system is the software used by food and beverage-based businesses to manage the processes, profit margins and nutritional information of their recipes.  

Recipe management software enables chefs and teams that work on recipe development to quickly and accurately create and cost profitable menus as well as standardise recipes across the operation ensuring the same high standards in every site.  

There are plenty of benefits for businesses in utilising a recipe management system, including: 

• Saving time – recipe management software can do all the volume and recipe conversions for you with no calculators needed, saving you time in scaling your recipes.  
• Control costs – Calculate the costs of your recipe per portion as you develop it.  
• Increase profitability – Use your business data to tackle food waste costs and adjust your recipe portions to generate the most profitable yield.  

How does recipe management software help businesses 

So, what are some of the ways that hospitality operators are using recipe management software to help their businesses?  

When you invest in new software, you want to know exactly how to achieve that ROI that impacts business performance.  

Here are some of the common things we hear from our customers about how they are utilising recipe management software in their operations.  

Reducing food waste  

Reducing food waste in the kitchen is a great way to save on food costs as well as making your business more sustainable by creating less food waste.  

Recipe management software solutions provide tools to help you with portion control and yield calculations. By providing accurate specific ingredient quantities needed for each recipe, chefs can minimise excess food production and ensure that only the required amounts are prepared, reducing waste.  

Recipe management software also facilitates batch cooking and prepping, helping chefs to prepare ingredients in bulk and store them for future use, making sure ingredients are utilised efficiently.  

Managing portion control 

Keeping track of portion sizes helps your kitchen to control and reduce food costs by ensuring your menu portions are the perfect size to maximise profitability while maintaining customer satisfaction.  

Recipe management software enables you to standardise recipes across your venues with precise ingredient quantities and portion sizes, reducing the risk of over-portioning and creating unnecessary waste.  

Recipe management systems usually also include yield calculators which provide information on the expected yield or number of servings for each recipe. Chefs can use this data to adjust the ingredient quantities as needed to prepare the right amount of food with minimum wastage.  

Adapting to market trends 

Analysing market trends and their impact on your menu offering should be an area of continued focus as customer preferences change and trends develop. Ballymaloe Foods’s 2022 Food Trends & Insights report looked at some of the up-and-coming trends in the Irish market that were resonating with consumers.  

The report highlighted the rise of food trucks across Ireland and how some operators were diversifying their offer to include indoor dining and an outdoor food truck to capitalise on consumer demand. For those operators looking to upgrade and diversify their offer, a flexible and scalable menu will be key to stay true to your brand and style and offer the same quality of food no matter the venue.  

Food market halls were also identified as a popular new option in casual dining with operators entering the space with reduced or alternative menus, listing popular market venues such as Cork’s Marina Market and Dublin’s Eat Yard and Dinetown food markets.  

And it’s not just food trends that will impact your menu offering, but wider consumer trends. According to Bord Bia (2021), 64% of Irish consumers said they “are making an effort to eat more healthily”, demonstrating the importance in offering a range of options on your menu as well as the benefit of communicating nutritional information.  

Market trends and food preferences change and evolve constantly, so it’s important to have software in place that enables you to be reactive and adjust your menus and recipes accordingly. 

Increase profitability 

Assessing the profitability of your menu items is key to a successful restaurant or food business. Recipe management software makes it easier to track ingredient costs and portion sizes so chefs and kitchen managers can control food costs. Access Procure Wizard integrates recipe management as part of the purchase to pay menu management software, meaning chefs can monitor ingredients in real-time, reducing excess inventory and minimise stockouts, contributing to more efficient use of resources.  

Recipe management software makes it easier to create more profitable recipes by facilitating batch production by providing tools for scaling recipes so chefs can optimise batch sizes to minimise labour and ingredient costs while ensuring consistent quality.  

Design spec sheets  

Standardising recipes across your operation is important in controlling costs and delivering consistent quality no matter who is in the kitchen. Recipe management software usually has the tools to design spec sheets for each recipe, including information such as ingredients list, cooking methods, preparation steps and serving sizes.  

Recipe management software also makes it easier to manage allergen and nutrition data for each recipe. Operators can use software to track allergen information and ensure compliance with allergen and food labelling legislation. Additionally, the software calculates the nutritional values of recipes, making it easier to offer healthier menu options and meet the needs of customers with specific dietary requirements.  

The software also enables operators to identify critical control points in their recipes, such as cooking temperatures and holding times, to ensure food safety and quality and comply with food safety regulations.  

How to choose recipe management software 

Now you’re ready to get started with recipe management, what should you look out for when choosing software?  

Firstly, there are a few different types of recipe management solutions, so it’s important to familiarise yourself with them and their specific benefits to determine what is the best system for your business. Broadly, recipe management solutions fall into one of two categories:  

• Integrated recipe management solutions: Recipe management is often a built-in feature of more encompassing restaurant management systems. These more comprehensive platforms offer a wider range of functionalities, which may include POS, inventory management or procurement with recipe management integrated into the system.  
• Standalone recipe management software: Some software offers a more dedicated recipe management solution, which may also provide tools to help digitise recipes and serve as a recipe database.  

Recipe management solutions whether as the sole service or part of a wider platform will generally offer features such as recipe creation, ingredient tracking, portion scaling and nutritional analysis, and it’s down to you to determine what areas you’re looking for support with.  

While the features and functions might vary from platform to platform, some things are useful to look for from any provider. Here are our top tips for choosing recipe management software:  

1. User-friendly – Think about who will use the software in their day-to-day job, it’s no use having a whole host of features if they are complicated and hard to use. Focus on making your chef and kitchen manager’s lives easier with a simple and intuitive interface.  

2. Customisable – How easy is it to tailor the software to your needs? Can you choose modules and features that are relevant to your business? Can the platform be adapted to fit your business needs?  

3. Integrations – Does the recipe and menu management software integrate with your existing software? Recipe management that is informed with integrated sales and inventory data can help you create more effective menus and recipes as well as track stock in real time.  

4. Scalability – Make sure the platform can grow with your business. If you have plans for expansion, you need a solution that can scale with you, as more venues means even more emphasis on quality control and consistency.  

5. Cost – Consider the cost of the solution relative to its features and benefits. What can the provider tell you about measuring ROI? The cheapest option isn’t always the right one, look for a solution that offers a balance of functionality and affordability, with transparent pricing structures.  

6. Analytics – Make sure you choose software that offers practical data reporting and analytics that help you track key performance metrics and make data-driven decisions.  

7. Staying compliant – Hospitality businesses face stringent compliance requirements to keep their customers safe, check that the software you choose will help you stay compliant with food safety regulations and allergen reporting requirements. Look for features such as allergen management, HACCP compliance and automatic updates for regulatory changes.  

Revolutionised recipes start here...  

Did you know that Access Procure Wizard offers recipe management tools as part of the Menu Management module? Enabling operators to take control of their recipe costings, analyse menu performance, standardise recipe spec sheets across the business and keep track of allergen and nutrition information.  

And all this in a platform that centralises and transforms food and beverage purchasing to help you keep a tight grip on costs and maximise business efficiency.  

Talk to the team to find out how thousands of sites are using Procure Wizard to:  

• Reduce time spent on accountancy admin by 90% 
• Get crystal-clear visibility on all your business costs 
• Go green with our 100% paperless solution 
• Say goodbye to manual exports 
• Capture an average of 1.5% more credits effortlessly 
• Import revenue automatically with synced PLUs 
• Stay compliant effortlessly with automated allergens, nutrition, and PPDs labelling 
• Cut waste by 4% and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability