For food trucks

Recipe costing, built for the truck

From a single plate to a festival service, Doughflow shows what each item truly costs (ingredients, prep time, propane, the commissary) and the price that keeps your margin.

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Why ingredient math underprices your menu

On a truck, the ingredients on the plate are only part of the cost. Your prep hours, the propane, and the commissary all come out of the same plate, and that is where a thin margin hides on a busy day.

The true cost of every plate

Ingredients, your prep time, and a share of propane and the commissary, counted per plate. The number plain ingredient math leaves out.

Price a menu that holds its margin

Every item costed and priced to a margin you set, so the plates flying off the window carry their weight instead of quietly losing money.

Keep your food cost in line

See the live margin on each plate and catch the ones drifting as supply prices move, before a busy service turns thin.

Scale prep to the day

Take a recipe to a service-size batch or a festival count and the ingredients and the cost scale with it. No re-doing the math by hand.

How food trucks price with Doughflow

  1. Add your recipe

    Every ingredient with its amount, priced from what you actually paid. Photograph a supply receipt and Doughflow reads it in for you.

  2. Fold in prep and overhead

    Your prep time at a rate you choose, plus propane, the commissary, and packaging. Set it once and it applies to every plate.

  3. Price with a margin you can see

    Doughflow shows the true cost per plate and a suggested price with a live margin, so you never set a menu number that loses money.

50–75%

The gross margin most handmade food holds once labor and overhead are in the cost. Below it, a busy service can still come up short; Doughflow shows the margin on every plate so you can hold the line.

What profit margin is realistic

Common questions

How should I price food truck menu items?
Cost each plate fully first: ingredients, your prep time, and a share of the overhead like propane, the commissary, and packaging. That true cost per plate is the floor. Add the margin you need on top, then check it against what your line will pay. Doughflow does the costing and suggests the price.
Does it count propane, the commissary, and prep time?
Yes. Those are real costs of every plate, and they are easy to leave out. Set your overhead and your hourly rate once, and Doughflow spreads them across what you serve, so each plate carries its full cost, not just the ingredients.
How do I keep my food cost in line?
Doughflow shows the true cost and a live margin on every menu item, so you can see at a glance which plates are pulling their weight and which have drifted as supply prices moved. Update an ingredient once and every plate that uses it re-costs.
Can I scale a recipe for a big service?
Yes. Take a recipe to a service-size batch or a target count and the ingredients and the cost scale with it, so prepping for a festival is the same math as a normal day, without redoing it by hand.

Go deeper

Recipe costs

How to Calculate the True Cost of a Recipe

The full method for recipe costing: ingredients down to the unit, plus labor and overhead, worked with a simple example to a real per-item number.

Jun 9, 2026 · 3 min readRead it
Pricing & margins

How to Factor Your Own Labor Into Your Prices

Labor is the cost makers skip most. Here is how to pick an hourly rate, fold it into your per-item cost, and see what it does to a fair price.

Jun 9, 2026 · 3 min readRead it
Growing the business

How to Grow a Food Business: A Maker's Roadmap

A grounded roadmap for growing a food business: add sales channels in the right order, scale the products that earn, and price every new channel so it still clears your cost.

Jun 9, 2026 · 4 min readRead it

Know what every plate earns you.

Cost your menu, price it to profit, and let Doughflow keep up as supply prices move. Free to start, no card required.

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