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Dine-in vs To-Go Costing

The same menu item is often sold two ways - eaten in and taken away - and the two have genuinely different economics. A takeaway drink carries a disposable cup and lid that a dine-in drink served in ceramic does not. And in the UK, cold drinks, cakes, and cold food are zero-rated for VAT when taken away but standard-rated when eaten in: same menu price, different VAT, different margin.

CostingBrik captures both on a single recipe. You get a dine-in cost and margin and a to-go cost and margin side by side, without creating a duplicate recipe.

Most recipes won't need this

By default every recipe behaves exactly as before: one cost, one margin. The dine-in vs to-go split only appears once you tag takeaway packaging or declare a takeaway VAT treatment. You can ignore this entirely until you need it.

The two levers​

A recipe expresses both versions through two controls:

  1. Consumable "Takeaway only" checkbox - tick the disposables a dine-in serve never uses.
  2. Takeaway VAT treatment - set per recipe to Same as dine-in or Zero-rated.

That's it. Ingredients always count toward both versions. The difference between dine-in and to-go is the packaging you tag and the VAT treatment you choose.

Tagging takeaway packaging​

In the recipe builder, every consumable row has a Takeaway only checkbox:

  • Unticked (default) - the consumable counts toward both the dine-in and the to-go cost. Leave it unticked for items used either way, such as a napkin or a cake case.
  • Ticked - the consumable counts toward the to-go cost only. Tick it for disposables a dine-in serve never touches: the takeaway cup, lid, sip-through, or paper bag.

This gives you two costs from one recipe:

Dine-in cost = ingredients + Both consumables To-go cost = ingredients + Both + Takeaway only consumables

So a flat white served in ceramic costs the coffee and milk; the same flat white to go also costs the cup and lid.

Keep it unobtrusive

Leave most consumable rows unticked. Only tick Takeaway only when a consumable is genuinely a disposable that dine-in service doesn't use. The builder stays calm: unticked rows show no badge.

Takeaway VAT treatment​

Cold food and drink taken away is often zero-rated in the UK, which changes the margin even when the cost is identical. Set the treatment per recipe, or default it per category (see below):

  • Same as dine-in (default) - the to-go margin is worked out against the same VAT-removed net price as the dine-in margin.
  • Zero-rated - the to-go margin treats the full selling price as the net (no VAT is removed), so the to-go margin is higher than dine-in even at the same cost.
This is your theoretical margin

The takeaway VAT treatment sets the theoretical to-go margin you see in CostingBrik, and it is yours to control. It does not change what the till charges, and it does not decide how realised sales are reported - that comes from the actual VAT recorded on each sale. Use it to model whether packaging and zero-rating are helping or hurting your takeaway margin.

Set a default per category​

Usually a whole category shares the same takeaway VAT treatment: every cake is zero-rated to go, every hot drink stays standard-rated. Rather than set this on each recipe, set it once on the category.

On the Recipe Categories page, each category has a Takeaway VAT setting:

  • No default - new recipes in this category start on the standard rate (same as dine-in).
  • Same as dine-in - new recipes start with takeaway charged at the dine-in rate.
  • Zero-rated - new recipes start zero-rated to go (the usual choice for cakes, cold food, and cold drinks).

When you pick a category while creating or editing a recipe, the takeaway VAT toggle is set from that category's default. Choosing a zero-rated category turns the toggle off; choosing any other category, including one left on No default, sets it to the standard rate. It is only a starting point - you can still override the treatment for that individual recipe after choosing the category.

Leave standard-rated categories on "No default"

Categories that stay standard-rated to go, such as hot drinks and hot food, don't need a setting. Leaving them on No default keeps the toggle on the dine-in rate, which is correct. Reach for Zero-rated on the cold and baked categories where it earns its keep.

Apply to existing recipes​

A category default only pre-fills new or freshly edited recipes. To bring recipes you have already built into line, the Recipe Categories page has two tools.

Review and apply (per category)​

Next to each category's Takeaway VAT setting, Review & apply opens a panel listing that category's menu items with their current takeaway VAT. Recipes that would change are ticked, you can:

  • de-select any recipe that should keep its current treatment (a deliberate exception), and
  • override an individual recipe to a specific value from its own dropdown.

When you apply, only the ticked recipes change. This is the safe way to standardise a category while protecting the odd recipe that breaks the rule.

Apply all category defaults​

For a first pass across the whole menu (handy if you set your categories up after building recipes), Apply all category defaults pushes every category's default onto recipes still on the standard rate in one step. Recipes you have already changed are left untouched, so it never overwrites a deliberate choice.

You are always in control

Both tools only change the theoretical margin you see in CostingBrik. They never change what your till charges, and realised sales reporting still comes from the actual VAT recorded on each sale.

Reading the two margins​

Once a recipe diverges, both figures are shown together and collapse back to one when they match:

  • Recipe builder, Cost Summary - shows Dine-in GP % and To-go GP % side by side, plus the takeaway VAT treatment selector. When to-go equals dine-in, you see a single GP figure.
  • Recipe detail page - adds To-go Cost / Portion and To-go GP % cards when they differ from dine-in. The consumable tables flag each Takeaway only line with a badge and show a Dine-in / To-go subtotal so the totals reconcile with the headline figures.

Worked example - Iced Latte​

Sold at £2.40 (VAT-inclusive, standard-rated dine-in). Coffee and milk cost £1.00. A napkin (£0.10, Both) and a takeaway cup and lid (£0.30, Takeaway only).

CostNet priceGP%
Dine-in£1.00 + £0.10 = £1.10£2.40 / 1.20 = £2.00(2.00 - 1.10) / 2.00 = 45%
To-go (zero-rated)£1.00 + £0.10 + £0.30 = £1.40£2.40 (no VAT removed)(2.40 - 1.40) / 2.40 = 41.7%

The takeaway version costs 30p more in packaging, but because it is zero-rated it keeps a healthy margin. Had you left the treatment on Same as dine-in, the to-go margin would be (2.00 - 1.40) / 2.00 = 30% - the packaging cost with none of the VAT relief, which is exactly the kind of squeeze this view is designed to reveal.

Works for every recipe​

Because this is theoretical costing, it works for any recipe, including hot drinks and items that are standard-rated both ways. Even with no packaging difference and no zero-rating, seeing the two figures confirms that a serve holds its margin to go - or shows you where a disposable cup is quietly eating into it.