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Flags

MenuBrik is not on sale yet: a small group of cafés are using it early. If you would like early access, email support@brik.ly.

MenuBrik ranks every costed item by the gross profit it made and raises a flag when an item needs a decision. There are four flags. Each is judged on ex-VAT figures, and the three money flags name the money at stake, so the biggest decisions come first.

Priced thin​

The item's menu price margin is below the margin target for its group. The flag says what it would have made at the target, for example "£42.10 more profit on the last 30 days of sales if it had hit your 70% target".

When there is enough pricing evidence, a priced thin item also carries a suggested price: the ex-VAT price that would reach the target. In the item workspace you can try a different price, see what it does to the margin, and save it as a what-if scenario. Nothing changes on your till: to charge the new price, change it on your POS.

If you have not set a target for the group, MenuBrik uses its own default and says so. See Margin targets and keeps.

Price leak​

The dish took less than its menu price says it should, by more than 3 percentage points of margin. Discounts, comps and price overrides on the till are the usual causes. The flag says how much margin leaked, for example "Takings ran at 61% against the 68% menu price margin, £18.40 leaked. Check discounts, comps and price overrides".

If the dish itself makes less than 5% of an item's takings over the period you are looking at, MenuBrik treats the item as priced through its modifiers, such as a base drink rung up at £0 with a priced size or syrup. For that period it shows no actual margin for the dish and raises no price leak.

Modifier leak​

The costed modifiers sold with the item cost more than they brought in. A free oat milk swap or an extra shot rung up at no charge shows up here. The flag compares the cost of the costed modifiers with what those modifiers took, and says how much was lost.

A modifier leak is judged on its own. A profitable extra on the same item does not cancel out a price leak, and a price leak does not hide a modifier leak.

Review​

A quiet seller or an item losing money is flagged for review if it costs something to keep on the menu, for example ingredients no other dish uses or a long prep. The flag asks you to decide: cut it, reinvent it, or consciously keep it. It has no money figure, because the cost is in the kitchen rather than the margin.

The money floor​

Priced thin, price leak and modifier leak only appear when the money at stake is at least £5 over the period you are looking at, so a few pence of rounding never raises a flag. A review flag has no £5 floor.

How items are grouped​

The Menu performance page sorts your items into sections:

  • Top earners - the fewest items that, between them, make 80% of your gross profit.
  • The middle - everything between.
  • Quiet items - items that are not losing money and make less than half a percent of your gross profit.
  • Losing money - costed items whose portions made cost more than they took over the period, refunds included.
  • Needs cost data - items with no recipe linked, so no margin can be worked out yet. Link them in the Item Mapper.

When the menu's total gross profit is zero or below, costed items that are not losing money sit in The middle.

Keeping a flag on purpose​

If you have looked at a flag and decided to leave the item as it is, choose Keep as is. The flag moves out of your attention queue and shows as Kept. See Margin targets and keeps.