How to calculate the incremental contribution of takeaway orders

Whether the growth in takeout orders is worth continuing depends on more than just the menu price minus the cost of ingredients. First, calculate the final revenue left by the orders, and then subtract the additional expenditures to complete these orders to get the incremental contribution under this comparison. After that, we must also look at the new fixed expenditures, common resource constraints and overall operating conditions. Positive incremental contribution does not mean that the store is already profitable, nor does it mean that every peak order should be accepted.

Alto-Shaam lists profit margin as a consideration in its takeout menu article, but its equipment recommendations don't prove a particular store's profits. [1] The following is a demonstration method of kitchen and financial comparison records. All amounts and quantities are assumptions and do not represent industry rates, Fengzhida customer income or tax treatment suggestions. Formal statements should still use the accounting standards confirmed by the enterprise.

First decide what to answer on this table

This example answers "When the existing venue and basic team remain unchanged, how much revenue and expenditure will be increased by receiving this additional group of orders?" It doesn't answer how much the store earned throughout the year, nor does it assess the full return on investment in new equipment. Different problems require different tables, and the balance calculated from the daily order table cannot be used directly to make store expansion decisions.

ACCA's explanation of relevant costs regards whether cash flow changes due to decision-making as an important judgment, and distinguishes between unchanged shared expenses and real new expenses. [2] Accordingly, in this example, the original rent and the original fixed salary are placed in the common expense description and are not repeatedly allocated to incremental expenditures. But if a new shift is added, new space is rented, or overtime pay is incurred to take these orders, these changes must be factored into the corresponding decisions and cannot be ignored just because the word "fixed" is in the name.

The observation period, channels, dishes and promotional versions must also be fixed first. For the same dish, the actual amount received by the store may be different under the three conditions of regular price, discount provided by the merchant, and platform subsidy. Calculate them separately first, and then summarize them according to the actual order composition to avoid using one high-income order to represent the entire menu.

A hypothetical order calculated from list price to comparable revenue

Suppose a menu is priced at 42 yuan, the merchant bears a discount of 4 yuan, and the platform subsidizes 2 yuan and actually settles the bill with the merchant. The customer paid thirty-six yuan, plus the confirmed two-yuan subsidy, and the income before settlement related to the product was thirty-eight yuan. There is no additional packaging fee in the demonstration, nor does it include tax calculation; the actual analysis must unify the tax-inclusive and tax-exclusive calibers, and verify the nature of the subsidy settlement.

Let’s also assume that the platform service fee is five yuan and the delivery fee borne by the merchant is three yuan, with no refunds or other deductions. Subtract these two expenses to get the income of thirty yuan after the channel expenses defined in this example. Written as a formula, thirty-six plus two minus five minus three equals thirty. In order to avoid ambiguity, the table should write "income after channel expenses" instead of "net profit" directly.

Another recording method would be to retain the thirty-eight yuan of revenue and then put the eight yuan of channel expenses into the cost column; the end result should be the same. However, you cannot first use the 30 yuan that has been deducted by the platform and then subtract five yuan and three yuan from the cost column. When comparing your statement, marking each deduction into which column it has been entered is a simple way to prevent duplicate deductions.

Kitchen spending registers along real new increments

In this example, it is assumed that the raw materials cost 2 yuan, the packaging costs 2 yuan, and the additional water, electricity and cleaning supplies cost 1 yuan. The additional overtime expenses incurred for this batch of orders are allocated to 2 yuan per order based on the confirmation criteria. Variable kitchen expenses total seventeen dollars. When no failed orders occur, the incremental contribution per order is thirty minus seventeen, which is equal to thirteen yuan.

The consumption of raw materials should include the normal loss under the caliber. Do not use the cost of a standard portion that already includes losses and add the same batch of losses at the same time. Packaging needs to record actual usage and a unified price basis; if boxes, lids, and seals are purchased in sets, the unit price of the lids should not be added repeatedly. When missing data is found, leaving it in "unconfirmed" status is more reliable than randomly filling in a seemingly reasonable industry average.

Energy sources should also avoid using rated power to directly replace power consumption. There may be different loads during equipment operation, and preheating, standby, and closing also have their own boundaries. Appropriate measurement and task records can be used to obtain the energy consumption during the corresponding period, and then explain the allocation method; if only the entire kitchen bill can be obtained, the change cannot be accurately attributed to one takeaway dish. For parts where there is no reliable data, the sensitivity range should be determined first without pretending to be actual measurement.

It takes thirty seconds less for employees to pack boxes, which can be used as a record of workstation occupancy changes. If the shift schedule and payment amount do not change, these thirty seconds cannot be converted into salary savings and written into the cash result; if the same period of work is already included in the additional overtime pay, it cannot be revalued again. Time improvements may have value, but whether the value translates into reduced wages, increased serviceable orders, or reduced congestion needs to be proven separately.

Refunds and re-dos must be made to the same set of orders

Let's assume a group of 100 orders. Under the above normal conditions, there will be an incremental contribution of 1,300 yuan. Two entire order refunds actually occurred. In order to allow the capital chain to be recalculated, this example further assumes that: the actual payment of 36 yuan by the customer will be refunded in full, the 2 yuan platform subsidy that has been included in the merchant's income will be recovered, the 5 yuan service fee and the 3 yuan delivery fee will not be returned, and the platform will not bear the refund difference. The original production costs have been incurred and will not be offset by refunds. There are also three redo orders that do not overlap with refunds. Assuming that each additional direct expenditure for raw materials, packaging and other items is fifteen yuan, the income will not increase. These conditions should all be replaced with vouchers in real business.

Fund item of refund order	Normal order	After refund	Changes from normal orders
Customer actual payment	The merchant received 36 yuan	The customer received a refund of 36 yuan and the merchant no longer retained it.	36 yuan
Platform subsidies	The merchant gets 2 yuan	Subsidy was withdrawn	2 yuan
Service fees and delivery fees	Merchant expenditure 8 yuan	If no refund is given, the merchant will still spend 8 yuan.	0 yuan (already in the normal single baseline)
The platform bears the difference	0 yuan	0 yuan	0 yuan

Therefore, each refund order is reduced by 38 yuan compared with the normal order. The amount of the 30 yuan channel fee that is received after the channel fee is not directly regarded as the refund loss for the entire order. The demonstration result of this group is 1300−2×38−3×15=1179 yuan, and the average initial order received is 11.79 yuan. The denominator here is still one hundred orders. You cannot just use the ninety-eight orders that were successfully delivered and leave the refund losses elsewhere. To report each successful order metric, the name, denominator, and purpose should be listed separately and not mixed with the previous metric.

If there are platform refunds, recovery of delivery fees or additional compensation for refund orders, they will be adjusted item by item based on actual changes; if re-delivery occurs, additional payments will also be made. In this example, refund and redo are set as different orders. If the actual records occur in the same order, event details need to be used to avoid counting the same loss twice. This is a record of failed order fees and disposals. Causal inference is not accomplished by listing bad results.

Additional observations on congestion at common workstations

Even if the contribution per order appears to be positive, it may take up stove space, assembly tables or personnel that are urgently needed for dine-in restaurants during peak times. In this regard, two order queues should be observed at the same time, and the time when the conflict occurs, occupied links, waiting and cancellation status should be recorded. When there is a lot of takeout, dine-in food is also slow. This can only suggest that there may be a relationship, but we cannot immediately attribute the entire decline in dine-in food to takeout.

Only if it can be confirmed through credible comparison that a certain order-taking decision leads to a loss of other business contributions, the corresponding opportunity loss will be included in the decision-making scenario. Before confirmation, the risks and required evidence are listed separately and are not mixed with the realized settlement results. In this way, the kitchen sees the actual congestion location, and the finance sees the income and expenditure that have occurred and the alternatives that have yet to be proven, and information of different natures will not be combined into a false and precise number.

Resource requirements for single insertion orders, consecutive same-product orders, and multi-product mixed orders should be observed separately. One pot of the same product may share certain actions, but multi-product orders need to be switched and rechecked. It is not appropriate to multiply the smoothest one-time order cost by all order volumes, nor is it appropriate to use the most difficult order to represent the normal peak. Keep different order forms to know which conditions need to restrict order acceptance.

The results should be able to be traced from the settlement sheet back to the kitchen event

After completing the calculation, readers should be able to find the basis along each column: revenue corresponds to the settlement form, raw materials correspond to the usage and portion, packaging corresponds to the actual usage, additional labor corresponds to payment changes, and failed expenditures correspond to order events. Common rent, depreciation and original team wages are not deducted in this incremental table and should be clearly listed outside the table rather than misleading the reader into thinking that all costs have been covered.

This example yields eleven point seventy-nine dollars, which only represents the average incremental contribution under a set of assumptions. Whether to expand the menu in the next step also depends on whether the real income and expenditure are stable, whether common resources are sufficient, and whether the long-term total income can cover all expenses. Clarifying the scope first and then discussing sales growth is more helpful for business judgment than directly calling the amount of money received or the time saved as profit.

References

• Alto-Shaam: How to Optimize Your Menu for Takeout & Delivery
• ACCA: Relevant costs