Marge UP
Partly replaceable€39/montheditor verdict · 0 votes
Margin and food cost calculation with automatic handling of restaurant VAT rates (10% / 5.5%).
Margin calculation can be rebuilt; fine handling of restaurant-specific VAT rates must stay accurate at all times, which needs regular maintenance.
What you lose
- Automatic management of VAT rates kept up to date by the vendor.
- The product libraries that come pre-filled.
- Margin drift alerts without manual entry.
Existing alternatives to Marge UP
- YokitupFree
Free plan: recipe cards, allergens and cost prices; full plan at €159/month per site.
- COS KitchenFree
Free, unlimited food-cost calculator for restaurants, with PDF export.
- RestoMaestroSmaller vendor
Cost of goods and margin per dish calculated from scanned invoices, from €19 excl. VAT/month.
The prompt to build it yourself
Build me a margin and food-cost calculator for a restaurant, for my venue, to replace a subscription. Stack: web app (Next.js or Node/Express) with SQLite, hosted on my small server, usable on phone and computer. No mandatory paid service, no telemetry. Core of the tool: - Entering a dish: ingredients, cost of goods, selling price incl. VAT, VAT. - Automatic calculation of gross margin, markup coefficient and the recommended selling price to hit a target food cost. - Comparing several dishes in a table sorted by margin. Requirements: - Units and conversions (kg, g, L, cl, piece); purchase price excl. VAT per product and per supplier, with a history of changes. - Recipe card per dish: ingredients, weights, losses and yield, cost per portion, selling price incl. VAT, margin in euros and as a percentage. - VAT configurable per product (for example 10% for catering, 20% for alcohol): to be validated by my accountant, hard-code nothing. - Allergens: the 14 mandatory allergens ticked per ingredient, and automatically carried onto each recipe card (decree 2015-447). - CSV import and export (products, suppliers, recipes) so I am not locked in. Out of scope: stock, supplier orders and accounting. README: installation, database backup, and a reminder that the VAT rates and allergen declarations are to be validated with my accountant and my suppliers.
Frequently asked questions
- Can Marge UP be replaced by a custom-built tool?
- casevibecode verdict: Partly replaceable. Margin calculation can be rebuilt; fine handling of restaurant-specific VAT rates must stay accurate at all times, which needs regular maintenance.
- What is Marge UP used for?
- Margin and food cost calculation with automatic handling of restaurant VAT rates (10% / 5.5%).
- What alternatives to Marge UP already exist?
- Yokitup (free), COS Kitchen (free), RestoMaestro (smaller vendor). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.
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