Free guide · 9 pages · Includes the AI prompt

Menu Engineering Guide

This guide shows you how to build a menu that makes more profit without needing more customers, by sorting every item into one of these four groups.

  • Popular and high profit

    Keep it on the menu. It's what earns you the most profit.

  • Popular but low profit

    Raise the price. People already love it, but it leaves you too little profit.

  • High profit, not popular

    Get more people to order it. It earns good profit every time it sells.

  • Low profit, not popular

    Take it off the menu, unless it brings people in.

The framework
The framework
1. Contribution margin
1. Contribution margin
2. Menu mix
3. The four groups
How to do it with AI

How to use the guide

Three steps to a more profitable menu.

  1. 1. Export your sales

    At least a month from your POS system, with recipe costs if it doesn't already store them.

  2. 2. Sort every product

    Into the four groups, using a spreadsheet and the guide, or with the AI prompt.

  3. 3. Make the changes

    Keep, reprice, promote or take items off the menu to improve your profitability.

Want a long-term solution?

AI can sort your menu today, but your costs and sales change every month. Yield keeps your costs up to date, and automatically sorts every menu item into Keep, Reprice, Promote or Remove.

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Practical ways to improve your cash flow and profit using AI, every week.

No. Yield is cloud-based inventory software with AI built in. It uses proven mathematical formulas to help you buy and use the right amount of stock. AI speeds up tasks like reading invoices and answering questions, but using it is your choice.

Only if you want to track theoretical stock usage and variance. Otherwise, start with your stock list and suppliers. Yield still forecasts demand and builds purchase orders from your usage history.

Yes. Yield works on any phone, tablet or computer. Add it to your home screen and it opens like an app. Logging sales, counts, receipts and waste takes a few taps.

Yield doesn’t just report numbers. It finds the signals affecting your cash flow and profitability, and shows you what to change in purchasing, pricing or stock use.

Yes. Upload sales reports, invoices and stock counts from the systems you already use. Or record everything directly in Yield and use it as your main system.

No. Yield is optimised for businesses that turn raw ingredients into finished products, like restaurants, cafés and bakeries. It can also be tailored to other industries with the same inventory challenges, such as retail and salons.

Yield works in any country and supports every currency. If yours isn't listed, we add it on request.

Yes. You can manage one location or multiple locations in Yield.

Yield learns from your stock usage, purchasing and sales to predict demand. It uses that to suggest purchase orders, prep plans and prices that meet the targets you set.

Yield tracks your cost of goods sold, purchasing, and stock use over time so you can see whether they are improving.

Yield costs R2,990 per location per month (US$199). We set up your workspace for free, and you only pay if you want to go ahead. For 6 or more locations, we’ll quote you.

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