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Recipe, Menu Engineering & Food Cost — A per-tenant Business Central extension that turns BC items into recipes and menus, tr — 1/1Illustrative preview

A per-tenant Business Central extension that turns BC items into recipes and menus,

tracking true food cost, theoretical-vs-actual variance, margins and live ingredient depletion. Custom-built, installed and supported by ECOSIRE.

What is Recipe, Menu Engineering & Food Cost?

A per-tenant Business Central extension that turns BC items into recipes and menus, tracking true food cost, theoretical-vs-actual variance, margins and live ingredient depletion. Custom-built, installed and supported by ECOSIRE. Built to order by ECOSIRE for Dynamics 365 BC (build-to-order) — indicative price from $999.00 USD; request a quote for a scoped proposal.

Key Features

Recipe and sub-recipe bill-of-materials costed as a table extension over the native BC Item table, so plate cost rolls up live from each ingredient's current unit cost
Yield, portion-size and waste/shrinkage factors per recipe line, so theoretical cost reflects real prep loss instead of raw quantities
Menu engineering matrix that classifies each dish as Star, Plough Horse, Puzzle or Dog from posted sales lines and contribution margin
Real-time theoretical ingredient depletion driven by an event subscriber on the BC sales/POS posting routine
Theoretical-vs-actual food-cost variance reporting reconciled against counted physical inventory
Allergen and nutrition tagging carried on every recipe and sub-recipe, surfaced on prep sheets and menu exports
Multi-outlet / central-kitchen support so a shared sub-recipe costs correctly across kitchens and locations
Job queue entries for scheduled nightly cost roll-up, depletion and variance calculation
Costing, margin and variance data exposed over the BC REST/OData API for Power BI and Power Platform
Optional Dataverse integration so recipes and menu performance flow into Power Apps / Power Automate
Role-tailored permission sets (kitchen, chef, finance, admin) scoped to recipe and costing pages
Plate price, target food-cost % and actual food-cost % shown side by side on a chef-facing menu profitability page

Built to order, done for you

No DIY setup — a working app, built, installed and supported by ECOSIRE.

  1. 1

    You order

    Start with a one-time build price. We scope it with you at kickoff.

  2. 2

    We build & install

    ECOSIRE builds, configures and installs it on your Dynamics 365 Business Central.

  3. 3

    Go live + support

    You go live in about one working week, with two weeks of go-live support. Defects in the code we deliver are fixed free of charge.

About this Product

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central handles your inventory, purchasing and sales — but it has no native concept of a recipe, a menu plate, or food-cost variance. This extension fills that gap. ECOSIRE designs, builds and installs it as a per-tenant AL extension on your own Business Central environment (cloud SaaS or on-prem), so it lives alongside your real item ledger, vendors and posted sales rather than in a disconnected app.

We model recipes and sub-recipes as a costed bill-of-materials over your existing Item table, using table and page extensions rather than parallel tables, so a recipe's cost rolls up live from each ingredient's BC unit cost. A menu engineering view classifies every dish on the classic margin-vs-popularity matrix (Star / Plough Horse / Puzzle / Dog) using your actual posted sales lines. On each sale, an event subscriber on the sales posting routine depletes theoretical ingredient quantities and records theoretical-vs-actual food-cost variance against counted stock. Allergen and nutrition tags travel with every recipe and surface on prep sheets.

Because this is built-to-order, it is not an instant Microsoft AppSource download. After purchase, ECOSIRE scopes your recipe structures, menus and outlets, develops the extension, deploys it to your sandbox for sign-off, then installs it on production with the right permission sets and job queue entries for nightly variance and depletion runs. Costing data is exposed over the BC REST/OData API for Power BI and Dataverse / Power Platform flows. You own the result on your tenant; ECOSIRE supports and updates it across Business Central release waves. Typical delivery is a few weeks depending on menu complexity and number of kitchens.

What you get

  • A per-tenant Business Central AL extension (.app) built for your Business Central version, installed on your sandbox then production
  • Recipe, sub-recipe, menu and food-cost variance pages plus table/page extensions over the native Item and sales objects
  • Configured event subscribers for live ingredient depletion on sales/POS posting
  • Job queue setup for scheduled cost roll-up, depletion and variance runs
  • Custom permission sets for kitchen, chef, finance and admin roles
  • BC REST/OData API endpoints and a sample Power BI dataset for menu and food-cost reporting
  • Source AL code, deployment package and a configuration/admin guide handed to your team
  • UAT sign-off in your sandbox before production go-live, plus post-go-live hypercare

Who this is for

Multi-Outlet Restaurant Operator

Runs several venues on one Business Central tenant and needs each plate's true cost and margin visible across outlets, with menu engineering to drop the Dogs and push the Stars.

Central Kitchen / Commissary Manager

Produces shared sub-recipes (sauces, doughs, stocks) consumed by multiple kitchens and needs costs to roll up and deplete correctly wherever a sub-recipe is used.

Finance Controller / FP&A

Wants theoretical-vs-actual food-cost variance reconciled to the BC item ledger and counted stock, surfaced in Power BI rather than spreadsheets, to find shrinkage and over-portioning.

How Recipe, Menu Engineering & Food Cost Compares

CriterionECOSIRECustom BuildCompetitorDynamics 365 Business Central Native
Recipe / sub-recipe BOM costed over the native BC Item tableIncludedIncludedPartial supportNot included
Menu engineering margin-vs-popularity matrix from posted salesIncludedPartial supportPartial supportNot included
Real-time ingredient depletion via sales posting event subscriberIncludedIncludedPartial supportNot included
Theoretical-vs-actual food-cost variance reconciled to counted stockIncludedPartial supportPartial supportNot included
Built, installed per-tenant and supported on YOUR environmentIncludedPartial supportNot includedNot included
Tailored to your exact menus, outlets and central kitchenIncludedIncludedNot includedNot included
Upgrade-safe AL extension across BC release wavesIncludedPartial supportIncludedIncluded
Allergen / nutrition tagging on recipes and prep sheetsIncludedPartial supportPartial supportNot included
Power BI + Dataverse / Power Platform reporting integrationIncludedPartial supportPartial supportPartial support

Frequently Asked Questions about Recipe, Menu Engineering & Food Cost

Is this a Microsoft AppSource app I can install instantly?

No. This is built-to-order. There is no instant AppSource download. After purchase, ECOSIRE scopes your recipes, menus and outlets, develops the per-tenant AL extension, deploys it to your Business Central sandbox for sign-off, then installs it on production. You receive a real, working extension on your own tenant — not a self-service marketplace listing.

How long does delivery take?

Typical delivery is a few weeks from kickoff, depending on menu complexity, number of kitchens/outlets and how clean your existing item master is. We confirm a firm timeline during scoping. The flow is: requirements and recipe data review, development, sandbox UAT, then a scheduled production install with hypercare afterward.

Will it survive Business Central's twice-yearly release waves?

Yes. Because it is a proper AL per-tenant extension using table/page extensions and event subscribers (not modified base objects), it upgrades cleanly with Business Central. ECOSIRE provides ongoing support and rebuilds/retests the extension against new major versions as part of your support agreement so a release wave never breaks your food costing.

Does it work with our POS and the BC sales posting?

The depletion engine subscribes to the Business Central sales/POS posting routine, so any sale that posts through BC (including POS solutions that post into BC) triggers theoretical ingredient depletion. If your POS posts to BC via the REST/OData API or an integration, we wire depletion to that posting path during scoping.

Can we get the data into Power BI and Power Platform?

Yes. Recipe cost, plate margin, menu classification and variance are exposed over the BC REST/OData API, and we ship a sample Power BI dataset. Optional Dataverse integration lets recipes and menu performance flow into Power Apps and Power Automate for approvals, alerts and dashboards across Microsoft 365.

Request a quote

Recipe, Menu Engineering & Food Cost

A per-tenant Business Central extension that turns BC items into recipes and menus, tracking true food cost, theoretical-vs-actual variance, margins and live ingredient depletion. Custom-built, installed and supported by ECOSIRE.

  • Recipe and sub-recipe bill-of-materials costed as a table extension over the native BC Item table, so plate cost rolls up live from each ingredient's current unit cost
  • Yield, portion-size and waste/shrinkage factors per recipe line, so theoretical cost reflects real prep loss instead of raw quantities
  • Menu engineering matrix that classifies each dish as Star, Plough Horse, Puzzle or Dog from posted sales lines and contribution margin
  • Real-time theoretical ingredient depletion driven by an event subscriber on the BC sales/POS posting routine

Request a Quotation

Tell us about your Recipe, Menu Engineering & Food Cost requirements and we'll send pricing, licensing options and a tailored proposal — usually within one business day.

No payment now. This sends a quote request to our team — we'll follow up by email with pricing and next steps.