🜂 Hearth — Dashboard

Your command center. Shows real-time KPIs including recipe count, average food cost %, average margin per cover, low/critical stock count, and cost alerts. Three insight cards highlight your biggest cost opportunity, hidden gems to promote, and period food cost overrun. The Top Performers table ranks recipes by margin, while Needs Attention flags recipes over your food cost target with one-click actions.

Mise en Place — Kitchen

Ingredients — Your raw material library. Each ingredient has a name, category, vendor, purchase price, pack size, purchase unit, and yield %. Tare calculates cost per ounce automatically. Sort, search, and filter. Bulk edit via CSV import.

Recipes — Build recipes by adding ingredients with quantities. Set portions and menu price. View plate cost, food cost %, margin, and cost breakdown. Scale recipes for batch costing. Recipe history tracks every edit with timestamps.

Yield Calculator — Enter trim weight and starting weight to calculate actual yield percentage. Use this to set accurate yield values on ingredients.

Cost Analysis — Sortable table of all recipes with food cost %, margin, cost per portion. Identify which recipes are over target. Export to CSV.

What-If Scenarios — Model price changes without affecting live data. Adjust an ingredient price and instantly see the cascade effect on every recipe that uses it.

Activity Log — Timeline of all changes: price updates, recipe edits, stock adjustments, waste entries, and deliveries.

Compass — Analytics

Engineering Matrix — Classifies menu items into four quadrants based on profitability and popularity: Stars (high/high), Puzzles (high profit, low popularity), Plowhorses (low profit, high popularity), Dogs (low/low). Includes goal-seek tool to calculate the price needed to hit a target food cost %.

Menu Items — Manage your menu lineup. Link items to recipes, set prices and daily covers. Categories and active/inactive status supported.

Seasonal Menus — Create time-bound menus with start/end dates. Activate or deactivate periods. Track seasonal menu performance.

Larder — Inventory

Stock Levels — Track on-hand quantities for every ingredient. Color-coded: green (adequate), amber (low), red (critical).

Par Levels — Set minimum stock thresholds. When on-hand falls below par, the item appears in alerts and auto-generates purchase orders.

Waste Log — Record waste events with reason codes (spoilage, prep error, overproduction, expired). Tracks dollar value of waste over time.

Stock Count — Periodic physical inventory. Start a count session, enter on-hand quantities, apply. Tare calculates variance and logs adjustments.

Theo vs Actual — Compares theoretical usage (based on recipes sold) against actual usage (from stock counts). Variance highlights waste, theft, or portioning issues.

Receiving — Log deliveries with vendor, items, quantities, and prices. Updates stock levels and price history automatically.

Vendors — Manage vendor contacts and notes. Vendor names auto-populate throughout the system.

Purchase Orders — Auto-generated based on items below par. Grouped by vendor with estimated costs. Mark as sent and print.

Price Comparison — Compare ingredient prices across vendors using delivery history. Identify savings opportunities.

Ledger — Finance

P&L Statement — Profit and loss summary showing revenue, COGS, gross profit, labor, overhead, and net profit with period comparison.

Prime Cost — Food + labor as a percentage of revenue. Industry standard: under 65%. Tracks trend over time.

Category Breakdown — Analyze food cost by ingredient category (protein, produce, dairy, etc.). Identify which categories drive the most cost.

Break-Even — Calculate the covers per day needed to break even based on your fixed costs, average check, and food cost %.

Cost Targets — Set and manage food cost, labor cost, and prime cost targets. These drive color coding, alerts, and dashboard intelligence throughout Tare.

When a vendor raises prices

1. Go to Mise → Ingredients and update the ingredient's purchase price.
2. Tare automatically recalculates every recipe that uses this ingredient.
3. Check Hearth → Needs Attention for any recipes now over target.
4. Use Mise → What-If to model menu price adjustments before committing.
5. Update menu prices in Compass → Menu Items as needed.

Weekly inventory count

1. Go to Larder → Stock Count and click "Start Count."
2. Enter on-hand quantities for each tracked item.
3. Click "Apply Count" — Tare records variance and updates stock levels.
4. Review Larder → Theo vs Actual to identify discrepancies.
5. Check Larder → Purchase Orders for auto-generated reorder suggestions.

Receiving a delivery

1. Go to Larder → Receiving and click "+ Log Delivery."
2. Select the vendor and enter each item with quantity and price.
3. Save — stock levels update automatically, price history records the new price.
4. If the price changed, affected recipe costs recalculate instantly.

Optimizing your menu

1. Go to Compass → Engineering Matrix to see item classification.
2. Stars (top-right): Promote these — they're profitable and popular.
3. Puzzles (top-left): Great margin but low sales — improve placement or marketing.
4. Plowhorses (bottom-right): Popular but low margin — raise price or reduce cost.
5. Dogs (bottom-left): Consider removing or reimagining.
6. Use the Goal Seek tool on any item to find the price that hits your target food cost.

End of period review

1. Complete a stock count in Larder → Stock Count.
2. Review Ledger → P&L for the period summary.
3. Check Ledger → Prime Cost — is it under 65%?
4. Review Ledger → Category Breakdown for cost distribution.
5. Export reports via CSV for your accountant or management.

Food Cost Percentage
Food Cost % = (Ingredient Cost ÷ Menu Price) × 100
Industry target is 28–32%. Below 28% is excellent. Above 35% needs attention. This is the single most important metric for menu profitability.

Prime Cost
Prime Cost = Food Cost + Labor Cost
Should be under 65% of total revenue. Prime cost is the best single indicator of operational efficiency. Tare tracks this in Ledger → Prime Cost.

Yield Percentage
Yield % = (Usable Weight ÷ As-Purchased Weight) × 100
A 10 lb case of lettuce with 1 lb of trim = 90% yield. Use Mise → Yield Calculator to measure actual yields. Accurate yields = accurate recipe costs.

Engineering Matrix Quadrants
X-axis: Popularity (covers sold) | Y-axis: Profitability (margin)
Stars = High profit, high popularity. Protect and promote.
Puzzles = High profit, low popularity. Market better or reposition.
Plowhorses = Low profit, high popularity. Raise price or reduce cost.
Dogs = Low profit, low popularity. Rethink or remove.

Theoretical vs. Actual Usage
Variance = Actual Usage − Theoretical Usage
Theoretical = what you should have used based on sales. Actual = what was used based on inventory counts. Positive variance means more was used than expected — investigate waste, theft, or over-portioning.

Break-Even Point
Break-Even Covers = Fixed Costs ÷ (Avg Check − Variable Cost per Cover)
The number of daily covers needed to cover all fixed costs. Tare calculates this in Ledger → Break-Even.

Contribution Margin
Margin = Menu Price − Plate Cost
The dollar amount each sale contributes after food cost. Higher margin items should be promoted even if their food cost % looks high.

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Where is my data stored?
All data is stored locally in your browser using IndexedDB. Nothing is sent to any server. Your data stays on this device, in this browser. If you clear browser data, your Tare data will be erased.

Auto-save
Tare auto-saves after every change. The timestamp appears below the date on the Hearth dashboard. You can also force a save with Ctrl+S.

JSON Backup & Restore
Go to Settings → Export JSON to download a complete backup of all data (ingredients, recipes, menu items, vendors, stock, waste, receiving, settings, and history). Use Import JSON to restore from a backup file. This is the recommended way to move data between devices.

CSV Export
Every data table in Tare has a CSV export button. CSVs can be opened in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet application. Use these for reporting, sharing with your accountant, or analysis.

CSV Import
Go to Settings → Import CSV to bulk-import ingredients. The importer shows a preview with validation before committing. Column mapping is automatic based on headers.

Undo
Tare maintains an undo stack of up to 20 actions. Press Ctrl+Z or click the undo button in the topbar to revert the last change. Undo covers ingredient edits, recipe changes, deletions, stock adjustments, and more.

Print
Most views have a print button that generates a clean, formatted print layout. Purchase orders, stock count sheets, recipe cards, and reports all have dedicated print templates.