Guides & Plans

Guides and plans for pricing, food cost, and day-to-day control

The calculator shows the problem. This free library gives you 8 practical playbooks to fix it—pricing, food cost, SOPs, cash control, and weekly operating rhythm.

No checkout. No email gate. Read or download what you need.

Pricing System8 chapters

RestaurantMargin Library

Menu Pricing Blueprint

Raise prices with a system, not a panic move.

Audience

Owners, GMs, chefs, and multi-unit operators who know their prices are stale or inconsistent.

Promise

Replace ad hoc pricing with a repeatable system that protects gross profit every week.

Pricing System

Menu Pricing Blueprint

This playbook turns menu pricing from a guess into an operating rhythm. It shows how to calculate true plate cost, build cleaner price ladders, and implement small but compounding price moves that protect traffic while lifting margin.

Free PDF guide8 chapters
Menu Mix8 chapters

RestaurantMargin Library

High-Profit Menu Engineering

Change what sells, not just what it costs.

Audience

Operators who already know basic food cost and want to improve mix, check average, and item visibility.

Promise

Turn your menu from a list of dishes into a selling system that changes what guests choose.

Menu Mix

High-Profit Menu Engineering

This book shows how to read the menu as a portfolio. You will classify stars, plowhorses, puzzles, and dogs, then redesign placement, language, and bundles so the menu naturally pushes higher-margin decisions without feeling manipulative.

Free PDF guide8 chapters
Cost Control8 chapters

RestaurantMargin Library

Food Cost Control System

Margin leaks usually start before service.

Audience

Independent restaurants, groups, and kitchen leaders who need better purchasing and inventory discipline.

Promise

Cut recurring food cost drift with routines the kitchen and floor can actually follow.

Cost Control

Food Cost Control System

Food cost problems rarely begin on the plate. They begin in receiving, prep, par levels, transfers, and undocumented waste. This book gives you a weekly system to tighten ordering, inventory, and line behavior before the P&L tells you the damage is done.

Free PDF guide8 chapters
Prime Cost6 chapters

RestaurantMargin Library

Prime Cost Recovery Plan

Food and labor must be managed together.

Audience

Operators with rising labor, rising food cost, or a P&L that feels impossible to stabilize.

Promise

Create a recovery plan that shrinks prime cost without wrecking service quality or morale.

Prime Cost

Prime Cost Recovery Plan

Prime cost is where most restaurants win or lose. This playbook shows how to diagnose whether the real issue is schedule design, menu mix, prep architecture, overstaffing, underpricing, or all of the above, then fix it with a 6-week recovery plan.

Free PDF guide6 chapters
Operations7 chapters

RestaurantMargin Library

Restaurant SOP Manual

Consistency is a profitability lever.

Audience

Founders, GMs, and operators building consistency across shifts or units.

Promise

Create operating procedures that reduce chaos, speed up training, and protect the margin you already earned.

Operations

Restaurant SOP Manual

Margin is hard to keep when every shift reinvents the operation. This manual shows how to write lean, usable SOPs for the routines that most affect speed, consistency, shrink, and guest experience so your operation stops relying on memory and heroics.

Free PDF guide7 chapters
Cash Control6 chapters

RestaurantMargin Library

Cash Flow Survival Playbook

Cash is the scorecard that arrives first.

Audience

Operators managing thin cushions, expansion stress, debt, or unpredictable weekly swings.

Promise

See cash pressure sooner and make calmer decisions before the account balance forces your hand.

Cash Control

Cash Flow Survival Playbook

This book helps operators manage the gap between P&L theory and actual bank pressure. It shows how to build a short-horizon cash view, plan vendor timing, protect payroll, and stop cash surprises from turning decent months into stress cycles.

Free PDF guide6 chapters
Revenue Growth6 chapters

RestaurantMargin Library

Check Average Growth Lab

The easiest extra revenue is already in the order.

Audience

Restaurants with stable traffic that need more revenue per guest and better attachment selling.

Promise

Increase average spend using offer design and service language guests actually respond to.

Revenue Growth

Check Average Growth Lab

This book focuses on one of the cleanest ways to grow check average: use smarter attachments, bundle logic, scripts, and menu sequencing. It combines front-of-house training with menu design so average spend rises through better decisions, not pressure.

Free PDF guide6 chapters
Management Rhythm6 chapters

RestaurantMargin Library

Weekly Operator Scorecard System

A great week is rarely an accident.

Audience

Owners, directors, and GMs who need tighter weekly decision discipline.

Promise

Build a recurring review system that keeps pricing, labor, food cost, and cash aligned.

Management Rhythm

Weekly Operator Scorecard System

Many restaurants have data but no operating cadence. This book turns the chaos into a weekly scorecard system that helps leaders review the right metrics, spot drift earlier, and assign actions faster. It is designed to become the heartbeat of an owner or GM meeting.

Free PDF guide6 chapters

Reviewed by the Restaurant Margin team · Last reviewed .