What this is
True Cost answers “did this item make money after the bill for rent, staff, and card fees?”
It is available for retail and restaurants if you can view Profit & Loss.
Simple picture
GST-exclusive sales − recipe/direct cost − payment commissions − waste − monthly overhead share = true result.
Legacy Profit & Loss List is a simpler sale-level view. Prefer True Cost P&L when overhead is set up.
Finished products (buns, lattes, cake slices)
Item Type is Finished Product. You sell it; you do not buy it as a finished SKU.
- Direct cost = ingredients on the recipe for one item (divide a 10-bun kitchen card first — Recipe batch yield).
- If you Batch-Stock after a production batch, direct cost follows that produced / WAC cost.
- Do not type a pretend purchase price to “make True Cost work”. Leave purchase price at 0 if the form still requires a number.
Retail products (Coke can, mineral water) still use a real purchase price. Ingredients keep purchase cost because you buy them.
Product Category (Baked Treats, Drinks) does not choose this path.
Statuses
Profit, At cost, Below cost, Cost incomplete. The band is the larger of 1% of GST-exclusive revenue and Rf 0.50.
Cost incomplete usually means a missing recipe, missing ingredient cost, or overhead not set up — not that the till is broken.