Big restaurant software was designed for boardrooms and multi-unit rollups. Restaurant Profit Systems was built on the line, in walk-ins, and over counting sheets — by an operator who still works in the industry.
Restaurant365, MarginEdge, Craftable, MarketMan, invoice scanners, and content farms all do pieces of the job — but almost none of them help you tighten the actual plate math.
These are great if you have a controller, a tech team, and a training budget. If you’re a single-unit or small group, you pay enterprise pricing while still doing most of the thinking yourself.
Invoice capture is useful, but your bank account doesn’t care about PDFs — it cares about recipe cost, portioning, and the price printed on the menu.
Toast, Lightspeed, distributors, and finance blogs love writing about food cost and prime cost — but they rarely give you the sheets and calculators to actually run the numbers.
We built a toolbox around the real questions owners ask: “Why am I busy and still broke?” “What should my food cost be?” “What do I charge for this plate?”
Restaurant Profit Systems came out of an active restaurant, not a product roadmap. Every calculator, template, and guide exists because somebody on a shift needed an answer and couldn’t afford to get it wrong.
Instead of locking you into one giant subscription, RPS gives you a toolbox you can plug into the way you already run the shop.
Big platforms start at “hope you’re okay with another car payment.” We price RPS so you can fix the math without adding another panic bill.
Fancy dashboards don’t fix a single plate if the underlying math is wrong. We start with boring, honest numbers so every decision after that is real.
RPS tools walk you through portion cost, ideal food cost, card fees, and delivery margin step by step. No finance degree, no mystery formulas — just clear math you can explain to a line cook or a shift lead.
Once the math is right, it plugs into everything else: your menu prices, your labor targets, and whether that third-party delivery deal actually works.
You don’t need every feature. You need the handful of things that stop the nightly bleed.
| Feature | Restaurant Profit Systems | Restaurant365 | MarginEdge | Craftable / MarketMan | Generic Blogs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built by active restaurant operator | ✓ | × | × | × | × |
| Live menu math tied to your order guide | ✓ (Live Menu Engine) | ✓ (with full setup) | ✓ | ✓ | × |
| Free calculators for food cost, prime cost, and card fees | ✓ (The Vault) | × | × | × | × |
| Print-ready templates for inventory, waste, and operations | ✓ (Templates library) | × | × | × | × |
| Resource hub that ties articles directly to tools | ✓ (Resource Hub) | × | × | × | ✓ (content only) |
| Works financially for single-unit independents | ✓ (9.99–999 one-time) | × (high monthly) | × (high monthly) | × (subscription) | ✓ (free content) |
| Helps compare POS, delivery, and card fees | ✓ (calculators + comparison hub) | × | × | × | × |
| Complete “Stop the Bleed” training path | ✓ (ebook + tools) | × | × | × | × |
Names and general fit above are for operator context only. Always confirm current pricing and feature sets with each vendor directly.
You don’t need more software. You need a handful of systems that make your numbers honest and your decisions easier.
You’re slammed on weekends, light mid-week, and constantly wondering why the bank balance doesn’t match the volume. RPS gives you simple tools to tighten food cost, labor, and card fees one system at a time.
Nobody ever sat you down and walked through prime cost, break-even, or delivery margin. Our calculators, templates, and ebook are the “owner math course” you should have gotten before you signed the lease.
Instead of a consultant telling you to “control waste,” you get actual inventory sheets, waste logs, and recipe cards you can put on clipboards and use tonight.
If you’re not ready for a full ERP stack but you’re past winging it, RPS lets you standardize recipes, pricing, and basic reporting without committing to a heavy, expensive platform.
Start with one system: menu pricing, food cost, card fees, or delivery. You can stack the rest later.