Build Your Recipes
Now that your Units and Stock Items are set up, it’s time to bring everything together with Recipes. When you build out your recipes, Loaded automatically calculates the cost. When linked to the POS or pulled through to menus, you’ll then be able to see your COGs and margin in real time.
There are two types of recipes you’ll create: Component/Prep Recipes, and Plated Recipes.
🔐 What You’ll Need
🔑 Stock Permissions
If you’re unable to view or edit any of the following areas, ask someone with Manager permissions to update your access.
Video with an Expert
The processes to make either a Component or a Plated recipe in Loaded are nearly identical. See an example of each here:
Component
Plated
Add a New Recipe
Go to Stock → Manage → Recipes
Click Add Recipe
Enter the Recipe Name
In the Add Recipe Line box, start typing the ingredient, or Component Recipe, you’d like to add to this recipe
Enter the quantity and unit for each item
Unit consistency is critical here! Make sure your units align with how items are purchased and used.
Back up top in the Makes section, define how much the recipe produces:
Component Recipes → total batch output (e.g. 5L sauce)
Plated Recipes → usually 1 serving
Tick Stocktake if you want the option to include this recipe in stocktakes
Add method or instructions in the notes field
At the top right side of the page, you can add a photo to show how the item should look
Click Create
Understanding Recipe Costings
By default, recipes display costs using Live Pricing.
This means:
Costs update automatically based on your latest invoices
If an item hasn’t been received yet, Loaded uses the Forecast Price
If no forecast price is set, cost fields may appear blank when using Forecast view.
If prices for Stock Items in a recipe are showing up incorrectly, ensure your units are consistent throughout the stock item itself, and any component recipe ‘Makes’.
Recipe Versions
When editing a recipe, you can either Save or Save as New Version. Knowing when to use each keeps your reporting accurate and easy to follow.
Save as a new version is useful when a recipe is already linked to a POS item and needs to be updated. This keeps your historical data tied to the original version, while any new data reflects the updated recipe.
Use Save when you’re correcting a mistake or making a minor adjustment to a recipe that you want to backdate. This will ensure updates are applied to all historical versions of this recipe and any associated links.
For example: If your Brisket Sandwich recipe was missing the Bun stock item, you would want to add the Bun and Save the recipe. This is a recipe correction since it was always supposed to be this way, it just got missed initially.
Use Save as New Version when you want to preserve historical data while applying changes going forward
For example: If you decide to increase the portion of Brisket from 100 grams to 200 grams on your Brisket Sandwich recipe, you’ll want to Save As New Version.This change is intentional and only applies to sales of your Brisket Sandwich moving forward. Once a recipe is saved as a New Version, you are able to see the changes made between versions, as well as the dates each version is valid.
Tips and Tricks
Preface the recipe name with the recipe type so it’s easy to identify which are Prep/Component recipes and which are Plated dishes
The Makes section for Component Recipes is the total batch output
Make sure you build in any shrinkage for those bigger prep recipes where there is a certain portion discarded or they reduce for a long time
Review the Component Recipe video around 3:00
The Makes section for Plated Recipes, it’s usually 1 serving
Live pricing will only appear once you’ve received that stock item in Loaded
Only use Save As New Version on a recipe when you’re making intentional updates that will change your final product, and you want to keep historical data for that recipe
What’s Next?