Work out what to charge for a private dining job based on ingredients, time, staffing, travel and your target margin.
The result is a business-planning estimate to help you quote with confidence — not a mandatory market rate, a legally correct price, or a guarantee of profit or income. It runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Figures are rounded to the nearest pound for display, so rows may not add up exactly. “Contribution before general overheads & tax” is what's left after ingredients, travel, staff, other direct costs and your own hours — it still has to cover business overheads (insurance, software, accountancy, marketing, vehicle costs, pensions) and tax. It is not take-home profit.
cost before profit ÷ (1 − target margin). For example, £400 of cost at a 20% margin is £400 ÷ 0.8 = £500 — not £480. Adding the percentage straight onto cost gives markup, not margin.From one quote to every booking
Veriqo Costing takes this same maths and runs it across your whole calendar — using your real ingredient prices, your saved menus and your job history.
14-day free trial · no card required · the calculator above stays free and open
A defensible price normally considers all of: ingredients, preparation time, shopping and admin, travel, service hours, any extra staff, a share of your business overheads, and a margin on top. Missing any one of these is how a job that felt worthwhile ends up paying badly. Work from real numbers every time — the step-by-step version is in our guide on how to price a private dinner party.
Margin is profit as a percentage of the selling price. Markup is profit as a percentage of cost. If a job costs you £400 and you sell it for £500, that £100 is a 20% margin (£100 ÷ £500) but a 25% markup (£100 ÷ £400). This calculator works in margin, so a “20% margin” always means one-fifth of what the client pays — not £80 added to your costs.
There isn't a single correct figure. It depends on the menu, your pricing model, and how much of the value is your skill and service rather than the raw ingredients. As an illustration only — not a rule — a lot of private-dining work lands somewhere around a quarter to a third of the selling price on ingredients once labour and margin are covered; a luxury tasting menu can sit higher, a high-volume drop-off buffet lower. Use food cost % as a sense-check on a price you've built up properly, not as the number you start from.
Per person is easy for clients to compare and scales cleanly when guest numbers move. A fixed job price better reflects reality: travel, the shop, prep and your hours on site barely change between six covers and ten, so pure per-head pricing can undercharge small events and overcharge large ones. A common middle ground is a per-head rate with a minimum job value, or a fixed price for the event with the covers stated. Either way, always show the client the per-head figure — it's the number they'll benchmark you against.
A booking can be profitable on paper and still leave you short in the bank, because the timing doesn't line up. You often pay suppliers days before the event, while the client's balance may not arrive until on or after the day. Take a deposit that at least covers your ingredient spend, invoice the balance to land before or on the event date, and keep a working buffer for the gap. Veriqo Costing handles deposits, balances and invoicing from the same job record.
There's no fixed rate. It depends on your menu, your actual costs, your experience and your area. Work from the real ingredient cost, the hours the job takes, your travel and any staff, then add a target margin — which is what the calculator above does. Treat the result as a planning figure, not a market rate.
Work out the whole job price first (direct costs, plus your labour, plus your target margin), then divide by the number of guests. Pricing per head from the start can undercharge small events, because travel and prep time don't shrink as guest numbers fall.
Margin is profit as a percentage of the selling price; markup is profit as a percentage of cost. £400 of cost sold for £500 is a 20% margin but a 25% markup. This calculator uses margin: selling price = cost ÷ (1 − margin).
Yes. Your prep, travel, shopping and service hours are the main thing that makes a job worth doing. Enter those hours and a realistic hourly value so the price reflects your time, then add a margin on top for the unpaid business hours around every booking.
Divide the total ingredient cost by the selling price before VAT, then multiply by 100. £150 of ingredients on a £500 job is a 30% food cost. It's an output of your pricing, not a number you set first, and an appropriate level varies by menu and pricing model.
Not unless you turn it on. Tick “I'm VAT registered” and it shows the net price, the VAT and the customer total at the rate you enter. Whether you need to be VAT registered depends on current HMRC rules and your own circumstances — this tool doesn't decide that and isn't tax advice.
Yes. The same method works for drop-off catering, events and small functions — enter that job's ingredients, hours, travel and staff. Very large or multi-day events usually need a more detailed breakdown than a single calculator screen.