Restaurant cost calculation system built inside Drupal
This project involved building a restaurant cost calculation system directly inside a Drupal platform.
The system allowed restaurant managers to calculate the real cost of dishes based on supplier price lists and ingredient composition.
Due to NDA restrictions, some operational details cannot be disclosed.
Project context
Restaurant businesses must constantly track ingredient prices to maintain accurate dish profitability.
However, many restaurants still rely on spreadsheets for cost calculations.
This creates several problems:
- supplier prices change frequently
- manual calculations are error-prone
- updating menu costs is time consuming.
The goal was to create a centralized system for managing ingredient costs and calculating dish profitability.
Scope and goals
The system needed to support:
- importing supplier price lists
- managing ingredients and recipes
- calculating dish cost automatically
- updating prices when supplier costs change.
Tech stack
- Drupal CMS
- CSV and Excel import system
- ingredient database
- automated cost calculation logic
Supplier price list import
Suppliers often provide price lists as CSV or Excel files.
The system allowed managers to upload these files directly into the platform.
Once uploaded, the system:
- parsed the files
- matched ingredients with existing records
- updated supplier prices automatically.
This eliminated the need for manual price updates.
Ingredient database
All ingredients were stored in a structured database.
Each ingredient record included:
- supplier price
- measurement units
- ingredient relationships with dishes.
This created a reliable data structure for cost calculations.
Dish cost calculation
Recipes were defined using ingredient quantities.
The system automatically calculated dish cost by combining:
- ingredient quantities
- latest supplier prices.
Whenever supplier prices changed, dish cost calculations updated automatically.
Result
The final system provided restaurant managers with:
- real-time dish cost calculation
- automatic price updates
- centralized supplier price management
- simplified financial planning.
What this case demonstrates
Many businesses rely on spreadsheets for critical operational calculations.
Custom internal systems can significantly reduce manual work and improve accuracy.
Drupal’s flexibility makes it possible to build internal business tools directly within the CMS environment.
FAQ
Can Drupal be used to build internal business systems?+
Yes. Drupal is flexible enough to power internal business tools such as inventory systems, cost calculation platforms, and operational dashboards.
Can CSV and Excel files be imported into Drupal?+
Yes. Drupal can process CSV and Excel files and automatically import structured data into the system.
Why automate restaurant cost calculations?+
Automating cost calculations helps businesses react quickly to supplier price changes and maintain accurate menu pricing.