How to work out true profit per event for your food truck
A step-by-step guide to calculating real net profit per event — food cost, wages, fees, fuel — so you know which markets to keep.
Revenue is the easy number. Profit is where most food truck operators get stuck. This is a plain-English walkthrough of how to work out what an event actually earned you, from takings to net profit — and what to do with the answer.
Start with takings
Your event takings are every sale — cash, card, gift vouchers, tabs — closed off at the end of the day. If you use a POS or CartFlow's sales log, this number is already sitting there. If you're on paper, cash-up now, before you drive home.
Subtract food cost
Food cost is what the ingredients in what you sold actually cost you. If a burger sells for $15 and its ingredients cost $4.50, its food cost is $4.50. Add that up across every sale. A quicker (but rougher) way: apply an average food-cost percentage — most street food is 28-35%.
Subtract packaging
Cups, lids, napkins, boxes. These add up faster than most people think — sometimes 5-8% of takings on their own. If you track packaging as stock, CartFlow does this for you.
Subtract labour
Every hour of every person on shift, at their real hourly rate — including you. If you don't pay yourself, at least mark down what you'd pay someone to do your job. That's your opportunity cost.
Subtract site fee, fuel and travel
Site fee is obvious. Fuel and travel are less obvious but material — an event two hours away with a $40 fuel round trip is not the same as a market ten minutes down the road.
You now have net profit
Takings − food cost − packaging − labour − site fee − fuel/travel = net profit. Divide by hours worked to get profit-per-hour, which is the most honest way to compare events.
What to do with the number
Do this for every event for a season and you'll have a ranked list. The top third pays the mortgage. The bottom third is where you're leaking money. Drop them — or renegotiate the fee — and your season transforms.