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Food truck food cost & margin.

A truck wins on thin margins, tight storage and the right call for each event — there's no room for a reach-in full of product that won't sell, and no back office to catch a price creep. Lowboy is a sous-chef for the back of house: it prices every menu item from your real invoices, flags the ingredient that just jumped, and sizes prep to the day you're actually working.

Running a truck is already a hundred jobs at once. Let Lowboy take the cost math off your plate so more of your day is cooking and serving, not calculating.

No setup fee Square connects — or just snap it $149/mo · 30-day money-back
Nothing changes in your workflow

Snap the paper you already handle.

You already handle the paper — Lowboy just reads it. Snap the invoice, the market receipt, a menu photo, the day's total. Nothing about how the truck runs has to change; it simply adds a smart layer on top that turns your gut feel into numbers you can act on.

Then it works like a sous-chef riding shotgun: computed from your data, never guessed. "Beef's up 12% — your birria taco slipped to 38% cost, bump it $0.75." "Last three Saturdays at this lot averaged 210 covers — prep for that, not 300." Real invoices, real sales, real counts, turned into the two things a truck can't afford to lose: margin and hours.

Built for a truck, not a back office

Small menu, thin margins, tiny storage, a different location every day — Lowboy is built for exactly that.

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Margin per item

Every item costed from real invoice prices and divided by its price — with the dollar margin per sale. On a truck, volume is everything, so the items quietly earning too little get flagged.

protect margin
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Ingredient price watch

Snapped invoices update your price book. When beef, oil or produce jumps, Lowboy flags which items slipped under target — before a whole month of service leaks.

catch creep
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Event forecasting

Give it the expected covers for a lot, festival or private booking and it scales your recipes into a buy list, netted against what's on the truck.

buy for the day
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Prep for tight storage

Prep and pars sized to how that day actually sells, so you carry what you'll move — not a reach-in crammed with product that dies overnight.

no dead stock
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Re-price radar

When costs move, see the few cents that restore your target on the items that sell most — so a $9 plate stays a $9 plate's worth of profit.

+$ per fix
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Recipe book on your phone

Every recipe costed, scalable and shareable to whoever's on the line — so a second cook plates it the same when you double up for a big day.

consistency
Money and time, both

It pays for itself two ways.

Lowboy's suggestions come from how your truck actually runs — your invoices, your sales, your counts — so they hit the margin and the clock at once.

Money saved

Hold the line on thin margins

  • Caught price hikes, re-priced. A protein or oil jump surfaces the day it lands, with the new price that restores target.
  • Less spoilage. Buying to the event, not a guess, means less product dying in a small reach-in.
  • The right event, priced right. See whether a booking actually clears after ingredients before you commit.
Time saved

Less admin between services

  • No manual entry. Snap the invoice and the price book updates itself — it stays current on its own.
  • Event prep, sized for you. A buy list built from covers and history, not scribbled on a napkin at midnight.
  • Everything on your phone. Recipes, costs and lists in your pocket — no laptop, no back office.

Food truck food cost software that runs as light as you do

Most food truck food cost and margin tools ask you to type numbers into a spreadsheet you'll never keep current between double shifts and festival weekends. Lowboy computes your real number from your actual invoices and sales — the beef you actually bought at the restaurant depot, the tacos that actually sold at Saturday's lot. On a truck, that precision is survival: margins are thin, a small menu means every item matters, and one uncaught price creep spread across a busy service is real money gone before you notice.

Because storage is tiny and every day is a different location, Lowboy leans on your own history to size prep and pars to the day you're actually working, and turns an event's expected covers into a shopping list netted against what's already on the truck — so you buy for the day, not for a guess, and don't fill a reach-in with product that spoils. When ingredient prices move, every item re-costs and the ones that drifted over target get flagged with the re-price that restores your margin.

See it on your own truck in about three minutes with the free food-cost audit, or explore the free tools first. No account required.

Connect it, or don't

Square today. Or just snap it.

Connect your POS and your menu and sales auto-fill. Running a card reader or cash only? Snap a menu and a sales figure — Lowboy is POS-agnostic and works the same either way, which suits a truck that runs light.

Square ● Connects today Clover Coming soon Toast Coming soon No POS? Just snap it
$149/mo
One plan, every feature, the whole crew — or $1,490/year (two months free). No setup fee, month-to-month, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Most trucks clear the bill with one caught price hike or one re-priced signature item — the number is only ever small next to what it returns.
FAQ

Common questions

How do you calculate margin on a food truck menu item? +
Lowboy costs each item from your real invoice prices, divides by its menu price for food cost, and shows the dollar margin per sale. On a truck where margins are thin and volume is everything, it flags the items quietly earning too little at today's ingredient prices.
Can it help me order for an event without over-buying? +
Yes. Tell Lowboy the expected covers for an event and it scales your recipes into a shopping list, netted against what's already on the truck — so you buy for the day, not for a guess, and don't cram a reach-in with product that won't sell.
Does it work with limited storage? +
That's exactly the point. Prep and par levels are sized to how a given day actually sells, so you carry what you'll move and no more — critical when your whole walk-in is one reach-in and a few speed racks.
How does it track ingredient price swings? +
Every snapped invoice updates your price book. When a key ingredient jumps, Lowboy flags it and shows which menu items slipped under target, with the re-price that restores your margin before the month leaks.
Do I need a POS? +
No. Square connects today; Clover and Toast are coming soon. With no POS at all, snap your menu and a sales figure and Lowboy works exactly the same — it's POS-agnostic by design, which suits a truck that runs light.

The math is simple — it pays for itself.

Do the math: a kitchen spending about $50,000 a month on food that trims that by just 1% saves roughly $500 a month — about 3.4× the $149 plan. Scale it to your own volume; on a truck, one caught price hike or one re-priced signature item usually clears it.

Add the hours back, too — no spreadsheet nights, no manual invoice entry, no rebuilding the prep list when the menu changes.

Less time on the back office, more time on the food, your crew, and the reason you opened.

Get your free audit →
~3 minutes · no account required