Food costs, permits, locations, and weather — running a food truck is a financial puzzle. Here's how to track everything and actually know what you're making.
Food trucks combine the complexity of a restaurant with the unpredictability of a mobile business:
COGS (cost of goods sold) is what you spend on ingredients and packaging for the food you sell. It's the most important number in your business.
Food Cost % = (Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Ending Inventory) ÷ Revenue
Example: You start the week with $500 in inventory, buy $1,200 in ingredients, and end with $400 in inventory. Your food cost is $1,300. If weekly revenue is $4,000, food cost % = 32.5%.
If your target food cost is 30%, and a taco costs $1.50 in ingredients, price it at $1.50 ÷ 0.30 = $5.00. Round to menu-friendly numbers ($5 or $5.50). Track actual vs. theoretical food cost to catch waste, over-portioning, or theft.
Hivebooks connects to your bank and credit cards. Sysco deliveries, Restaurant Depot runs, and farmer's market purchases all flow in automatically. See your actual food cost percentage by week or month — not a guess, a real number.
Start Free →Everything you buy to make the food you sell is deductible as COGS. This is your largest deduction.
The truck itself is a depreciable asset — use Section 179 to deduct the full purchase price in year one (up to $1,220,000).
Most cities require food trucks to use a licensed commissary for prep, storage, and cleaning. Monthly commissary fees ($500-2,000) are fully deductible.
Grills, fryers, refrigeration, POS systems, generators — all deductible via Section 179 or depreciation.
Containers, utensils, napkins, bags, cups — fully deductible. Buy in bulk and track the expense.
Social media advertising, food photography, website, printed menus — all deductible.
Employee wages and payroll taxes, or payments to prep helpers (1099 if contractor).
"Is the commissary rent deductible?" "Can I deduct the generator fuel?" "What about the food truck wrap?" Buzz — the AI in Hivebooks — answers tax questions in plain English.
Try Buzz Free →Not all locations are equal. A food truck owner should know:
How to track: Tag each day's revenue by location. Over a month, you'll see clear winners and losers. Drop underperforming locations and double down on profitable ones.
Event math: A festival might gross $5,000 in a day, but after the $500 vendor fee, $1,500 in extra food costs, $200 in extra labor, and $100 in fuel/setup, your profit is $2,700. Compare that to a regular day netting $800. Events aren't always better — do the math.
Cash is common in food trucks. Here's how to manage it:
Count your cash drawer at the start and end of every shift. The difference (minus the starting float) is your cash revenue. Record it immediately.
Deposit cash at least twice a week. Sitting on cash creates security risk and makes it easy to "forget" transactions.
Your POS system should break down cash vs. card. Reconcile the POS report against your actual cash count and bank deposits. Discrepancies indicate waste, theft, or recording errors.
Cash-heavy businesses get more IRS scrutiny. Clean records are your best defense. Track every dollar in and out. If you're audited, organized books prove you're honest.
In a food business, "missing money" often isn't theft — it's waste and over-portioning:
Theoretical: Based on recipes and menu prices, your food cost should be 30%.
Actual: Based on purchases and revenue, your food cost is 36%.
That 6% gap on $200K revenue = $12,000 in lost profit. Common causes: over-portioning, spoilage, dropped/returned orders, and employee meals. Track both numbers monthly.
Use portion cups, scales, and standardized recipes. An extra ounce of protein per serving at $8/lb costs you $0.50 per item. Sell 100/day, that's $50/day or $18,000/year.
Hivebooks tracks your ingredient purchases and revenue automatically. See your actual food cost percentage by week or month. Spot waste, over-portioning, or cost increases before they eat your profit.
Start Free →Monthly is too late. By the time you see a food cost spike in your monthly P&L, you've been losing money for 4 weeks. Track weekly.
Unreported cash income is tax evasion. Track every dollar. Deposit regularly. Your books should match your POS reports.
If you don't know which spots are profitable, you can't optimize your schedule. Tag revenue by location.
Health permits, event fees, and location permits add up to $2,000-5,000/year. Include them in your cost analysis per location.
Eating your own inventory without tracking it reduces your margins and inflates food cost. Record everything — including what you and employees consume.
Free bookkeeping for food trucks. Track food costs, locations, and profit automatically. No credit card required.
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