Every other cost arrives with an invoice. Waste walks out the back door with nothing written down, which is exactly why almost no venue has a number for it.

This sheet gives you one. A week of logging — item, quantity, reason — and it costs the bin for you, splits it into prep waste, spoilage and overproduction, and shows it as a percentage of your food purchases.

Two to four percent is normal. Most venues that have never measured it run higher and have no idea, because it never appears on a report.

What you get

• The Waste Cost Sheet (Google Sheets, yours to keep)
• Daily waste log that costs itself as you fill it in
• Split by prep waste, spoilage and overproduction
• Waste as a percentage of purchases, against the 2–4% benchmark
• The one-week starter method: clipboard by the bin, costed on Friday

Who it’s for — owners who suspect the bin is expensive and want the figure instead of the feeling.

Who it’s not for — anyone expecting an app. It’s a sheet and a clipboard, and it works.