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▶Food Truck Business Toolkit
The permit register, the event booking sheet, the catering agreement, the invoice and the commissary log, plus the workbook that turns a crowd and a fee into an event profit and a GO or NO GO before you answer the organizer.
Most food trucks do not lose money at the window. They lose it on the festival that drew half the crowd the organizer promised, the fee paid before anyone ran the numbers, and the permit that expired on a Saturday.
- A permit clock that holds every permit the truck runs on with its expiry and its renewal lead time, and flips to renew soon while there is still time to book the inspector
- An event go or no go tab that turns the crowd, the fee, the crew and the drive into an event profit, a profit per crew hour and a break even attendance
- An event booking sheet that asks the organizer everything that decides the day: the spot, power, water, the rain plan and how many other trucks sell what you sell
- A private event and catering agreement that fixes the guaranteed guest count, the deposit and the service window before you buy the food
- A menu costing tab that prices each item against its ingredient cost and reads back a blended food cost, weighted by what you actually sell
- An event recap and sales sheet filled the night of the event, so after five events the capture rate in the calculator is yours instead of a sample
- One thousand and ninety-nine fillable fields and a hundred checkboxes across the ten documents, with an editable Word edition of every one
- Honest by design: the commissary and service logs say on their own faces that they are your production records and not the record a health department may require
Overview
The permit register, the event booking sheet, the catering agreement, the invoice and the commissary log, plus the workbook that turns a crowd and a fee into an event profit and a GO or NO GO before you answer the organizer.
Most food trucks do not lose money at the window. They lose it on the festival that drew half the crowd the organizer promised, the fee paid before anyone ran the numbers, and the permit that expired on a Saturday.
This is the paperwork side of a food truck business, done: ten business documents as fillable PDFs, the same ten as editable Word files, and an event calculator workbook that turns a crowd, a fee and a crew into an event profit and a GO or NO GO, costs the menu item by item, and keeps the clock on every permit the truck runs on.
What's Included
One ZIP, 25 files:
- One ZIP holding ten food truck documents as fillable PDFs and the same ten as editable Word files
- The Food Truck Event Calculator workbook with seven tabs: Start Here, Your Numbers, Event Go or No Go, Menu Costing, Permit Clock, Event Log and Income Plan
- A worked example running through the documents and the workbook: one summer market, booked, costed, served and recapped end to end
- A Quick-Start PDF and a START-HERE file that say which document to open first
- A link to the narrated video tutorial that walks every document and every tab
Key Benefits
Why this one
Type your ticket, your capture rate, your food cost and the minimum profit you will accept into the amber cells once. Then every event gets run through the same arithmetic: the crowd, the vendor fee, the crew hours and the drive, out the other end as an event profit and a GO or NO GO. The sample market at fifteen hundred people makes three hundred and eighteen dollars and reads NO GO; at two thousand five hundred it makes one thousand and six and reads GO.
A food truck runs on more permits than a restaurant and each expires on its own schedule. The permit clock holds all eleven of the usual set with the issuer, the expiry and a renewal lead time, and turns them into a days-left column you read on the first of the month rather than the morning of an inspection.
Ingredient cost and price, item by item, with the margin and the food cost percentage beside each one and a blended food cost weighted by how many you really sell in a week. That blended number is the one that belongs on the numbers tab, instead of the guess repeated at every event.
The booking sheet asks the organizer about power, water, the assigned spot, the rain plan and the other trucks. The catering agreement fixes the guaranteed count and the deposit before you buy food. The recap sheet, filled the night of the event, is what turns the calculator from a sample into your own history.
It does not tell you what your health department requires. Permits, inspections, temperature and cleaning records, commissary rules and event terms are set by your own health department, fire authority and city and differ from place to place. The commissary log and the daily service sheet say on their own faces that they are your production records; keep whatever record your health department asks for, in the form it asks for, and use these alongside it.
Who It's For
Built for
- A new truck that needs to look established before the first event application
- An operator who has paid a vendor fee and watched the crowd not show up
- A truck busy enough that the permits, the prep and the tips have started to slip
- Anyone taking weddings and company lunches who wants the guaranteed count in writing
How It Works
Up and running in minutes
Open the workbook and fill the amber cells on Your Numbers: the average ticket, the capture rate, the food cost, the labor rate and the minimum profit you will accept.
Put the crowd, the fee, the crew and the miles into Event Go or No Go, and read the profit, the profit per crew hour and the break even attendance.
Put your own expiry dates and lead times into the Permit Clock, then read it on the first of every month.
Fill the recap sheet while you still remember the line, then type it into the Event Log. After five events the capture rate is yours.
Why It's Different
Not another template
The shelf sells a folder of food truck Word files with a blank checklist and no arithmetic. This is a working set: the event is priced before the fee is paid, the break even attendance is stated so an organizer's promise can be tested against it, the menu is costed item by item into a blended food cost, and every permit has a clock on it. It is also honest about the line most food truck template packs cross, which is pretending a printable log is the record a health department requires.
Delivery & Compatibility
Instant, and it opens in what you already use
As soon as your order is complete you get instant access to download the ZIP: ten fillable PDFs, ten editable Word files, the Food Truck Event Calculator workbook and a Quick-Start PDF. Nothing ships.
One ZIP, instant download. The PDFs open and type in any free reader on Windows, Mac, iPad or Android. The Word files open in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Pages and LibreOffice. The workbook opens in Microsoft Excel 2016 or later, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers and LibreOffice Calc. No macros, no add-ons, no account and no subscription.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Does it come with numbers already in it?
It ships with a worked event so nothing opens blank: a summer market at fifteen hundred people, a two hundred and fifty dollar vendor fee, three crew for seven hours and a forty mile round trip, which makes three hundred and eighteen dollars and reads NO GO. Sample numbers, not a recommendation. Type your own and the verdict changes with them.
What is a capture rate, and why does it matter?
It is the share of the crowd that actually buys from you, and it is the number new operators get wrong most often. The workbook ships at eight percent; the event recap sheet exists so that after five events you can replace that with your own figure and the calculator starts predicting your events instead of a sample.
Can I actually type in the PDFs?
Yes. All ten carry real form fields, one thousand and ninety-nine of them, plus a hundred checkboxes. Type, save and print. Every document also ships as an editable Word file if you would rather rewrite it.
Is the commissary log the record my health department wants?
No, and it says so on its own face. The commissary and prep log and the daily service sheet are your own production records. Temperature and cleaning records, commissary requirements and inspection rules are set by your own health department; keep the record they require in the form they require and use these alongside it.
Does the workbook work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload it and open it. There is no FILTER, TEXTJOIN or MAXIFS in it, which is why it also opens cleanly in Excel 2016, Numbers and LibreOffice.
Is there a video?
Yes. A narrated walkthrough on YouTube goes through every document and every tab. Every screen in it is a page of the real file, filled with one worked event.
These are general business documents, not legal or food safety advice. Permits, inspections, temperature and cleaning records, commissary requirements and event rules are set by your own health department, fire authority and city and differ from place to place. The commissary log and the daily service sheet are your own production records and do not replace any record your health department asks you to keep. The eleven permits listed are the usual set, not your set. Digital product; because the files are delivered instantly, all sales are final.
