Glossary
Terms we use on the site.
Definitions from hospitality and regulation that you will encounter across Patrono and the blog.
Food cost
- The share of ingredient cost in total revenue from food and drink sales, expressed as a percentage. In Croatian hospitality this typically sits between 25 and 35 percent. Above 35% means margin is leaking through the kitchen, below 25% usually means portions are too small or prices too high for the market.
Recipe (normativ)
- An ingredient list for a dish with exact gram weights. The recipe is the foundation for food cost calculation and for portion control in the kitchen. In Croatia it is part of the mandatory documentation for hospitality venues.
HACCP
- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, a food safety management system that identifies and controls risks in the preparation process. In Croatia it is applied under AZRRI guidelines and inspectors check for it during a visit.
AZRRI
- Croatian Agency for Rural Development of Istria, publisher of operational guidelines and templates for HACCP records that the Croatian sanitary inspection recognizes as the reference standard for hospitality.
Fiscalization
- The legal obligation to send data about every issued receipt to the Croatian Tax Administration in real time. Patrono does not fiscalize receipts itself, it connects to your existing POS, which already does that under Croatian law.
Fiscalization 2.0
- An upgrade of the Croatian fiscal system. Changes are implemented by your POS vendor, not Patrono. Patrono continues to read data from the POS in the format the POS provides.
Delivery platforms
- Online services that connect restaurants to end customers for food delivery. They charge a per-order commission and shape their own listings. Patrono separates revenue by platform and computes real margin after commission.
Margin
- The difference between a dish's selling price and the cost of its ingredients, expressed as a percentage or absolute amount. After food cost, the margin must still cover wages, rent, utilities and profit, so gross margin is not the final profit.
Calculation
- The process of deriving a dish's selling price from ingredient cost, target margin and VAT. Patrono refreshes the calculation automatically whenever any ingredient price in the recipe changes.
Health certificate
- A document by which a hospitality worker proves medical fitness to handle food. It is renewed periodically under Croatian law. Patrono sends the manager a reminder before expiration.
Inspection
- A sanitary, market or fiscal check of the venue. The sanitary inspection looks at HACCP records, the market inspection checks prices and declarations, the fiscal inspection looks at receipts and taxes. Patrono keeps HACCP records in a format ready for sanitary inspections.
POS
- Point of Sale, the till that issues and fiscalizes receipts. Patrono connects to an existing POS and reads revenue data from it, it does not replace it.
Commission
- The percentage a delivery platform or payment system takes per transaction. Typically between 20 and 30 percent per order on delivery platforms, depending on the contract. Patrono separates gross revenue from net earnings after commission.