Writing
Restaurant Operations & Finance
Problem first, product last. Every post ends at a calculator, not a contact form.
How to Calculate Restaurant Prime Cost
Prime cost is COGS plus labour over net sales. Here is how to calculate it correctly, what a good figure looks like, and the mistake that makes most restaurant prime cost numbers wrong.
Why Your Restaurant Labour Cost Percentage Is Wrong
Most restaurant labour percentages are calculated on incomplete hours because POS staff were never mapped to a roster record. Here is how to check yours in ten minutes.
How to Compare Performance Across Restaurant Locations
Comparing restaurant locations honestly requires identical definitions before identical metrics. Here is the checklist, the four measures that matter, and the trap that ranks your accounting instead of your operators.
How to Reduce Restaurant Overtime Without Cutting Hours
Restaurant overtime is a visibility problem, not a demand problem. Here is how to catch it while the rota is still editable, and what it is costing you.
Restaurant P&L Explained, Line by Line
Every line of a restaurant profit and loss statement, what it means, what belongs in it, and the three lines operators most often get wrong.
How to Give GMs Their Numbers Without Exposing the Group
Restaurant role-based access done properly: what a store manager should see, what they should not, and why hiding menu items is not access control.
How to Calculate Restaurant Food Cost
The food cost percentage formula, where the number breaks in practice, and how to count inventory against invoiced purchases.
How to Reduce Restaurant Food Waste
Food waste is a visibility problem before it is a training problem — here is where it hides across a multi-unit group.
How to Calculate Restaurant Labor Cost
The labour cost percentage formula, and why unmapped POS employees make it read lower than it actually is.
A Restaurant Manager’s Daily Checklist
The numbers worth checking before, during and after a shift — the ones that predict a bad week, not just a task list.
How to Create a Restaurant Schedule
Building a schedule from a sales forecast instead of copying last week’s, so overtime is not baked in before it is even published.