Restaurant POS Audit: 20 Things Every Owner Should Check
RESTAURANT POS + FINANCIAL CONTROLS Restaurant POS Audit: 20 Things Every Owner Should Check Your restaurant’s POS is more than a cash register. It controls—or influences— sales reporting, payment processing, discounts, refunds, tips, employee permissions, cash handling and the financial information that ultimately reaches your accounting system. That makes the POS one of the most […]
Restaurant Internal Audit Report: What Should Be Included?
RESTAURANT FINANCIAL AUDITS + CONTROLS Restaurant Internal Audit Report: What It Should Include A restaurant internal audit report should answer one simple question: what is happening inside the business financially, where are the risks, and what should the owner fix first? A good audit is not just a collection of numbers or a long list […]
Restaurant Cash Flow Problems: 9 Reasons You Keep Running Out of Money
RESTAURANT CASH FLOW + FINANCIAL CONTROL Restaurant Cash Flow Problems: 9 Reasons You’re Running Out of Money Your restaurant can be busy, sales can be strong and your P&L can still show a profit while the bank account keeps getting tighter. That happens because profit and cash are not the same thing. Profit measures what […]
Restaurant Menu Pricing: How to Price for Profit
RESTAURANT MENU PRICING + PROFITABILITY Restaurant Menu Pricing: How to Price for Profit Your menu is more than a list of food and drinks. It’s one of the most important financial tools in your restaurant. Every price on the menu affects: Food cost Contribution margin Prime cost Guest perception Sales mix Cash flow Ultimately, profit […]
Restaurant Cash Handling Procedures: How to Stop Cash From Disappearing
RESTAURANT CASH + TIP CONTROLS Restaurant Cash Handling Procedures: How to Stop Small Leaks From Becoming Big Losses A restaurant can have strong sales and still lose money through weak restaurant cash handling procedures. One drawer is short $40. Another is over $25. A cash payout isn’t recorded. A refund isn’t documented. A deposit doesn’t […]
Restaurant Inventory Variance: How to Find Where Your Food Cost Is Going
RESTAURANT INVENTORY + COGS Restaurant Inventory Variance: How to Find Where Your Food Cost Is Going Most restaurant owners know their food-cost percentage. Far fewer know why it is what it is. You might look at your monthly numbers and discover that food cost jumped from 28% to 33%. That’s a problem—but the percentage alone […]
Restaurant Prime Cost: What It Is, How to Calculate It & What Your Target Should Be
RESTAURANT PRIME COST + PROFITABILITY Restaurant Prime Cost: Formula, Benchmarks & What It Means If you want to know whether your restaurant’s cost structure is under control, there is one number you should be watching closely: restaurant prime cost. Prime cost combines the two largest controllable operating costs in most restaurants: Cost of Goods Sold […]
Restaurant Profit Margin: What Should a Profitable Restaurant Make?
RESTAURANT PROFITABILITY + MARGINS Restaurant Profit Margin: What Is a Good Margin? A restaurant can be busy every night, have strong sales and still barely make any money. That’s because sales aren’t profit. After food, labor, rent, credit-card processing, insurance, utilities, repairs, software, taxes, marketing and everything else is paid, there may be surprisingly little […]
Restaurant Labor Cost Too High? How to Find Where Payroll Is Eating Your Profit
RESTAURANT LABOR + PAYROLL Restaurant Labor Cost Too High? How to Find Where Payroll Is Eating Your Profit If your restaurant labor cost is too high, cutting employee hours across the board isn’t necessarily the answer. Labor problems usually come from the relationship between staffing, sales and productivity—not simply from how much you’re paying employees. […]
Restaurant Food Cost Too High? 10 Places Your Profit May Be Leaking
RESTAURANT FOOD COST + COGS Restaurant Food Cost Too High? 10 Places Your Profit May Be Leaking If your restaurant food cost is too high, raising menu prices isn’t necessarily the first—or best—solution. High food cost is usually a symptom. The real problem may be purchasing, vendor pricing, portion control, waste, inventory, recipes, discounts, receiving, […]