Break-even and profit calculator for restaurants
Find how many bills a day cover your rent, salaries, and every other cost, what you make at today's sales, and what it takes to reach the profit you want. Every figure is yours to change. New to this? Follow a worked example.
How to use this calculator
One café's month from start to finish: 7 fixed costs, an average bill of ₹350, and 45 bills a day. Every figure below is exactly what the calculator shows for these entries.
Every figure in this example is illustrative. Enter your own costs and sales.
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List your fixed costs
Add every cost you pay each month whatever your sales. This café has 7:
Cost A month Rent ₹60,000 Staff salaries ₹1,20,000 Electricity ₹15,000 Cooking gas ₹8,000 Internet and billing software ₹3,000 Repairs and upkeep ₹5,000 Loan EMI ₹20,000 Fixed costs a month ₹2,31,000 -
Enter your sales and the costs that grow with them
The average bill is ₹350 before GST, food is 32% of sales, and the café opens 30 days a month. Two more costs rise with every bill: card machine charges at 1% of sales and napkins and takeaway packs at ₹4 a bill.
Each bill leaves ₹350 - ₹112 food - ₹7.50 other costs = ₹230.50
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Read your break-even
The calculator divides the fixed costs by what each bill leaves:
- Break-even
- 34 bills a day
- Break-even bills a month
- 1,003
- Break-even sales a month
- ₹3,50,759.22
Below 34 bills a day the café loses money; every bill above it is profit.
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Check today's sales
The café sells about 45 bills a day. Enter that as your bills a day now:
- Sales a month
- ₹4,72,500
- Profit a month
- ₹80,175
- Sales can fall by
- 25.8% before a loss
Out of every ₹100 of sales, food takes ₹32, the fixed costs take ₹48.89, and ₹16.97 is profit.
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Set a profit goal
The owner wants ₹1,00,000 a month. The calculator shows that takes 48 bills a day, which is 3 more than today.
It replaces what you have entered. Start over clears it again.
How the numbers are worked out
What each bill leaves behind
Every bill pays for its own food and for the other costs that grow with sales, such as card charges or packaging. What is left goes towards your fixed costs and, once they are covered, your profit. A cost given as a share of sales is worked out on the average bill; a cost given per bill is taken off as it is.
The break-even point
Divide your fixed costs for the month by what each bill leaves, and you have the bills a month that cover them. Divide that by the days you open for the bills a day. Both are rounded up to a whole bill, because part of a bill cannot be sold.
Profit and the margin of safety
At your bills a day now, the month's profit is what all its bills leave, minus the fixed costs. The margin of safety is how far your sales could fall before they reach break-even, as a share of today's sales: the bigger it is, the more a slow month can take.
Reaching a profit target
Add the profit you want to your fixed costs and divide by what each bill leaves. That is the bills a month you need, shown per day and rounded up.
Average bill and food cost move together: a bigger bill from costlier dishes also brings more food cost. If you change one, check the other still holds.
Questions about break-even
What is a break-even point?
The level of sales at which what you take in covers every cost, so you neither make nor lose money. Every bill above it adds profit; every bill below it adds to the loss.
Which costs are fixed and which grow with sales?
Fixed costs stay the same whether you serve ten guests or a hundred: rent, salaries on a fixed wage, loan EMIs, internet, and software. Costs that grow with sales rise with every bill: ingredients, packaging, card charges, and delivery app commission. A cost that is a bit of both, like power, is simplest entered as its usual monthly bill under fixed costs.
Should my average bill include GST?
No. Enter it before GST, because the GST on a bill is collected for the government, not earned by the restaurant.
Where do I find my food cost percentage?
Add up a month's purchase bills for ingredients and divide by the same month's sales before GST. For a single dish, the food cost calculator works it out from the recipe.
Why is the break-even rounded up?
Because part of a bill cannot be sold. Rounding down would leave you just short of covering your costs, so the bills you need are always rounded up to the next whole bill.
Is what I type saved anywhere?
Only in the browser you are using, on this device, so a refresh or a closed tab does not lose your entries. Nothing is sent to us. Start over clears it.
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