Most restaurant owners check their daily revenue and leave it at that. Here are the five reports that give you a complete picture.
Total revenue tells you nothing about profitability. Track food cost % for each menu category weekly. Anything above 35% in a casual dining context warrants investigation — either the dish needs repricing or the recipe needs adjusting.
Which dishes are driving revenue and which are dragging down average ticket size? Sort your menu items by revenue contribution and look for dishes in the bottom 10% that have high ingredient complexity.
Plot covers by hour for each day of the week. This tells you where your staffing peaks and troughs actually are — which rarely matches intuition. Over-staffing during slow periods and under-staffing during rushes is one of the most common controllable cost problems.
Average time from seating to settlement, by table size and day part. A 15-minute reduction in turn time at a busy lunch service can add 1–2 additional covers per table — significant revenue at scale.
Compare each week to the same week last year (or to a rolling 4-week average if you're new). This one report, looked at consistently, will flag problems before they become crises and highlight opportunities before they pass.
Divyesh P
Founder at DP Tech Studio. Former restaurant operator. Writes about technology and operations for food businesses.
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