You can drown in restaurant metrics. These are the ones that change a decision. For each, what it is, what a change in it is telling you, and how often to look.
Daily sales — check daily
Total takings, ideally split by service period and payment method. The daily number is your pulse; the split tells you where a good or bad day came from and how much cash you should be banking.
Food cost % — check monthly
COGS ÷ food sales × 100. A stable percentage means your pricing, portions and purchasing are in balance. A rising one means one of them slipped. Pair it with per-dish costs to find the cause.
Labour cost % — check weekly
Wages ÷ sales × 100 for the same period. Rostered against forecast covers, this tells you whether you are over- or under-staffed for the trade you are doing. It moves fast, so look weekly.
Average check (spend per head) — check weekly
Sales ÷ number of covers. A falling average check on flat covers means people are ordering less or trading down — a menu, upsell or pricing question. A rising one on flat covers is usually a good sign.
Covers and table turns — check weekly
Covers is how many people you served; table turns is how many times each table was used in a service. Together they show whether the constraint on a busy night is seats, kitchen speed, or demand.
Stock variance — check with each count
The gap between expected and counted stock. Track it per item, not as one number. A widening variance on a specific ingredient is an early warning of waste, over-portioning or loss.
Pick the cadence that matches how fast each number moves — daily for sales, weekly for labour and covers, monthly for food cost. A KPI you look at once a quarter is a report, not a control.
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