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Restaurant Break-Even Calculator
Break-even in dollars is hard to act on. Break-even in covers per day is checkable at 9pm. This gives you both.
Common questions
What counts as a fixed cost?
Anything that doesn't move with sales: rent, insurance, licences, salaried management, base utilities and debt service. If you'd pay it on a day you served nobody, it's fixed.
How do I find my variable cost ratio?
Add food cost, hourly labour and variable overhead from a recent normal month, then divide by that month's sales. Most full-service restaurants land between 55% and 68%.
Should break-even include my own pay?
It should. Break-even without owner compensation tells you when the business stops losing money, not when it starts working. Add your target draw to fixed costs and recompute.