Restaurant Finance, Explained
Practical guides on prime cost, food cost, P&L, and bookkeeping — written for restaurant owners, not accountants.
Prime Cost Formula for Restaurants (And Why It's the Number That Matters Most)
Prime cost = food cost + labor cost. Learn the formula, what a healthy percentage looks like, and why tracking it weekly beats monthly every time.
Food CostRestaurant Food Cost Percentage: Formula, Benchmarks, and How to Lower It
Food cost % = food cost ÷ revenue × 100. What a good number looks like, what causes it to spike, and how to bring it back down.
Labor CostRestaurant Labor Cost Percentage: Formula, Benchmarks, and How to Reduce It
Labor cost % = total labor ÷ revenue × 100. What a good number looks like by restaurant type, what drives spikes, and the tactics that actually move the needle.
P&L TemplateRestaurant P&L Template: Free Download for Google Sheets and Excel
A complete restaurant profit and loss template with monthly and weekly views, benchmark percentages for every line item, and plain-English instructions.
Accounting SoftwareUsing QuickBooks for Restaurants (And What It Can't Do)
QuickBooks handles restaurant accounting basics well. Here's what it's good at, where the gaps are, and how operators fill them.
BookkeepingRestaurant Bookkeeping 101: A Complete Guide for Restaurant Owners
What to track, how often, the right chart of accounts, and the three numbers every restaurant owner should know every week. No accounting degree required.
AI ToolsAI Bookkeeping for Restaurants: What It Actually Does
AI bookkeeping tools can automate transaction categorization, calculate food cost automatically, and answer questions about your P&L in plain English. Here's the reality.
Toast POSToast POS Accounting: Connecting Your Sales Data to Your Books
Toast captures your revenue. Your invoices capture your costs. Here's how to connect them — and why the bank deposit never matches your daily sales report.