Sales every day, a P&L once a month, and the margin gone by the time you see it.
Accounting, controller and fractional CFO work for restaurants, from a team that has closed these books before.
What we usually see when a restaurant group opens its third location
Food and labor are managed by feel at the store level while the P&L arrives six weeks later. Prime cost is not calculated weekly, so a three-point drift in food cost runs for a quarter before anyone sees it. Tips, sales tax, delivery platform fees and gift card liabilities are recorded inconsistently. Vendor terms tighten while the newest store is still ramping. The owner knows which store is busy. Nobody knows which store is profitable.
The numbers we watch
- Prime cost (food, beverage and labor) by store, weekly
- Food cost against theoretical
- Labor as a percentage of sales, by daypart
- Sales per labor hour
- Net revenue by channel after delivery platform fees
- Sales tax, tip and gift card liabilities reconciled monthly
- Occupancy cost as a percentage of sales
- Cash against rent, payroll and vendor cycles
What we build
- A weekly prime cost report by store, four days after the week ends
- A store-level P&L the managers own
- Sales tax, tip and gift card liabilities reconciled every month
- A 13-week forecast around payroll, rent and the newest store's ramp
- Lender packages when the fourth location needs financing
How the numbers connect
What the owner sees on Monday.
Everything to the right explains it.
Adds to cash
Sales by store
Covers × check average, by channel
Takes from cash
Prime cost
Food, beverage and labor, weekly
Occupancy and debt service
Rent and equipment notes
The tree shows how cash is built for this industry: what adds to it, what takes from it, and the measures behind each. It is the structure of the scorecard we build.
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