Prime cost calculator
Food, drink and labor as a share of your sales, against the target for your type of restaurant.
You'll need: Net sales, food and drink invoices and payroll, all for the same week or month.
Free calculator
Work out your prime cost
Works in any currency. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Example numbers. Replace them with yours.
Your POS sales summary: net sales, after discounts and comps, before tax and tips. Add back any service charge you pay out to staff; some POS reports leave it out.
Food and drink invoices, added up by the day they were delivered, minus credits. Leave out packaging: these targets are food and drink only.
Your payroll report: pay for the days worked, managers included (a salary counts as a 52nd of a year). Leave out tips, but keep a service charge paid to staff.
What you pay on top of wages as the employer, such as payroll taxes, health insurance or a pension, with a week's share of any monthly or yearly bill. Leave blank if the number above already includes them.
Add more detail: stock counts and your own pay
Counted your stock? Add both counts, at cost, and food becomes what you actually used: start + purchases − end. Skip this if your stock stayed about the same; purchases are then a fair stand-in.
Your count when the week began: the end count from the week before.
Counted at the same time of day, on the same items your invoices cover (bar stock too, if bar invoices are in).
What you'd pay someone to do your hours, plus the payroll taxes on it. Leave blank if you're on payroll. It shows as a second figure; the main one stays as your books have it.
With the example numbers
Prime cost is 66% of net sales.
Food, drink and labor: 13,200 of 20,000 in net sales.
That's 1 point over the 65% target for full service: about 200 a week, or 10,400 a year. One point of prime cost (1% of your sales) is worth that much at these sales.
- Food and drink · range 30–34%32%: inside the range
- Labor · range 30–35%34%: inside the range
Food and drink cost and labor each sit inside their own range, but together they're over the ceiling. Start with labor, the one nearer the top of its range.
Left after food, drink and labor: 34% of net sales, about 6,800 a week. Rent, card fees and everything else come out of this.
Without stock counts, purchases stand in for what you used, so a big delivery can make one week look worse and the next one better.
How we worked it out
- Food and drink
- 6,400
- Labor
- 6,800
- Prime cost
- 6,400 + 6,800 = 13,200
- Share of sales
- 13,200 ÷ 20,000 × 100 = 66%
- Target
- 65% or less
- Over target
- 13,200 − 65% of 20,000 = 200
- One point
- 1% of 20,000 = 200
- A year
- 200 × 52 = 10,400
What's a good prime cost?
Prime cost is what your food, drink and team cost you, as a share of what you sold. It's the biggest cost you control week to week, so it's the first number to check.
Use the same dates for every figure, and net sales after discounts and comps, before tax and tips.
A good prime cost is at or under the ceiling for your type of restaurant. These are the targets the calculator checks yours against, the same ones the free profit check uses.
| Restaurant type | Prime cost ceiling | Food and drink | Labor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick service | 60% or less | 26–32% | 26–31% |
| Fast casual | 60% or less | 28–33% | 27–32% |
| Full service | 65% or less | 30–34% | 30–35% |
| Fine dining | 70% or less | 32–38% | 34–38% |
| Bar | 57% or less | 20–26% | 25–32% |
Add the tops of the two ranges and every type comes out above its ceiling. So food and labor can each look fine on their own and still add up to too much, which is why the calculator shows both halves.
Rent, utilities, card fees and delivery app commissions sit outside prime cost and come out of what's left, so track them separately. For the full method and a weekly routine, see how restaurant prime cost works.
Common questions
Should I work out prime cost weekly or monthly?
Weekly if you can: it shows on Monday whether last week ran hot, while there's still time to fix it. Monthly works too, as long as sales, invoices and payroll cover the same dates. Count invoices by the day the goods arrived and labor by the days worked, not by when you paid.
Should I use net or gross sales?
Net sales: what you rang up after discounts and comps, before tax and tips. Gross sales are a bigger number, so they make prime cost look lower than it is.
Do I include my own pay?
If you're on payroll, your pay is already in. If you work in the restaurant without a salary, add what you'd pay someone to do your hours under Add more detail. The calculator shows that as a second figure, so the headline stays the number your books give.
What about tips and service charges?
Leave tips out of both sales and payroll. If you add a service charge or an automatic gratuity and pay it to your staff through payroll, count it in net sales too. Otherwise leave it out of both.