Profit & loss and prime cost¶
Finance → Profit & loss tells you each month what you sold, what it cost and what you kept. It's included in every plan and only admins see it.
How it's built¶
| Line | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Net sales | Gross sales − discounts − refunds (+ manually entered sales). No tax or tips. |
| Cost of goods sold | Beginning inventory + purchases ± transfers − ending inventory, at each ingredient's current cost. Split by ingredient category (Meat, Produce…). |
| Labor | What the time clock records + payroll entered as an expense + the payroll burden %. |
| Prime cost | COGS + labor. It's the most important number in a restaurant: most aim for 55–65% of sales. |
| Operating expenses | Your fixed costs (rent, utilities, insurance…) and the month's real expenses, by category. |
| Operating income and net income | What's left; net income subtracts interest, depreciation and taxes if you enter them. |
At the top you see the key figures: sales, prime cost against your goal, food + labor, and net income. Below, the table compares against last month and the same month last year (when there's data).
Month in progress
If you pick the current month, the statement runs from the 1st to today. Fixed costs are prorated to those days and comparisons use the same days of the other month, so it's fair.
Reliable COGS
Actual COGS includes waste and what counts find. Do a full count at the end of each month; without counts, COGS stays close to the recipes' theoretical cost.
Under Cost of goods sold (below) you see the breakdown: beginning inventory, purchases, ending inventory, and how much was recipe usage, waste and count shortages.
Monthly expenses¶
In the Monthly expenses tab:
- Fixed costs: added every month automatically. If a month was different (a higher electric bill), enter the real amount in the month's column; leave it blank to use the monthly amount. Fixed costs and their category are managed in Finance → Operating costs.
- Other expenses: what you paid that month that isn't fixed (repairs, advertising, card and delivery app fees, disposables). Pick the category, enter the line item and amount. Copy them to edit brings last month's.
- If you don't use the time clock, enter payroll with the Payroll (outside time clock) category: it counts as labor, not as an operating expense.
- Interest, depreciation and taxes go under Interest, depreciation & taxes: they're subtracted after operating income.
Weekly prime cost¶
The Weekly prime cost tab shows recent weeks with actual COGS, labor (with burden) and prime cost as a % of sales, against your goal. Weeks over the goal are marked in red with ⚠️.
If you turn on the alert in Settings, every Monday you get an alert when last week went over the goal, and the weekly summary email includes prime cost.
Trend, locations and downloads¶
- Trend: the last 12 months with sales, prime cost, expenses and net income. View opens that month's statement.
- All locations: if you have several, you get one column per location plus the company total.
- ⬇ PDF and ⬇ Excel: to print or send to your accountant. The Excel file includes the expenses sheet and weekly prime cost.
Settings¶
- Payroll burden: payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits as a % of payroll (usually 8–15% in the US).
- Prime cost goal: the % you don't want to go over (60% by default).
Labor looks too high?
Check that no shifts are still clocked in (the statement warns you) and that hourly rates are right in Labor.