Restaurant Prime Cost Analyzer
Food, beverage, and labor cost vs. sales: where you are overspending and what hitting your prime cost target is worth.
Example scenario—not a forecast or verified benchmark. Enable JavaScript to edit inputs, view charts, save locally and export your analysis.
Example inputs
- Food sales
- 1,200,000
- Beverage sales (alcohol + non-alcoholic)
- 300,000
- Food cost (purchases adjusted for inventory change)
- 384,000
- Beverage cost
- 75,000
- Hourly wages (FOH + BOH)
- 330,000
- Salaried management
- 120,000
- Payroll taxes, workers' comp, and benefits
- 75,000
- Target prime cost
- 60
- Target food cost (% of food sales)
- 30
- Target beverage cost (% of beverage sales)
- 22
- Target total labor (% of total sales)
- 30
Example results
Prime cost is 65.6% of sales vs. a 60% target: hitting target adds $84K a year ($1,615 a week) to profit.
- Prime cost % of sales
- 65.6%
- Annual profit gain at target
- $84,000
- Prime cost ($)
- $984,000
- Food cost % (of food sales)
- 32%
- Beverage cost % (of bev sales)
- 25%
- Total labor % (incl. burden)
- 35%
- Total sales
- $1,500,000
What stands out
Prime cost 65.6% is 5.6 pts over target
Each point of prime cost is worth $15,000 a year at your volume. Closing the gap to 60% is $84,000 of pre-tax profit.
Labor runs 35% vs. 30% target
That is $75,000 a year ($1,442 a week) above target on this line alone.
Food cost runs 32% vs. 30% target
That is $24,000 a year ($462 a week) above target on this line alone.
Burden adds 16.7% on top of wages
Management is 22.9% of total labor. Fixed salaried labor does not flex down on slow days, so it drives labor % up when sales dip.
Beverage is 20% of sales
Beverage costs 7 fewer points than food, so every 1 pt of sales mix shifted from food to beverage adds about $1,050 a year.
Next actions
- Schedule to a sales forecast by daypart, set a labor % target per shift, and trim open/close overlap to recover $1,442 a week.
- Run weekly food inventory and compare actual vs. theoretical food cost; re-cost your top 10 sellers and re-price or re-spec any plate above 30%.
- Tighten pour cost: measured pours, weekly bar inventory, and drink prices set to a 22% cost target.
- Report prime cost every week (food, beverage, and labor including burden) and review it in a 15-minute manager meeting.
Model assumptions & limitations
- Prime cost = food cost + beverage cost + all labor (wages, salaries, payroll taxes, benefits), as a % of total sales.
- Rule of thumb: prime cost of 55–65% is a typical range for full-service restaurants, with 60% a common target. Quick-service and bar concepts differ; set your own target.
- Default component targets (food ~30%, beverage ~22%, labor ~30%) are common rules of thumb, not benchmarks for your concept. Verify against your menu and service model.
- Profit gain assumes sales stay flat and every dollar of prime cost saved falls to pre-tax profit.