Restaurant break-even calculator
Calculate monthly break-even sales, daily sales and orders, and the sales needed for your operating profit goal.
Free to use without signup. Your financial inputs stay in the browser.
What you will enter
- Monthly fixed costs ($ / month): Rent, insurance, fixed salaries and other costs that do not vary with sales. Include an owner salary if it is part of your operating plan.
- Food and beverage cost (% of sales): Use your projected sales mix. Enter 32 for 32%, not 0.32.
- Variable labor cost (% of sales): Only labor that varies with sales. Do not also include it in fixed costs.
- Other variable costs (% of sales): Processing, packaging, delivery fees and other sales-linked costs. Use a blended rate for your expected sales mix.
- Average order value ($ / order): Net food and beverage sales per order, excluding sales tax and tips.
- Open days per month (days): A whole number from 1 to 31.
- Monthly operating profit goal ($ / month): Enter 0 to focus only on break-even. This is not an owner cash-distribution goal.
The formula
Break-even sales = monthly fixed costs ÷ (1 − total variable cost percentage ÷ 100). Orders per open day = break-even sales ÷ open days ÷ average order value, rounded up.
A worked example
Fictional example: $20,000 fixed costs and 62% variable costs leave a 38% contribution margin. That requires $52,631.58 in monthly sales, about $2,024.29 per open day, or 113 orders per day at an $18 average order over 26 days.
How to use the result
Sort costs before calculating
A full-time manager salary may be fixed within your planning range, while an extra shift may become necessary above a certain volume. Classify costs consistently and do not count the same labor twice.
Compare required orders with capacity
Check whether your kitchen, ordering process and opening hours can support the required daily orders. An arithmetically valid target is not evidence of demand or production capacity.
Put the cash on a calendar
A break-even month can still contain a cash shortage. Deposits, loan principal, equipment purchases and collection timing belong in a separate cash forecast.
Questions owners ask
Is this a restaurant profit calculator?
It calculates operating break-even and sales for a stated operating profit goal from your inputs. It does not include costs you leave out or establish take-home income, tax liability or cash available.
What if variable costs reach 100%?
At 100% or more, sales leave no positive contribution to cover fixed costs. The tool stops and asks you to review the cost mix instead of displaying a misleading break-even target.
Keep working on the decision
Sources and scope
Planning estimates based on your inputs. Check the assumptions against your actual quotes, recipes and operating records.