--- title: "Eleven numbers you should see every morning | GoSufra" description: "A practical restaurant dashboard: sales, average check, food cost, labour, prime cost, discounts and voids — with the formulas, the ranges, and what to do when they move." url: "https://gosufra.com/en/blog/restaurant-kpis/" language: "en" source: "https://gosufra.com" --- # Eleven numbers you should see every morning A practical restaurant dashboard: sales, average check, food cost, labour, prime cost, discounts and voids — with the formulas, the ranges, and what to do when they move. 2026-07-20 · 9 min read ![Illustration of bar charts with a trend line](https://gosufra.com/blog/restaurant-kpis.svg) ## Key points - A metric without a comparison is useless: always compare to yesterday and to the same weekday last week. - Prime cost (food + labour) is the fastest read on operational health. - Discounts, voids and refunds are integrity metrics before they are sales metrics. - Three numbers reviewed daily beat thirty printed and read by nobody. Most restaurants do not suffer from a lack of data. They drown in it. Many reports, few decisions. Here are eleven numbers that genuinely earn your time, grouped by what they tell you. --- ## Sales numbers ### 1. Net sales ``` net sales = gross sales − discounts − refunds − tax ``` Always compare against **the same weekday last week**, never against yesterday. Thursday does not compare to Tuesday. ### 2. Transaction count This separates two very different causes of a sales drop: fewer guests, or the same guests spending less. The remedy differs completely. ### 3. Average check ``` average check = net sales ÷ transaction count ``` The cheapest number to improve. Ten more per check across 300 checks a day is 90,000 a month without a single new customer. The main lever is structured upselling: a side, a size upgrade, a drink. ### 4. Sales by hour Reveals your real peak, and it is the basis of shift scheduling. A restaurant staffing identically from noon to midnight is paying wages during hours that do not sell. --- ## Cost numbers ### 5. Food cost percentage ``` (opening + purchases − closing) ÷ net food sales ``` The full method is in the food cost article — the common error is calculating from purchases alone. ### 6. Labour cost percentage ``` total labour cost ÷ net sales ``` Including wages, incentives and any employer-side charges. A common range is 25% – 35% depending on service style. ### 7. Prime cost ``` prime cost = (food cost + labour cost) ÷ net sales ``` If you track one number, track this one. It is the two biggest lines you can actually influence — rent will not change this month, portions and scheduling will. | Ratio | Reading | | --- | --- | | Under 55% | Excellent | | 55% – 65% | Healthy | | 65% – 70% | Under pressure | | Over 70% | Profit is close to zero | ### 8. Sales per labour hour ``` net sales ÷ total paid hours ``` A sharper productivity measure than labour percentage alone, because it is not distorted by pay differences between staff. --- ## Integrity and quality numbers ### 9. Discounts, voids and refunds Track three things: the value, the percentage of sales, **and who did it**. A sudden rise in voids by one cashier on specific shifts is a pattern that deserves a question — it may be missing training, and it may not be. A system that records the void with a username and a timestamp is what makes the question possible. ### 10. Average prep time Measures kitchen health, and it correlates directly with ratings and repeat rate. ### 11. Repeat customer rate ``` customers who ordered more than once in 90 days ÷ total customers ``` The most important long-term number. Winning a new customer costs several times more than keeping an existing one. --- ## Running these in practice **Daily (5 minutes):** net sales, transactions, average check, discounts and voids. **Weekly (30 minutes):** food cost, labour cost, prime cost, sales per labour hour, prep time. **Monthly (2 hours):** menu engineering, repeat rate, branch comparison, supplier review. ## One last rule A number without context is decoration. Give every metric three things: **its value, its comparison, and its threshold**. “Food cost 34.2% (+1.8 vs last month, target 32%)” produces a decision. “34.2%” on its own produces nothing. When sales, inventory, recipes and staff live in one system, these metrics come from a single source instead of being assembled from four files whose numbers disagree. - KPIs - reporting - management - profitability ## In the product ### [Analytics, Branches & Control](https://gosufra.com/en/features/analytics-and-reports/) Explore ## Run all of this from one system POS, kitchen, inventory, recipe costing, staff and accounting — connected, and free to start. [Create your free account](https://app.gosufra.com/register?lang=en) ## Related articles ![Illustration of a percentage ring beside report lines](https://gosufra.com/blog/food-cost-percentage.svg) Costing 2026-06-15 · 7 min read ### [Food cost percentage: the one number that reads your health](https://gosufra.com/en/blog/food-cost-percentage/) How to calculate food cost percentage properly from stocktakes rather than invoices, what separates theoretical from actual, and what to do when the gap widens. Read article ![Illustration of food and labour costs stacked into one bar](https://gosufra.com/blog/prime-cost.svg) Costing 2026-08-12 · 7 min read ### [Prime cost: add food and labour before you celebrate sales](https://gosufra.com/en/blog/prime-cost/) Why prime cost (food + labour) is the fastest read on a restaurant's health, how to calculate it, and what to do when it crosses 65%. Read article ![Illustration of a clock beside a labour-cost percentage ring](https://gosufra.com/blog/labor-cost-percentage.svg) People 2026-08-08 · 8 min read ### [Labour cost percentage: the number that eats profit after food](https://gosufra.com/en/blog/labor-cost-percentage/) How to calculate restaurant labour cost the right way, what ranges are normal, and the schedule changes that move the number without cutting service. Read article [← All articles](https://gosufra.com/en/blog/) [Contact us](https://wa.me/201132421261)