Hospitality Break-Even Calculator
How many covers a week does this site need before it starts making money?
Change any figure and the numbers update as you type. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Rent, rates, salaried management, insurance, utilities, software, finance. Everything you pay whether or not a single person walks in.
Sales less cost of sales, as a percentage of sales. Food-led sites are typically 65–72%, wet-led higher.
Net of VAT. Take total net sales divided by covers, not the headline menu price.
Hourly staff whose hours flex with trade. Salaried managers belong in fixed costs above.
Seats at one sitting. Used to check whether break-even is even reachable.
Average turns. 1.6 means most tables turn once and some twice.
Optional. Gives you the margin of safety and current profit below.
How break-even is worked out
Every cover you serve brings in an average spend, and takes away the cost of the food or drink and the hourly labour needed to serve it. What is left is the contribution, the amount that cover puts towards your fixed costs.
Break-even is the point where contribution has covered every fixed cost, and the next cover starts making profit:
- Contribution per cover = average spend × (gross profit % − variable labour %)
- Covers needed = fixed costs ÷ contribution per cover
- Net sales needed = covers needed × average spend
A worked example
A 60-cover neighbourhood restaurant with £9,500 of fixed costs a week, running 70% gross profit, £32 average spend and 18% variable labour:
- Contribution per cover = £32 × (70% − 18%) = £32 × 52% = £16.64
- Covers needed = £9,500 ÷ £16.64 = 571 covers a week
- That is roughly 82 covers a day across seven days, or £18,272 of net sales a week
Useful thing to notice: a single point of gross profit is worth about £0.32 a cover here, so moving from 70% to 72% takes break-even down by roughly 21 covers a week. Menu engineering and buying tend to move the number faster than chasing extra covers does.
Common questions
What counts as a fixed cost?
Anything that does not move with trade: rent, business rates, salaried management, insurance, utilities standing charges, software, accountancy, finance costs. The test is whether the bill still arrives if you close for a week. If it does, it is fixed.
Should I use gross or net sales?
Net, every time. VAT is not your money, and average spend quoted gross will overstate your contribution by a fifth. Divide total net sales by covers rather than looking at menu prices.
Why is variable labour separate from fixed costs?
Because it scales with trade, so it changes the contribution each extra cover makes rather than the hurdle you have to clear. Putting all labour in fixed costs is the most common way this calculation goes wrong. It makes break-even look lower than it is on quiet weeks and higher than it is on busy ones.
Split it the way you actually roster: salaried managers who work regardless are fixed, hourly staff you add on a Friday are variable.
My break-even looks impossible. What now?
Then the model is telling you something real, and it is usually one of three things: fixed costs too high for the site's capacity, gross profit below where the menu should deliver, or average spend below what the offer supports. The calculator will not tell you which. Looking at a site-level P&L for two or three periods will.
Does this account for seasonality?
No. It is a steady-state weekly figure. A site that breaks even on an annual average can still lose money for four months of the year, which is a cashflow problem rather than a profit one. If your trade swings hard by season, run this for a good week and a bad week separately and look at the gap.
An estimate to help you think, not advice on your own business. The numbers depend on assumptions only you can confirm, talk to us before you act on them.
Know this number for every site, every period
Break-even is only useful when it is current. We build the reporting that recalculates it from real numbers as costs move, rather than the day someone remembers to open a spreadsheet.