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Restaurant break-even calculator
Break your real costs down, itemize your fixed costs and set your variable cost percentage, and see the sales and daily orders you need to break even, plus how your profit grows as sales climb.
Fixed costs (don't change with sales)
Insurance, base utilities, software, loan payments.
Food, hourly kitchen labor, packaging, card fees, and any delivery-app commission, as a percent of sales. What's left is your contribution margin.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate a restaurant's break-even point?
Add up your fixed costs (rent, salaried labor, insurance, software, loan payments), then divide by your contribution margin, the share of each dollar of sales left after food and variable costs. If fixed costs are $20,000 and your contribution margin is 65%, you break even at about $30,770 in monthly sales.
What is contribution margin for a restaurant?
Contribution margin is the percentage of each sales dollar left after variable costs, food, hourly kitchen labor, packaging, card fees and any delivery-app commission. If your variable cost is 35% of sales, your contribution margin is 65%. It's what's available to cover fixed costs and profit.
What counts as a fixed cost vs a variable cost?
Fixed costs stay roughly the same no matter how busy you are: rent, insurance, salaried management, loan payments, base utilities and software. Variable costs scale with sales: food, hourly kitchen labor, packaging, card processing and delivery-app commissions.
How can I lower my break-even point?
Reduce fixed costs, or raise your contribution margin by cutting variable costs. One of the biggest hidden variable costs is delivery-app commission of 15 to 30% per order. Moving orders to your own low-fee site raises your contribution margin and lowers the sales you need to break even.
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