Break-even calculator

Find the sales you need each month to cover your costs, what that means per week and per day open, and how many guests it takes. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

Monthly fixed costs

Rent, salaried staff, insurance, loan payments, software: costs that stay the same however busy you are.

Variable costs

Food and beverage, hourly labor, card fees and anything else that rises with every sale. Drag, or type a percentage (61.4%) or the month's total from your P&L ($61,400).

Average check per guest optional

Days open a month

Your monthly sales optional

Break-even sales$118,421a month

A week: $27,328
A day open: $4,555
Guests a day: 163

Illustration only, not advice. The example costs, average check and days open are placeholders, so use your own. Break-even sales are fixed costs divided by the share of each sales dollar left after variable costs.

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Free calculator by TM Hospitality Strategies

How break-even works

Every sale has to pay for two kinds of cost. Variable costs rise and fall with sales: food and beverage, hourly labor, card fees. Fixed costs stay put however busy you are: rent, salaried staff, insurance, loan payments. Break-even is the level of sales where what is left after variable costs exactly covers the fixed ones.

Break-even sales = fixed costs ÷ (1 − variable costs as a share of sales)

Fixed or variable?

Fixed: rent and common charges, salaried managers and chefs, insurance, loan and lease payments, software subscriptions, most utilities.
Variable: food and beverage cost, hourly staff scheduled to sales, card processing and delivery fees, paper goods.
In between? Split it. The minimum crew you schedule whatever the sales is fixed; the extra shifts on busy nights are variable.

A worked example

The calculator opens on an example month: $45,000 of fixed costs and variable costs at 62% of sales, so 38 cents of every sales dollar is left to cover the fixed costs.

$45,000 ÷ (1 − 0.62) = $45,000 ÷ 0.38 = $118,421 a month

That is about $27,328 a week, or $4,555 for each of 26 days open. At a $28 average check, it takes 163 guests a day just to cover costs. At $130,000 of monthly sales, about $4,400 is left after these costs; below $118,421, the month runs at a loss.

Reading the result

Break-even moves with every lever: a point of variable cost saved, a higher average check, or one more day open each change how many guests it takes. Use it to test a lease before you sign, to set a sales target for a slow season, or to see how much a price rise has to deliver.

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Planning an opening or a new site?

Opening plans test the numbers before you sign: rent, staffing, pricing and the covers it takes to make it work.

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