Is labour a fixed or variable cost?

Salaried staff are usually fixed. Hourly staff who are scheduled to sales are closer to variable. Put each where it behaves in your restaurant.

How should I use the result?

Compare it with your covers per day. If you’re close to break-even, small changes to average spend or food cost make a big difference.

Free tool

Restaurant break-even calculator

Enter your fixed costs, average spend per guest and variable costs to see how many guests you need each month, and each day, to break even.

Fixed costs per month

Rent, salaried staff, insurance, utilities, software and loan payments.

Average spend per guest

Variable costs

Food, packaging, card fees and hourly labour as a share of sales.

Days open per month

Your results

Break-even guests per month: 1,916
Guests per day: 69
Break-even sales per month: $61,312.00
Contribution per guest: $19.84

How it works

Contribution per guest is the average spend minus variable costs (food, packaging, card fees and hourly labour).
Break-even guests per month is fixed costs ÷ contribution per guest, rounded up.
Guests per day divides that by the days you’re open.

See covers and sales in Platter reports

Sales summary, sales by item and server, labour and more, for any date range.

Learn more

Restaurant break-even calculator questions

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<iframe src="https://plattermanagement.com/embed/tools/restaurant-break-even-calculator" title="Restaurant break-even calculator by Platter" width="100%" height="720" style="border:0;max-width:960px" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://plattermanagement.com/tools/restaurant-break-even-calculator">Restaurant break-even calculator</a> by <a href="https://plattermanagement.com">Platter POS</a></p>

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