Free Restaurant P&L Statement Calculator
Enter sales, COGS, labor, and operating expenses. The calculator returns gross profit, prime cost, EBITDA, and net margin with color-coded health badges so you can read the P&L the way your accountant would.
Restaurant P&L calculator
Build a complete monthly P&L from your own numbers.
Revenue
Cost of goods sold
Labor
Other operating expenses
Your P&L this period
Tip: enter monthly figures. Ratios are colour-coded against industry benchmarks - green is healthy, amber is watch, red is action needed. Numbers stay in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Why your weekly P&L matters
How to use the calculator
Enter the numbers for the period you want to read - typically a week or a month. The calculator does the math live as you type.
- 1
Sales: enter food sales, beverage sales, and any other sales (catering, retail, gift cards redeemed) separately. The calculator totals them.
- 2
COGS: enter cost of goods sold for food and beverage. If you do not know it, run the food cost calculator first and multiply food sales by the percentage.
- 3
Labor: enter total labor cost including payroll taxes and benefits. The calculator returns labor as a % of sales automatically.
- 4
Operating expenses: enter occupancy (rent + utilities + insurance), marketing, repairs, supplies, third-party fees, and any other operating expenses.
- 5
Read the result. Color-coded badges show whether prime cost, EBITDA, and net margin land inside, near, or outside the healthy band for your format.
The restaurant P&L structure
Every restaurant P&L follows the same five-step subtraction:
Total Sales – COGS = Gross Profit – Labor = Prime Profit (Sales – Prime Cost) – Operating Expenses = EBITDA – D&A / Interest / Tax = Net Profit
The two composite metrics that operators live by are prime cost (COGS + labor) and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation). Prime cost is the operating lever you control week to week; EBITDA is the number a buyer multiplies when they value the business.
Healthy benchmarks by restaurant format
These are the bands operators in each format target. The calculator badges your inputs against them automatically.
| Format | Healthy band | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fine dining | Prime cost ≤ 65% · EBITDA 10-15% | Higher labor offsets lower volume. |
| Casual full-service | Prime cost ≤ 60% · EBITDA 12-18% | The classic operator target. |
| Pizzeria | Prime cost ≤ 55% · EBITDA 15-20% | Dough economics + lower labor make this the most forgiving format. |
| Quick-service restaurant | Prime cost ≤ 55% · EBITDA 15-20% | Volume model; tight on both lines. |
| Bar / pub kitchen | Prime cost ≤ 62% · EBITDA 14-18% | Beverage margin covers a softer kitchen line. |
| Hotel F&B | Prime cost ≤ 68% · EBITDA 8-12% | Complex menu mix, banquet seasonality, embedded overhead. |
A worked example
A 70-cover bistro doing $1.5M a year, looking at a typical four-week period:
- Food sales: $98,000 · Beverage: $22,000 · Total sales: $120,000
- Food COGS: $29,400 (30.0%) · Beverage COGS: $5,500 (25.0%)
- Labor (with taxes + benefits): $36,000 (30.0%)
- Operating expenses (rent + utilities + marketing + everything else): $25,200 (21.0%)
COGS total = $34,900 (29.1%) · Gross profit = $85,100 (70.9%)
Prime cost = $34,900 + $36,000 = $70,900 → 59.1% ✓ inside the casual full-service band
EBITDA = $85,100 - $36,000 - $25,200 = $23,900 → 19.9% ✓ above the band target
This bistro is healthy. The action is not to cut anything - it is to keep this rhythm and reinvest the EBITDA into the next location.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good profit margin for a restaurant?+
Net margin of 5-10% is normal across full-service formats. EBITDA of 12-18% is the operator target. Pizzeria and QSR formats can clear 15-20% EBITDA; hotel F&B is usually 8-12%. If your net is below 3% something on the P&L is broken and the most likely culprits are food cost, labor, or rent (in that order).
What is prime cost in a restaurant?+
Prime cost is the sum of cost of goods sold (food + beverage) and total labor (wages + taxes + benefits). It is the single most actionable line on the P&L because both halves are levers the operator can pull weekly. The standard target is ≤ 60% of sales for casual full-service, ≤ 55% for QSR and pizzeria, ≤ 65% for fine dining.
Should I run the P&L weekly or monthly?+
Weekly for prime cost, monthly for the full statement. Most operators we work with run a one-page weekly flash report (sales, food cost %, labor %, prime cost %) every Monday morning, and a full monthly P&L on the 5th to 7th of the following month. Quarterly is the absolute minimum and frankly too late to react.
What does EBITDA mean and why does it matter?+
EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation. It is the closest thing on the P&L to 'operating profit before financing decisions' and it is the number a buyer or investor multiplies (typically 3-6x for an independent restaurant, 5-10x for a small chain) when they value the business. A 1% EBITDA improvement on a $2M revenue restaurant is $20,000 of valuation lift at a 5x multiple.
Does occupancy go inside prime cost or below it?+
Below it. Prime cost is just COGS plus labor - the two lines the operator can move week to week. Occupancy (rent, utilities, insurance) is a fixed structural cost that sits in operating expenses. The composite ratio operators sometimes track that includes occupancy is sometimes called 'controllable + occupancy' or CPLO; the target is ≤ 70-72% of sales.
Does this calculator store my data?+
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, nothing is logged, nothing is stored after you close the page. You can drop in commercially sensitive numbers without exposure.
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