Tag: Operating expenses
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How Much Cash Should a Restaurant Keep?
Restaurants should hold 8-12 weeks of fixed operating expenses in cash reserves. Three sizing variables, where to hold it, why most operators are under.
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Managing Credit Card Fees for Better Restaurant Profit
Credit card processing fees are one of the most consistent and most overlooked expenses in the restaurant industry. They are not glamorous. They do not come with a vendor rep who calls to check in, a line item that management reviews at weekly meetings, or an obvious lever you can…
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Plateware Cost and Quality: The Investment That Shapes Guest Perception
Plateware, the plates, bowls, glasses, and serving vessels that carry the food and beverage to the table, is one of the few restaurant investments that simultaneously affects the guest experience, the kitchen’s ability to execute, and the financial model in ways that compound over time. It is also one of…
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Uniforms in Restaurants: The Hidden Cost and the Branding Opportunity
Uniforms occupy an interesting position in restaurant financials: they are small enough as an individual line item to be overlooked, but large enough in aggregate, and important enough to brand and guest experience, to deserve deliberate management. For a full-service restaurant with 30 hourly employees, a poorly managed uniform program…
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Restaurant Utility Costs: Benchmarks and How to Cut Them
Utilities are a fixed presence on the restaurant P&L, electricity, gas, water, and waste removal showing up month after month with quiet consistency. Because they do not spike dramatically in the way a bad food cost week or a high-overtime payroll period does, they tend not to attract the same…
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Restaurant Cleaning Costs: How Much Should You Be Spending?
Cleaning in a restaurant is not optional, not deferrable, and not separable from the guest experience. A clean restaurant is a baseline expectation, not a differentiator. But like most baseline expenses, cleaning costs can drift, upward through poor contract management and unnecessary services, or downward through underinvestment that creates health,…
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Packaging and Other COGS: The Hidden Costs Inside Your Food Cost Percentage
Cost of goods sold in a restaurant is typically discussed in terms of food and beverage, the ingredients that make up the menu. But COGS is broader than that, and in restaurants with meaningful takeout, delivery, or catering volume, packaging costs can become a significant line item that deserves its…
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Repairs and Maintenance: The Restaurant Expense That Rewards Proactive Operators
In a restaurant P&L, repairs and maintenance is usually a small line item in good months and a punishing one in bad months. Equipment failures in a restaurant are not a question of if, they are a question of when, and the when almost never coincides with a convenient financial…