The day you are going to have
Restaurant demand forecasting from your own sales
Over-prep and you bin it at close. Under-prep and the special runs out by 8 pm. A believable number for tomorrow helps the kitchen and the rota.
Last reviewed 1 Oct 2026
- 1Your own salesYour history by weekday, with the recent trend
- 2Three days aheadExpected covers and sales for each day
- 3Day parts and staffEach part of the day suggests floor and kitchen staff
- 4Prep list, not openTomorrow’s forecast as quantities to prep: not open at launch
- 3 daysof covers and sales ahead, in Labor, Forecast
- Day partseach with covers and suggested floor and kitchen staff
- Your historyby weekday, with the recent trend, and the basis shown
- Not openat launch: the prep list
01At a glance
What the forecast reads, and what it gives
- From your own salesThe forecast reads your own history by weekday and adjusts for the recent trend. Each day shows the method and how many days it read.
- Three days aheadLabor, Forecast shows the next three days, each with expected covers and sales.
- By part of the dayEach day is split into its parts, with the covers expected in each.
- Staff to matchEach part of the day suggests floor and kitchen staff, from expected covers per server and orders the kitchen can take.
- Against the labour budgetThe schedule sets the week’s labour cost against forecast sales and your labour budget, and warns before a rota goes over.
- The prep list waitsTurning tomorrow’s forecast into quantities to prep, with shortages flagged, is built and not open at launch.
02In detail
How can tomorrow be forecast at all?
Not perfectly, but usefully. A restaurant’s trade has a shape: each weekday behaves like itself, paydays and seasons pull at it, and the last few weeks carry a trend. Read from your own sales, that shape gives an estimate for Friday grounded in your Fridays, not in a template.
It will not see a sudden downpour or a cricket final coming. It does give the rota and the kitchen a number to plan against, and it shows how it got there, so you can overrule it when you know better.
How is this different from reordering stock?
They answer different questions. Reordering asks how many days each ingredient will last and how much to buy, over days and weeks. Demand forecasting asks how many guests are coming and how many people to roster, for the next service.
They meet in the kitchen. A good covers forecast tells you how hard tomorrow will be; days to stockout tells you whether the store can take it.
03Questions
Questions about forecasting
From your own sales history, by weekday, adjusted for the recent trend. Labor, Forecast shows the next three days’ covers and sales, with the basis beside them.
It suggests floor and kitchen staff for each part of the day, from the covers and orders it expects.
Not at launch. The prep list, which turns tomorrow’s forecast into quantities with shortages flagged, is built and not open for the first restaurants.
The covers and staffing forecast in Labor is in every plan, Single included. The prep list is not open at launch, on any plan.
Plan the rota to a number
The covers and staffing forecast is in every plan. Apply for access, and we reply within two working days.