Restaurant break-even calculator
The number every owner should know cold: covers per day before profit starts.
Break-even covers = monthly fixed costs ÷ (average ticket × gross-margin %). A restaurant with ₹2.75L fixed costs, a ₹450 ticket and 65% gross margin needs about 940 covers a month, roughly 31 a day, before a single rupee of profit. Every cover past that contributes ₹292 straight to the bottom line.
Break-even covers = fixed costs ÷ (average ticket × gross-margin%). Gross margin = 100% − food-cost% (65–72% is typical for Indian casual dining). Every cover beyond break-even contributes that margin straight to profit. CountStand's day-close tells you nightly where you stand against this line.
What determines a restaurant’s break-even point?
Fixed costs: everything that bills you whether or not a guest walks in, rent, salaries, electricity minimums, subscriptions, loan EMIs. In Indian metros, rent alone commonly runs 10–15% of a healthy revenue plan; when the model says it needs 20%+, the lease is the problem, not the menu.
Average ticket: revenue ÷ covers, honestly measured across dayparts. A café doing ₹180 mornings and ₹420 evenings has neither number as its ticket, it has a blend the POS should compute, not a guess.
Gross margin: 100% minus food-cost %. At India’s healthy 28–32% food-cost band, contribution runs 68–72%, but use 65% for planning so that wastage, staff meals and the occasional disaster are pre-funded in the model.
What does a real break-even calculation look like?
Rent ₹1.1L, salaries ₹1.2L, utilities and subscriptions ₹45k: fixed costs ₹2.75L/month. Ticket ₹450, gross margin 65%, contribution ₹292 per cover.
Break-even: 2,75,000 ÷ 292 ≈ 941 covers/month ≈ 31 a day. At 45 seats that is 0.7 turns daily, comfortably achievable; the same math at ₹2L rent needs 44 covers and suddenly demands weekend queues to survive a rainy Tuesday.
Past break-even, the economics invert: covers 32 through 60 each drop ₹292 to the bottom line. This is why the marginal moves, one more table turn, a ₹30 ticket bump via add-ons, keeping Monday from bleeding, matter more than any single big idea.
How do you use your break-even number day to day?
Pin the daily figure where the manager can see it, and track it against the day-close every night, not month-end. A break-even you check monthly is a post-mortem; checked nightly it is a steering wheel.
Recompute on every change that touches the three inputs: a rent revision, a hire, a menu reprice, a supplier increase. The calculator takes thirty seconds; running a month on a stale number can cost a lakh.
Asked by owners like you
How many covers does a restaurant need to break even?
Divide monthly fixed costs (rent, salaries, utilities, subscriptions) by your contribution per cover, the average ticket times gross-margin %. Most 40–60 seat casual-dining rooms in Indian metros land between 25 and 45 covers a day.
What gross margin should I assume?
Gross margin = 100% − food-cost %. With the healthy Indian food-cost band at 28–32%, gross margins run 68–72%; use 65% to be conservative when planning.
How long until a new restaurant breaks even overall?
Operationally, well-run places reach monthly break-even in 3–6 months; recovering the initial investment typically takes 18–36 months depending on capex and rent. Model both before signing the lease.
Know your number, nightly
CountStand’s day-close settles cash, cards and UPI and shows profit against your break-even line, every single night.
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