Restaurant prime cost calculator
Enter your sales, cost of goods sold, and labor to get your prime cost, your prime cost percentage, and the split between food and labor. Then compare it with your own target.
Your numbers
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Your results
- Prime cost percentage
- 62.0%
- Prime cost
- $31,000
- Total labor
- $17,000
- Cost of goods sold
- 28.0%
- Labor
- 34.0%
- Over your target by
- $1,000
How it is calculated
Total labor is hourly wages plus salaries plus payroll taxes and benefits. Prime cost is cost of goods sold plus total labor, and the percentage is prime cost divided by total sales, times 100.
A common rule of thumb is to keep prime cost at or below roughly 60% to 65% of sales. Set the target to whatever your concept needs; the calculator compares against that.
Get this number every day, without the spreadsheet
Sturgeon works this out from your live POS, invoices, schedules, and waste log, so you see it daily instead of when someone finds the time.
- AI consultantStu: an AI consultant, not a chatbotAsk Stu who should close Friday, what to 86, which vendor is creeping on price. He runs 30+ tools over your live data, and he doesn't just answer. He drafts the PO and, once you approve it, sends it.
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Questions
What period should I use?
A week is the usual rhythm for prime cost. Use sales, cost of goods sold, and labor from the same week.
Should manager pay go in salaries?
Yes, for most operators. Whichever way you count it, count it the same way every time so the trend is comparable.
Where does cost of goods sold come from?
From the food cost sum: opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory, plus beverage if you include it. The food cost calculator on this site works that out.
More calculators
- Food cost calculatorRestaurant food cost percentage calculatorCost of food used, food cost percentage, and how far you are from your target.
- Recipe cost calculatorRestaurant recipe cost calculatorPlate cost from your ingredients and yield, and the menu price that hits your target.
- Waste cost calculatorRestaurant food waste cost calculatorWhat your waste costs a week and a year, as a share of food sales.
See your own numbers in Sturgeon in under a week, with your POS connected, your forecasts calibrated, and Stu answering. White-glove onboarding is included.
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