10 Numbers Every Restaurant Owner Should Check Every Week

You can’t run a restaurant from a year-end P&L. By the time your accountant hands it over, every mistake in it has had months to compound. The restaurant numbers to check weekly are the ones that tell you, in the moment, whether the last seven days made money and what to change in the next seven. Here are ten of them, with what each one is, where to get it, what good looks like, and what to do when it isn’t.

1. Total net sales

What it is: Everything you sold last week, after discounts, comps, and voids, before sales tax.

How to get it: Your POS sales summary report. Make sure you’re pulling net sales, not gross, and that online ordering channels are included.

What good looks like: Up or flat versus the same week last year, and within your normal range for the season. A single soft week isn’t a trend; three in a row is.

If it’s off: Break it down by day and by daypart to find where the drop is. A weak Tuesday lunch is a different problem than a weak Saturday dinner. Check for external causes (weather, road construction, a local event that moved) before assuming something internal changed.

2. Sales by channel

What it is: How your net sales split across dine-in, pickup, in-house delivery, and third-party marketplaces.

How to get it: POS reports by order type, plus the reporting dashboards from your online ordering platform and any marketplace apps.

What good looks like: A mix you’ve chosen on purpose. Many owners are surprised to find a quarter or more of their sales flowing through third-party apps at 15–30% commission. There’s no universal right split, but you should know yours and be steering it.

If it’s off: If marketplace share is growing faster than direct, you’re paying more per order every month. Put your own ordering link on bags, receipts, and your Google Business Profile, and give regulars a reason to switch.

3. Food cost percentage

What it is: Cost of ingredients used divided by food sales.

How to get it: Count inventory on your top 20 to 30 items by value, add the week’s invoices, subtract the ending count, divide by food sales. A weekly count on key items is enough; do a full count monthly.

What good looks like: Roughly 28% to 35% for most independents, lower for pizza and sandwiches, higher for steak and seafood. The trend matters more than the exact figure.

If it’s off: A jump of two or more points in one week usually means one of three things: a supplier price change you haven’t repriced for, over-portioning, or waste and theft. Check invoices first, then watch the line, then check the walk-in.

4. Labor cost percentage

What it is: Total wages, including payroll taxes, divided by net sales.

How to get it: Your scheduling or payroll system for hours and rates; POS for sales. Include salaried managers.

What good looks like: Commonly 25% to 35% depending on concept. Quick-service and pizza run lower; full-service runs higher.

If it’s off: Look at labor by day and by hour against sales for the same window. Overstaffing is almost always concentrated in specific shifts, not spread evenly. Adjust next week’s schedule rather than sending people home early, which hurts morale and retention.

5. Prime cost percentage

What it is: Food cost plus labor cost, as a percentage of sales. The most important single number on this list.

How to get it: Add numbers 3 and 4.

What good looks like: Around 60% or below. Quick-service concepts often run 55% or lower.

If it’s off: Don’t try to fix it by squeezing one side while ignoring the other. If labor is high, ask whether cheaper prep is inflating food cost. If food cost is high, ask whether cutting labor forced you into pricier pre-made product. Work both lines together.

6. Average order value

What it is: Net sales divided by number of orders (or checks, or covers, depending on how you count). For online orders, this is usually called AOV.

How to get it: Your POS shows average check. Online ordering platforms’ reporting, Anytable’s included, shows online-order metrics like AOV and order counts by date range so you can compare online to in-store.

What good looks like: Stable or rising. Online AOV is often higher than dine-in because customers add sides and drinks without feeling watched, so a low online AOV suggests your online menu isn’t upselling.

If it’s off: Check whether a promotion pulled the average down, whether servers stopped suggesting add-ons, or whether your online menu is missing modifiers, combos, and a “you might also like” nudge. Small increases here compound fast: $1 more on 500 orders a week is $26,000 a year.

7. Order and cover counts

What it is: How many orders you filled, separate from how much they were worth.

How to get it: POS and ordering platform reports.

What good looks like: Rising or steady counts alongside steady AOV. That combination means real growth.

If it’s off: Falling counts with rising AOV can mean you’ve raised prices and lost some price-sensitive customers. Falling counts with steady AOV means fewer people are choosing you, which is a marketing, reviews, or visibility problem more than a menu problem.

8. Cash position

What it is: Money in the bank today, minus what’s due this week: payroll, rent, vendor invoices, loan payments, sales tax owed.

How to get it: Your bank balance and a simple list of upcoming bills. A spreadsheet works.

What good looks like: Enough to cover the next two to four weeks of obligations without depending on next weekend’s sales.

If it’s off: Look at timing first. Restaurants that are profitable on paper still run into trouble when a big invoice lands the day before payroll. Talk to vendors about terms before you’re late, not after. If cash is chronically short while sales are fine, the problem is in numbers 3 through 5.

9. Review count and rating

What it is: New reviews received this week and your current average on Google, plus any others you care about.

How to get it: Google Business Profile dashboard. Check the “reviews” tab and note the count and average each week.

What good looks like: A steady stream of new reviews (even a few per week matters) and an average that holds or improves. Recent reviews carry more weight with customers and with search rankings than old ones.

If it’s off: If reviews have dried up, you’ve probably stopped asking. Build the ask into the moment after a good experience, whether that’s a card in the bag or an automated follow-up after an online order. If the rating dropped, read the negative reviews for patterns, fix the operational issue, and respond politely and publicly to each one.

10. Repeat customer rate

What it is: The share of orders (or customers) this week that came from people who’ve ordered before.

How to get it: Easiest for online orders, where the platform can match by email or phone. For dine-in, a loyalty program or reservation system gives you a partial view. Even a rough estimate is better than nothing.

What good looks like: For a neighborhood restaurant, a majority of orders coming from repeat customers is healthy. New customers are expensive to find; regulars are where the profit is.

If it’s off: A falling repeat rate means people tried you once and didn’t come back. That’s a food, service, or consistency problem before it’s a marketing problem. Fix the experience, then re-engage lapsed customers with a short email or text offer.

How to make this a habit

Pick one day, usually Monday or Tuesday morning, and block 30 minutes. Put the ten numbers in a single spreadsheet with a row for each week and columns for this week, last week, and the same week last year. The first few weeks feel slow. By week six you’ll be pulling the numbers in 15 minutes and spotting problems before they show up in your bank balance.

A few practical tips:

• Keep the format identical every week. Consistency is what makes the trend visible.
• Write one sentence per number. “Food cost up 2 points, cheese price increased Thursday” is worth more than the number alone.
• Share it. If you have a kitchen manager or a front-of-house lead, show them the numbers they influence. People manage what they can see.
• Act on one thing. Don’t try to fix all ten. Pick the biggest gap and address it before next week’s check.

The bottom line

None of these restaurant numbers to check weekly require expensive software or an accounting degree. They require a POS report, a few invoices, your bank balance, and half an hour of attention. The owners who stay in business through hard years are rarely the ones with the best food; they’re the ones who knew their numbers early enough to do something about them. Start this week.