Part III · Stop doing every job yourself

Chapter 12: Know your numbers before they become a problem.

Time45 minutes, then 15 every Monday

You needSales, labor and reservation reports, invoices

You leave withYour week on one page and a 10-minute comps check

The leak

Most owners find out about a bad month from their accountant, six weeks later. By then the cost spike, the overstaffed Tuesdays and the comps nobody approved are history. You can’t fix last month. You can fix this week, if you can see it.

You don’t need software for this. You need ten numbers, on one page, every Monday, and the discipline to look only at what moved the wrong way.

The one-page week

Worked example · Mirela is fictional

Mirela’s last week, next to the week before and her four-week average:

Number	Last week	Week before	4-week average	Look?
Net sales	$28,400	$27,100	$27,800
Covers	520	498	510
Average check per guest	$54.62	$54.42	$54.51
Food and drink purchases, % of sales	31.2%	29.8%	30.1%	Yes
Labor, % of sales	32.5%	33.4%	33.0%
Purchases + labor, % of sales	63.7%	63.2%	63.1%
Comps, voids and discounts	$1,140 4.0%	$610 2.3%	$650 2.3%	Yes
No-show parties	5	7	6
New Google reviews, average rating	9, 4.6	6, 4.7	7, 4.7
What an average delivery order leaves	$9.10	$8.80	$8.90

Two flags, two questions. Purchases jumped, and in dollars too: open the Price Tracker (Chapter 1) and see what went up. Comps, voids and discounts nearly doubled: that’s the 10-minute check below.

What gets a flag. Only what moved the wrong way against your own average: a cost share up a full point or more; sales, covers, the average check or what a delivery order leaves down 10% or more; no-shows up by two parties and 10%; your rating down 0.2. And one cause gets one flag: when sales fall, costs that stayed the same in dollars take a bigger share of smaller sales, and fewer covers or a smaller check is how sales fell. Those rows are marked “with sales” instead of counted as separate problems.

Purchases are not food cost. What you buy this week isn’t what you use: a stock-up week reads high and the next one low. Weekly purchases show buying pressure. Once a month, count your inventory and work out the real numbers:

Food cost = (opening inventory + purchases − closing inventory) ÷ food and drink sales
Prime cost = (food and drink used + labor) ÷ net sales

Mirela’s month: $12,400 + $36,200 − $11,900 = $36,700 used, on $121,000 of sales: 30.3%, up 0.7 points on last month. With $39,900 of labor, her real prime cost is 63.3%. Don’t chase someone else’s percentages. Watch your own trend, and ask your accountant what yours should be.

The 10-minute comps, voids and discounts check

Every POS keeps a report of what was comped, voided or discounted, by whom and why. Almost nobody reads it.

Pull last week’s report with employee, reason, time and amount.
Paste it into Prompt 2. Look at totals by person, by reason and by time of day.
Look for patterns: voids after a check was already paid, one person far above everyone else, “manager discount” with no manager on shift, lots of activity right before close.
Ask before you assume. A pattern is a question, not proof. Often it’s training (a server voiding to fix mistakes) or a missing button in the POS.
Set simple rules: every comp has a reason code, voids after payment need a manager, and the report gets read every Monday. Staff knowing it’s read changes most of it on its own.

The fix

Find where each number lives: POS sales summary, labor report or payroll, invoices for purchases, reservation reports, Google.
Enter last week in Profit Pulse, right below, with up to four weeks before it if you have them. Or use the Weekly Dashboard sheet in the kit, which flags the same way.
Every Monday, add one week in your admin block (Chapter 11). Fifteen minutes once you know where everything is, five after that.
Ask Prompt 1 for the page when you’re short on time. Paste the reports; get the numbers.
Act on flags only. If nothing is flagged, close the page and go back to the room.
Count inventory once a month for your real food cost and prime cost.

Tool · About 10 minutes the first time, 5 after

Your week on one page.

Ten numbers against your own average, with only what moved the wrong way flagged, and your real food cost once a month. There’s a worked example inside.

No sign-up. Your numbers stay on this device.

In the kit · a working sheet

Weekly DashboardThe ten numbers every Monday against your own average, flagged the same way as Profit Pulse, plus your monthly food cost. Opens in Excel or Google Sheets.

The prompts

Prompt 1 · The weekly page

Here are last week’s reports: sales summary [paste], labor [paste], purchases [paste], reservations [paste]. Fill in this table: net sales, covers, average check, purchases as % of sales, labor as % of sales, purchases plus labor as % of sales, comps-voids-discounts in dollars and % of sales, no-shows. Then compare with these numbers from the week before and my 4-week average: [paste]. Show your calculations. In three sentences, tell me what changed most and the one thing I should look at first.

Prompt 2 · Comps, voids and discounts

Here is my POS report of comps, voids and discounts for last week, with employee, reason, time and amount: [paste, first names only]. Summarize the totals by employee, by reason and by hour. Point out anything unusual: voids after payment, one person much higher than the rest, discounts without a manager, clusters near close. Describe patterns neutrally as questions to ask, not accusations. Show the totals in a table.

Prompt 3 · The monthly food cost

My opening inventory was [amount], purchases this month were [amount], closing inventory was [amount], and food sales were [amount]. Work out my food cost percentage, show the calculation, and compare it with last month’s [percentage]. If it went up a point or more, list the questions I should ask, starting with price increases, waste and portions.

Three decisions this week

i.Your 10 numbers, and where each one comes from.

ii.Your Monday slot, inside your admin block.

iii.Your comps and voids rules, told to the team.

Your takeaway · Chapter 12

What you leave with

Run the Profit Pulse with your own numbers and this section fills in: your result, a PDF of it and your plan as text.

Your ten numbers and what to look at firstWaiting for your numbers.
12Weekly DashboardThe ten numbers every Monday against your own average, flagged the same way as Profit Pulse, plus your monthly food cost. Opens in Excel or Google Sheets.
Numbers from another device?Load a backup file you downloaded there.