Discover why an accurate year-end inventory count is critical for restaurant owners. Learn how bad inventory skews your COGS, inflates taxable profit, and sets up 2026 for failure. Get expert tips.
A prime cost of 64% might be fine, or it might be a real problem, and the number alone can’t tell you which. This article walks through the current benchmark ranges for prime cost, food cost, and labor cost by restaurant segment, and the order worth checking things in before assuming food cost is the culprit.
The National Restaurant Association’s 2026 State of the Industry report found that 42% of restaurant operators weren’t profitable in 2025. If this year has felt like a financial slog, that number is worth sitting with: this isn’t a personal failing story, it’s an industrywide margin problem. Here’s what the report found, and how to check where your own restaurant stands
Discover why an accurate year-end inventory count is critical for restaurant owners. Learn how bad inventory skews your COGS, inflates taxable profit, and sets up 2026 for failure. Get expert tips.
Credit and debit card swipe fees hit a record $198.25 billion nationally in 2025. For a lot of restaurants, once labor and food cost are accounted for, processing fees have quietly become the next line item down. Most owners treat this as fixed. It isn’t entirely. Here’s what’s actually within your control, starting now.
Discover why an accurate year-end inventory count is critical for restaurant owners. Learn how bad inventory skews your COGS, inflates taxable profit, and sets up 2026 for failure. Get expert tips.
Bringing on seasonal staff almost always makes your labor cost percentage look worse before it looks better, and it quietly triggers a wave of payroll paperwork most owners don’t budget time for. Here’s what’s actually happening to your numbers, and the onboarding and offboarding steps worth tracking so nothing slips.
Six months in is a natural checkpoint, and one of the few moments left in the year where a small correction is still cheaper than a big one. This checklist walks restaurant owners through the eight areas worth reviewing at the halfway point, from prime cost trends to owner draws to upcoming lease and loan dates.
A packed patio and a full dining room don’t always translate into a fatter bank account. This article breaks down the cash timing gap between when a sale happens and when it clears, along with the seasonal labor, food cost, and fixed-cost pressures that quietly absorb a busy July’s extra revenue.
Discover why an accurate year-end inventory count is critical for restaurant owners. Learn how bad inventory skews your COGS, inflates taxable profit, and sets up 2026 for failure. Get expert tips.
