Restaurant KPIs

KPI Performance Key

Your business may just be beginning to track this metric, perform this business function or identified this as a problem. Improved execution in this area should be a high priority.

Your business is competitive in this area, but there’s still room for advancement. Consider investments to improve related operations to achieve better results.

Your performance in this area is considered best in class and is superior to the average company in your sector. You’ve laid a solid foundation in this business function, and the next step is optimization.

You’re achieving the optimal results for this metric. Your business processes in this area are highly efficient and stand out against competitors. Keep investing in this area to maintain these results.

Labor as a % of Revenue

With some restaurants reporting record levels of hourly staff turnover, it’s clear that loyal employees are a scarce commodity. In 2020, U.S. unemployment is at 3.5%, and minimum wages higher than the federally required $7.25 per hour have been legislated in 30 states. For restaurants, quality workers are more difficult to find and retain and are more expensive. Add in the high cost of turnover, and it’s clear why restaurants must reduce costs across the employee lifecycle. Read more.

> 36%
30%
27%
< 24%
Food on the move

60%

of restaurant meals are now consumed off premises

Read about more trends here. (Source: NetSuite Blogs)
Left Quote
Americans spend just over half — 51% — of their food dollars in restaurants, doubling the 1955 spend.”

— National Restaurant Association

Prime Cost

Operational efficiency is key to reduce prime cost. What are some ways to be more economical?

  • How a menu is designed, positioned, priced and maintained affects profitability. We recommend using the menu engineering matrix, which uses inputs like menu item sales by quantity, food cost per item and sales price per item, to identify areas of improvement.
  • Track actual vs. theoretical inventory by ingredient to detect variances between expected use, based on menu item sales, and actual use, which is affected by waste, loss and over-portioning. The variance should be less than 1 percent.
  • Labor costs should be between 20% and 30% of gross revenue. Keep track by calculating the differential between scheduled and actual hours worked and by charting the number of guests to the number of staff on duty. They should follow the same bell curve. Learn more.

> 75%
63%
58%
< 54%

Net Promoter Score

Your Net Promoter Score comes down to a simple question: “How likely are you to recommend this restaurant to a friend or colleague?” By surveying guests and tracking NPS scores on a monthly and rolling basis you can spot problems quickly while tracking growth and improvements over time. Using NPS versus tracking social media, review sites or other sources of guest feedback allows for a standardized, industry-recognized metric.

< 21
43
50
> 72
Foundational
Competitive
Best in class
Transformative

Revenue
Growth

< 0%

4.4%

8.6%

> 13%

Revenue
Growth

Revenue growth (for example, quarterly) is an increase in a company’s sales compared with a previous quarter’s revenue performance. The current quarter’s sales figure can be compared on a year-over-year basis to show growth with seasonality considered or sequentially to show the effects of recent menu or marketing changes.

Cost of Goods
Sold (COGS)

> 39%

33%

31%

< 29%

Cost of Goods
Sold (COGS)

Direct cost of goods sold as a % of net sales. Typically in restaurants this is the expense for supplies used to create items for sale. Examples are food, paper goods and beverages.

Days in
Inventory

> 31 days

14 days

10 days

< 7 days

Days in
Inventory

The average time in days that a restaurant takes to turn its inventory into sales; the figure represents how many days a restaurant’s current stock of inventory will last.

Labor as a % of
Revenue

> 36%

30%

27%

< 24%

Labor as a % of
Revenue

Labor costs, or fully burdened labor costs, includes management salaries, hourly employee wages, benefits, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, health/medical insurance and other employee expenses.

Prime Cost

> 75%

63%

58%

< 54%

Prime Cost

Prime cost is the total cost of sales plus total labor costs. Cost of sales is the combined cost of food and beverage stock and possibly paper products. May also include cost of merchandise sold. Cost of sales should be based on purchases plus the value of the inventory on hand at the beginning of the reporting period minus the value of the inventory at the end of the period.

Net Promoter Score

< 21

43

50

> 72

Net Promoter
Score

The NPS is an index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the willingness of guests to recommend your products or services to others. It is used as a proxy for gauging overall satisfaction and the customer’s loyalty to the brand. It serves as an alternative to traditional guest satisfaction research and may correlate with revenue growth.

Percentage of
Free Cash Flow

< 0%

1.8%

3.6%

> 5.4%

Percentage of
Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow is the cash a company produces through its operations, less operating and capital expenditures. Free cash flow shows how efficient a company is at generating cash. Investors use free cash flow to measure whether a company might have enough free cash to pay investors through dividends and share buybacks.
Other Categories
This metric indicates how fast your agency is growing, measured by total revenue. The higher this percentage is, the faster your revenue growth.
The percentage of time that your consultants are billing clients. The higher the better, until it gets to a point where it negatively impacts morale. The typical target utilization for agencies is 80%.
The percentage of revenue after direct costs. For an advertising agency, direct costs include the cost of buying digital media, materials for physical advertisements, and staffing costs.
The percentage of procurement spend managed by a contract. When you purchase goods and services, using pre-negotiated contracts covering a year or more typically allows for better price negotiation. The higher this percentage is, the more likely that your agency is saving money on goods and services, assuming you can get a better price under a contract as opposed to maverick spending.
The amount of revenue generated above and beyond the expenses incurred on a project by project basis. The higher this percentage is, the more profitable each project is.
How many days, on average, it takes your clients to pay invoices. The lower this number is, the better. Also called DSO or Days Receivable, it is a financial ratio that illustrates how your accounts receivable are being managed.
A calculation of how many FTE (Full Time Equivalent) resources managing the Finance department are required for each $50M in revenue earned.

Parameters

Your business may just be beginning to track this metric, perform this business function or identified this as a problem. Improved execution in this area should be a high priority.

Your business is competitive in this area, but there’s still room for advancement. Consider investments to improve related operations to achieve better results.

Your performance in this area is considered best in class and is superior to the average company in your sector. You’ve laid a solid foundation in this business function, and the next step is optimization.

You’re achieving the optimal results for this metric. Your business processes in this area are highly efficient and stand out against competitors. Keep investing in this area to maintain these results.

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