The Break-Even Sheet
The sales you need every open day, before a dollar is yours. Free.
One tab. Type your fixed costs, your cost of goods and labor percentages, your days and hours open, and your average ticket. It gives you break-even sales per month and per open day, the transactions per hour that takes, and your cushion: how far above or below it you are right now.
Then a what-if table: two points off cost of goods, three off labor, three hundred dollars off fixed costs, one more open day, a quarter on the average ticket. Each line moves one thing and holds the rest.
Excel file. Opens in Google Sheets with File, Import, create new spreadsheet. No sign-up, no email address, nothing to cancel.
| Total fixed costs | $12,310 |
|---|---|
| Contribution margin | 39.4% |
| Break-even sales per month | $31,244 |
| Days open per week | 6 |
| Break-even sales per open day | $1,203 |
| Average ticket | $6.55 |
| Transactions needed per day | 184 |
| Transactions needed per hour | 15.3 |
| Cushion at $1,675 a day | +39.3% |
A plausible small US cafe. Yours replace them.
This is Part 1.5 of the Tillwhistle Operations Kit. The kit tracks the other five numbers that decide whether a cafe stays open, with the manual, the checklists and the workbooks.
See what is in the kitThese are operational templates, not accounting or tax advice.