The Break-Even Sheet, free
How many drinks a day do you need to sell to break even?
Opening a cafe? Run it before you sign the lease.
This sheet answers it for your shop: the sales you need every open day, the transactions per day and per hour, and what one change does. The sample shop needs $1,203 a day, about 184 transactions, or 15 an hour.
Excel file. Opens in Google Sheets too. No sign-up, no email.
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.
The sheet gives you the number. The kit tells you every Monday whether you hit it.
Daily sales and labor, cost of goods, the cash count and the weekly one pager, plus the routines, hiring and month-end. $97 once, 14-day fix-it-or-refund guarantee.
More free guides
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The quarterly menu price review: three prices, not the whole menu
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The one-page monthly P&L: five ratios, then one decision
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The numbers to run before you sign a cafe lease
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Six staff conversations most cafe owners put off, and what to say
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What it costs to open a small coffee shop in 2026
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These are operational templates, not accounting or tax advice.