Work backwards from the profit you want.
Most restaurants add up their numbers and hope the profit shows up. Invert it: name the profit first, then solve for the orders, the capacity and the crew that make it arithmetic instead of hope.
Start at the end
Name the profit you want for the year, then the economics of one order and the overhead that shows up whether you sell anything or not. The two cost percentages here are your forecast at the goal volume — better buying, tighter waste, negotiated fees — not necessarily today's. Labour is handled in Step 3 — it rises in steps as you add crew, not with every order.
The number you actually want to take home from the business this year, after every cost.
$23.56 of contribution per order before labour (62%)
Average ticket across pickup and delivery, before tax and tips.
Forecast for the goal volume — better buying and tighter waste usually pull this down. Quick service runs 28–33%; full service 30–35%.
Forecast for the goal volume: card processing, marketplace commission, supplies — anything that scales with each order.
Rent, insurance, utilities, software and salaried payroll — the costs that do not flex with volume.
1,804
That is 59.3 orders a day, 21,647 a year.
Revenue needed: $822,581 a year
Contribution per order before labour $23.56
Orders = (profit goal + overhead + labour at that capacity) ÷ contribution per order before labour
Labour is solved in Step 3 because it jumps in steps as you add crew, not smoothly with each order.
Where you are today
Today's volume at today's costs. If your costs are running differently than the forecast in Step 1, put the real numbers here — the gap below then separates the profit that comes from more orders from the profit that comes from better costs.
$34,200 of sales per month
What you serve in a normal month today, across all channels.
What food and packaging actually costs you today, as a percent of sales.
$23.56 of contribution per order before labour today (62%) vs. $23.56 in the forecast
Card fees, commission and per-order supplies as they stand today, as a percent of sales.
You will cross a capacity boundary on the way. Plan the hire, and know how many orders it takes to pay for it.
Profit today: -$21,552 a year
Gap to close: 904 orders a month (29.7 a day)
More orders: 904 × $24 × 12 = $255,552
Cost structure unchanged from today, so all of the gap comes from volume.
Added crew: −$84,000
Net: $171,552 a year — the distance from -$21,552 to your goal
Closing the gap earns the contribution before labour for as long as you stay inside a tier — "margin after labour" is an average across all your orders, not the margin on the next one.
Tier today
Tier 1 — lean crew
75% of that tier's capacity used
Tier your goal needs
Tier 2 — full crew
1 step up in staffing
Contribution margin at goal volume
62.0%
62.0% today (+$0.00 per order)
Labour % of sales at goal volume
23.3%
26.3% today
Margin after labour
38.7%
35.7% today
"Today" uses your current monthly orders and today's cost percentages; "goal volume" uses the orders the solver says you need plus the forecast cost percentages from Step 1. Both use the labour cost of the tier that serves that volume.
Capacity and the labour staircase
Your labour staircase
Each tier is a staffing level: the orders per month it can serve, and what that crew costs you per month.
What the step up costs you
Staffing up adds $7,000 of labour a month. At $23.56 of contribution per order before labour you need 297 extra orders a month just to stand still after the hire.
Profit does not grow smoothly — it grows in stair steps
Annual profit across order volume, using the forecast cost structure from Step 1. Each drop is a staffing step; the best place to operate is near the top of a tier, not just past the bottom of the next one. Axis is orders a month.
The labour staircase, on its own
Labour holds flat inside a tier and jumps at each capacity boundary. Profit falls exactly where this line steps up. Axis is orders a month.
Each tier, filled to the top
| Tier | Orders / month | Labour / month | Labour % at top | Profit at top |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — lean crew | 0–1,200 | $9,000 | 19.7% | $63,264 |
| Tier 2 — full crew | 1,201–2,400 | $16,000 | 17.5% | $318,528 |
| Tier 3 — two shifts | 2,401–4,000 | $26,000 | 17.1% | $650,880 |
At the top tier you entered, the most this cost structure can produce is $650,880 a year on 4,000 orders a month.
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Book a free demoThese numbers are estimates based on what you enter and what we see across independent restaurants. They are not a guarantee of performance.
