Many restaurant owners measure their success simply by looking at the cash drawer at the end of the night. If there is cash in the drawer, it was a good day. If it is empty, it was a bad day.

This is a dangerous way to run a business. High sales do not equal high profits.

To actually understand if your restaurant is making money, you need to track specific metrics. Modern POS systems like Dineiz calculate these for you automatically, but you still need to know what they mean.

Here are the 5 numbers you must track daily.

1. Food Cost Percentage (CoGS)

This is the holy grail of restaurant metrics. Food Cost Percentage tells you how much you are spending on raw ingredients compared to what you are charging for the final dish.

The Formula: (Total Cost of Ingredients / Menu Price) × 100

If a Zinger burger costs you PKR 250 in chicken, buns, and oil to make, and you sell it for PKR 750, your Food Cost Percentage is 33%.

The Goal: Most profitable restaurants aim for a Food Cost Percentage between 28% and 32%. If your percentage creeps up to 40%, you are either pricing your food too low, or losing raw ingredients to waste, over-portioning, or spoilage.

2. Daily Break-Even Point

You should know exactly how much revenue you need to generate every single day just to keep the lights on, before you make a single rupee of profit.

The Formula: First, calculate your total monthly fixed costs (Rent, Electricity, Salaries, Marketing, POS subscription). Let's say it is PKR 600,000. Divide by 30 days.

600,000 / 30 = PKR 20,000 per day.

If you make PKR 18,000 on a Tuesday, you lost money that day. Knowing this number gives you a daily target for your staff to hit.

3. Table Turnover Rate

If your restaurant is full, but people are sitting for 3 hours ordering only one cup of tea, you are losing money. Table Turnover Rate measures how quickly tables are emptied and filled.

Why it matters: During peak hours (dinner rush), a high turnover rate is crucial.

How to improve it using Dineiz:

Use a Kitchen Display System (KDS) to speed up food preparation.
Print bills instantly at the table using mobile POS devices so customers aren't waiting 10 minutes to pay.

4. Best vs. Worst Selling Items

You probably know your best seller (e.g., Chicken Karahi). But do you know what your worst seller is?

Every item on your menu that doesn't sell is costing you money in wasted inventory and prep time.

The Action: Pull an "Item Sales Report" from Dineiz at the end of every month. Find the bottom 10% of your menu items. Try to re-market them, change the recipe, or simply delete them from the menu altogether. A smaller, highly profitable menu is better than a massive, wasteful one.

5. Sales by Hour (Heatmap)

This metric tells you exactly when your restaurant makes its money.

If you look at your Dineiz dashboard and see that you make PKR 5,000 between 12 PM and 4 PM, but PKR 80,000 between 7 PM and 11 PM, you need to adjust your staffing.

The Action: Do not pay 5 waiters to stand around during the dead hours of 2 PM. Schedule your staff based on your Sales by Hour heatmap to drastically reduce your labor costs.

Let the POS Do the Math

Calculating these numbers manually in Excel is a nightmare.

Dineiz automatically tracks your sales, inventory costs, and hourly trends to generate beautiful, easy-to-read reports on your owner's dashboard.

Stop guessing. Start knowing. Get actionable insights with Dineiz today.

Restaurant Analytics: 5 Numbers Every Owner Must Track Daily