# Restaurant Reports: The 5 Every Owner Should Track
*The reports you need daily and monthly to run a restaurant that makes money*

> **In short:** The 5 reports every restaurant owner needs to review — daily sales, dish profitability, food cost, staff performance and peak hours — and how to act on each.

- **URL:** https://www.snad.io/en/blog/dalil-sahib-mataam-5-taqarir
- **Arabic original:** https://www.snad.io/blog/dalil-sahib-mataam-5-taqarir
- **Category:** Industry — Restaurants & Cafés
- **Tags:** Restaurants, Cafes, Restaurant management, Reports, Restaurant profitability
- **Published:** 2025-10-25
- **Updated:** 2026-08-02
- **Publisher:** Snad (snad.io)

The difference between a profitable restaurant and a losing one is often not the food — the food may be excellent in both.

The difference is who knows their numbers and who does not.

These are the 5 reports you should have in front of you every day and every month if you want your restaurant on the profitable side.

## Report one: the daily sales report

What does it tell you?
- Total sales today against yesterday
- Number of invoices and the most ordered dishes today
- How sales spread across the parts of the day

How do you turn it into smarter decisions?
- Sales down = review the staff schedule and your promotions
- Fewer invoices = possibly a marketing or competition problem
- One dish spiking = order its ingredients ahead so you do not run out

Aim for a 5-minute read at the start of every day — no more.

## Report two: the dish profitability report

This report exposes a truth that often comes as a surprise.

Your best-selling dish is not necessarily your most profitable one.

A real example:
- A premium burger sells for SAR 45 and its ingredients cost SAR 30 = a margin of only SAR 15, or 33%
- A lemonade sells for SAR 18 and costs SAR 3 = a margin of SAR 15, or 83%

Both earn SAR 15! But the lemonade is far more efficient.

What do you do with this report?
- Point your marketing at the highest-margin dishes
- Give the profitable dishes a different treatment on the menu so they stand out
- Revisit the low-margin dishes: do you raise the price, or swap out the expensive ingredient?

## Report four: the staff performance report

Payroll is the second largest cost in a restaurant after food — and the hardest to manage.

What the report should show:
- Sales by cashier or server
- Actual hours worked against scheduled hours

Work out the payroll-to-revenue ratio yourself from the accounting reports in Snad; the healthy benchmark for restaurants should sit between 25 and 35% of revenue.

How do you use it?
- Whoever sells more = reward them so you keep them
- Whoever sells less = train them or redistribute their duties
- Payroll above 35% = review the schedule and cut hours in the quiet periods

## Report five: the time-period report

When are you packed? When are you empty?

This report shows:
- How customers spread across the hours of the day and the days of the week
- Peak and quiet periods, precisely
- A comparison of seasons and occasions

In peak periods:
- Make sure your strongest staff are on shift
- Keep inventory complete
- Consider taking bookings to manage the flow

In quiet periods:
- Put fewer staff on shift
- Run special offers to pull customers into those hours
- Use the time for cleaning, prep and maintenance

One Riyadh restaurant saved 18% of its payroll costs simply by rebuilding the schedule around its time-period reports.

## The gap report: theoretical cost against actual cost

The food cost report gives you one number. The gap report gives you the reason.

Theoretical cost is what you should have consumed: each dish's recipe multiplied by the quantities sold at the point of sale (POS). Actual cost is what you really consumed: opening inventory + purchases − closing inventory.

The difference between the two is the gap, and it is the most expensive number in the restaurant because nobody invoices anyone for it.

Where does the gap usually come from?
- Unchecked portion weights: twenty extra grams on every plate is invisible in the kitchen and very visible at month end
- Prep waste, spoilage and expiry
- Staff meals and hospitality that go unrecorded
- Orders cancelled after they were prepared
- Receiving discrepancies: the invoice says 20 kg and the scale says 18

Treat the gap with a weekly count of your ten most expensive items only, not a full count. Ten items take half an hour and cover most of your purchase value. Link it to the [inventory](/inventory) module so the system works out the difference instead of you doing it by hand.

Do not compare your percentage against an outside benchmark. Compare the gap with itself, month by month: three consecutive months trending upward means a systematic leak, not a coincidence.

## The formulas behind the reports

A report without a formula is just a screen of numbers. These are the formulas you should know by heart:

| Metric | Formula | Data source |
|---|---|---|
| Food cost percentage | Cost of goods consumed ÷ net sales × 100 | Inventory and purchases |
| Average check | Net sales ÷ number of invoices | Point of sale |
| Dish margin | (Selling price − recipe cost) ÷ selling price × 100 | Recipe card |
| Table turnover | Invoices in the period ÷ number of tables | Point of sale |
| Sales per labour hour | Net sales ÷ actual hours worked | Time and attendance |
| Inventory turnover | Cost of goods consumed ÷ average inventory value | Inventory |

Pay attention to the word "net". Always calculate on sales before Value Added Tax (VAT) and after discounts and returns. Mixing gross with net is the most common error that makes a restaurant's ratios look better than they are.

To test your item margins quickly before you change the menu, use the [profit margin calculator](/tools/finance/profit-margin-calculator).

## Channel profitability: dining room, takeaway and delivery

Your sales are not one block. A sale made in the dining room is not worth the same as a sale made through a delivery platform.

Deduct from each channel what genuinely belongs to it before you compare:

| Channel | What is deducted before the margin is calculated | The number you watch |
|---|---|---|
| Dining room | Recipe cost + service labour | Average check and table turnover |
| Takeaway and pickup | Recipe cost + packaging | Packaging as a percentage of sales |
| Platform delivery | Recipe cost + packaging + the platform's commission as stated on its statement | The net amount that reached your bank account, not the order value |
| Own delivery | Recipe cost + packaging + driver pay and fuel | Cost per delivery |

Do not rely on the rate quoted in the contract. Take the platform's monthly statement and divide the net amount transferred by the total value of the orders. The result is your effective commission, including the fees and the promotional discounts you agreed to during the month.

And for this comparison to work at all, set a channel code for every order in the [point of sale](/pos) from day one. Without that tagging, channel reports stay guesswork.

## What your reports must show for tax purposes

Some of your reports are not for management. They are a statutory obligation the restaurant is answerable for.

| Item | Official figure (accessed 1 August 2026) | What it means for your restaurant |
|---|---|---|
| Value Added Tax rate | 15% | Separate the tax from sales in every report |
| Mandatory VAT registration | Annual taxable revenue above SAR 375,000 | Crossing the threshold makes registration compulsory |
| Voluntary registration | From SAR 187,500 to under SAR 375,000 | An option that lets you deduct input tax |
| Phase One of e-invoicing (generation) | In force since 4 December 2021 | No handwritten invoices, and your system generates a QR code |
| Wave 23 of Phase Two integration | Revenue above SAR 750,000 during 2022, 2023 or 2024, with integration before 31 March 2026 | Its deadline has passed |
| Wave 25 | Revenue above SAR 187,500 during 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025, with integration before 1 February 2027 | Covers most small restaurants and cafes |

Source: Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) — the VAT registration page, the Phase One readiness page, and the announcements for Wave 23 and Wave 25.

In practice: any restaurant whose taxable revenue exceeded SAR 187,500 in one of those years falls within Wave 25. Readiness details are on the [Wave 25 page](/zatca/wave-25).

The waves that fall between these two were issued with their own thresholds and dates, so rely on the notice ZATCA sends you rather than on an estimate.

## Five mistakes that make your reports lie to you

A wrong report is worse than no report, because you make a confident decision on a false number.

- **The open "miscellaneous" button**: every amount keyed in manually under a generic line disappears from the dish report. Give every item a button in its own name.
- **A discount with no recorded reason**: define the discount reasons (staff, complaint, promotion) and make selecting one mandatory. An unexplained discount eats the margin without leaving a trace.
- **Cancellation after prep**: the dish was made and its ingredients were consumed. If the cancellation is not logged as waste, the gap will show up in inventory with no known cause.
- **Staff meals inside cost of sales**: record them as a separate expense, otherwise the food cost percentage looks high with no explanation.
- **Cash collection differences**: compare the till close daily against the POS report and the payment network provider's advice. The same difference recurring on the same shift is not a coincidence.

Make reviewing these five a fixed item in every month-end close.

## The menu engineering matrix: four quadrants that decide each item's fate

The dish profitability report ranks items by margin. The menu engineering matrix goes one step further: it crosses margin with popularity, so you come out with a ready decision for every item instead of a bare number.

Work out each item's share of sales within its own group: starters against starters, drinks against drinks. Comparing across groups lets drinks swallow the whole menu.

| Quadrant | Popularity | Margin | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star | High | High | Touch neither the price nor the recipe. Hold the quality and put it at the top of the menu |
| Workhorse | High | Low | Cut the recipe cost or raise the price by a small amount. Demand can take it |
| Puzzle | Low | High | A marketing problem, not a dish problem: change its name and its position, and suggest it out loud |
| Dog | Low | Low | Reprice it once, and if it does not move within two cycles, drop it |

Delete with care. A losing item that a regular customer orders may be the reason a whole table walks in. Review the matrix every three months — an item needs a full cycle before you judge it.

## Prime cost and the daily break-even point

The food cost percentage on its own does not pass judgement on a restaurant. The governing number is prime cost: the cost of goods consumed plus total labour cost, including social insurance, allowances and overtime.

Track it weekly, not monthly. A month exposes the problem thirty days after it happened; a week exposes it while you can still adjust the schedule and the orders.

Then turn your fixed costs into a daily number: rent, administrative salaries, subscriptions and electricity divided by the number of trading days in the month. Divide the result by the contribution margin ratio, that is (net sales − variable costs) ÷ net sales, to get the daily sales that cover your costs before profit begins.

This single number saves the cashier a whole spreadsheet: if today did not reach it, you lost money today, however good the traffic looked. To test different rent or pricing scenarios, use the [break-even calculator](/tools/finance/break-even-calculator).

## The labour cost report: what payroll does not show

The salary written in the contract is not what the employee costs. Add to it the fixed statutory obligations that must appear in the labour report before you calculate its ratio to sales:

| Item | Official rate (accessed 2 August 2026) | Who bears it |
|---|---|---|
| Occupational hazards branch | 2% of the registered wage | The employer in full |
| Pensions branch — members under the current scheme | 18% of the wage | 9% employer and 9% member |
| Pensions branch — new joiners after 3 July 2024 | Starts at 9% and rises 0.5% a year until it reaches 11% for each side | Split equally |
| SANED unemployment insurance | 1.5% of the wage | 0.75% employer and 0.75% member |
| Overtime hour | The hourly wage plus 50% of the basic wage | The employer |

Source: General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI) — the awareness platform and the FAQ pages, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development — the knowledge centre.

The occupational hazards branch is mandatory for all workers regardless of nationality, while the pensions branch applies to Saudis. In practice the insurance cost differs from one employee to another in the same kitchen, so do not calculate it as a single rate across the whole payroll. Accrue end-of-service gratuity monthly instead of letting it hit you in one payment, and record housing and visas inside labour cost rather than general expenses. Load these items into [payroll](/payroll) so the number comes out right the first time.

## The supplier price variance report

The most expensive leak in restaurants does not happen in the kitchen. It happens on the supplier's invoice. The supplier raises the price per kilo by SAR 2, and the invoice is paid as it stands because nobody compares.

Build a simple report: the unit price on the latest goods receipt against its average price over the past three months, multiplied by the quantity you buy monthly. The result is a clear impact in SAR that earns a phone call to the supplier.

Watch four items alongside it:
- The quantity difference between the purchase order and the goods receipt note
- A drop in pack weight while its price stays the same
- One item bought from two suppliers at two different prices in the same month
- An invoice paid with no purchase order behind it

Receive goods on the scale, not on a signature, and do not let the person who receives the goods be the one who approves the invoice. Link purchase orders to receiving in [purchases](/purchases) so the system stops any invoice that contradicts the order before payment rather than after it.

## Slow-moving and short: the inventory report that prevents both losses

The two worst shelves in a restaurant: a shelf holding an item that has not moved in a month, and an empty shelf for an item ordered every day. Both are losses, wearing different faces.

For every critical item, write three numbers on its card: average daily usage, supplier lead time in days, and safety stock. Reorder point = (daily usage × lead time) + safety stock. Order when you hit the point, not when the shelf empties in the middle of a rush.

On the other side, print two lists every week: items not consumed in the past two weeks, and items approaching their expiry date. Move them through a daily special or through recorded staff meals rather than binning them with no accounting trace. To set order points for your own items, use the [reorder point calculator](/tools/inventory/reorder-point-calculator).

## The reporting rhythm: who reads what and when

Reports fail because they have no owner and no slot. Give every report a single reader and a single number the decision hangs on.

| Timing | Report | Who reads it | The deciding number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily at close | Sales and cash reconciliation | Shift manager | The collection difference and how close the day came to break-even |
| Weekly | Prime cost and a count of the ten most expensive items | The owner | Prime cost as a percentage of net sales |
| Twice a month | Supplier price variance | Purchasing officer | The items whose price went up |
| Monthly | Channel profitability and the menu matrix | The owner | The margin on each channel and the list of losing items |
| Quarterly | The trend in the gap and in margins | The owner | A three-month trend, not a single month's number |

Write the decision that came out of each review in one line, next to its date. The restaurants that improve are not the ones with the most reports. They are the ones that act on one decision a week and follow its effect in the next report.

## Frequently asked questions

### Are these reports available in Snad?

Yes. Snad generates the daily sales, staff performance, inventory and best-selling dish reports automatically as soon as orders are recorded.

### How often a week should I review the reports?

Sales report: 5 minutes daily. Cost and performance reports: weekly. Dish profitability report: monthly.

### What do I do if my food cost percentage is far too high?

Start by auditing inventory, tightening portion sizes and reviewing supplier prices. If the problem persists, review the menu and remove the loss-making dishes.

### What is the difference between theoretical and actual food cost?

The theoretical cost is what the recipes say you consumed for the quantities sold. The actual cost is opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory. The difference between the two is the gap, and its usual sources are: unchecked portion weights, unrecorded waste, staff meals, cancellations after prep, and receiving discrepancies from suppliers.

### When does my restaurant have to enter the integration phase of e-invoicing?

Under the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) announcement for Wave 25, the wave covers establishments whose revenue subject to Value Added Tax exceeded SAR 187,500 during 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025, with integration with the Fatoora platform before 1 February 2027. ZATCA notifies the targeted establishments in advance, so rely on the official notice you receive (source accessed 1 August 2026).

### Do I have to register my restaurant for Value Added Tax?

Per the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), registration is mandatory for anyone whose annual taxable revenue exceeds SAR 375,000, and voluntary for anyone whose revenue falls between SAR 187,500 and under SAR 375,000. The standard tax rate is 15%. Review your position with your accountant, because the calculation is based on taxable revenue and not on total receipts (source accessed 1 August 2026).

### How often should I count my restaurant's inventory?

A weekly count of the ten most expensive items is enough to catch the gap early and takes about half an hour. The full count of every item belongs at month-end close. Counting rarely makes the gap cumulative, and then it becomes impossible to identify the shift or the item responsible.

### How do I know whether delivery orders are actually profitable?

Do not calculate on the order value. Take the platform's monthly statement and divide the net amount transferred to your account by the total value of the orders to get your effective commission, including the fees and promotional discounts. Then subtract the recipe and packaging costs from the net you received, and compare the resulting margin with the dining-room margin.

### Why do the point of sale figures differ from the accounting figures at month end?

There are four recurring causes: comparing tax-inclusive sales with a net figure, discounts and returns that were never posted, staff meals recorded as sales, and card payments never reconciled with the provider's advice. Match the till close, the point of sale report and the bank deposit daily so the differences do not pile up until the end of the month.

### What is the difference between the dish profitability report and the menu engineering matrix?

The profitability report tells you how much an item earns. The matrix tells you what to do with it, because it adds popularity to margin: an item high on both is left as it is; a high-demand, low-margin item gets a cheaper recipe or a small price rise; a high-margin, low-demand item has a problem with marketing and its position on the menu; and an item weak on both is repriced once and then removed. Calculate popularity within a single group, not across the whole menu.

### What is prime cost in restaurants and how do I track it?

Prime cost = cost of goods consumed + total labour cost including social insurance, allowances and overtime, measured against net sales. Track it weekly, because a month exposes the problem after the window for correction has closed. Do not judge your restaurant by a benchmark imported from another market; compare the number with itself week by week, because three consecutive weeks of increase is a more important signal than any reference percentage.

### How much does social insurance cost me for my restaurant staff?

Per the General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI) (source accessed 2 August 2026): the occupational hazards branch is 2% of the registered wage, borne in full by the employer, and it is mandatory for all workers regardless of nationality. The pensions branch applies to Saudis at 18% of the wage, split equally between employer and member; for new joiners after the new scheme started on 3 July 2024, the rate starts at 9% and rises 0.5% a year until it reaches 11% for each side. The SANED unemployment insurance branch is 1.5%, split equally. Charge the labour report with the actual figure from the monthly social insurance invoice rather than a single flat rate.

### How do I calculate the overtime rate during peak hours?

Per the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the overtime hourly rate equals the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic wage, and the employer may, with the worker's agreement, grant additional days of leave instead of cash (source accessed 2 August 2026). In practice: work out the expected sales for the hour before you extend a shift, since one extra short shift may be cheaper than keeping the whole team on.

### How do I know the daily sales my restaurant must reach to cover its costs?

Add up your fixed monthly costs (rent, administrative salaries, subscriptions, electricity) and divide them by the number of trading days in the month, then divide the result by the contribution margin ratio, that is (net sales − variable costs) ÷ net sales. The result is the day's sales that cover the costs before profit begins. Calculate it on net sales before Value Added Tax and after discounts and returns, and post it in front of the cashier.

### How do I spot that my supplier raised prices without telling me?

Compare the unit price on the latest goods receipt with its average price over the past three months, and multiply the difference by the monthly quantity to see the impact in SAR. Check the pack weight too, since the price may hold while the weight drops. Require every receipt to go through an approved purchase order, and separate the person who receives the goods from the person who approves the invoice.

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