Not the accountant's monthly statement. One page, every Monday, that tells the owner whether last week made money and why. Here is what is on it, where each number comes from, and how to build one without new software.
A month hides three bad weeks inside one acceptable number. A supplier price change shows up in days; by the time the accounts close six weeks later, the cause has moved on and nobody remembers the week it started. Weekly is the shortest cycle at which a restaurant can still act on what it sees.
One page, because the owner is reading it on a phone between two other jobs. Five lines, three ratios, one flag. If it takes longer than three minutes to read, it will not be read.
| Line | Source | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Net sales, ex VAT | POS sales report by channel | VAT on its own line, never inside sales |
| Aggregator commission | Platform statements, at the contract rate | Shown as a cost, per platform, so its share of sales is visible |
| Food & packaging | Supplier invoices + stock count | Actual, not theoretical; missing invoices are flagged, not guessed |
| Store labour | Roster or clock export | Store staff only; the owner's time and head office stay off this page |
| Store contribution | Derived | What the store itself earned before rent, marketing and head office |
| Line | This week | vs last | % sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales (ex VAT) | 41,280 | +6.2% | 100% |
| Aggregator commission | −7,430 | +1.1pt | 18.0% |
| Food & packaging | −12,960 | +2.3pt | 31.4% |
| Store labour (4) | −3,810 | — | 9.2% |
| Store contribution | 17,080 | +2.9% | 41.4% |
Drink attach 0.46 (target 0.50) · Combo mix 22% · Flag: food cost up 2.3pt — cream price +14% on 3 invoices.
A sample of the page. Store-only, ex VAT, this week against last, one flag at the bottom naming the cause.
Read the trend, not the level. Up two points in one week has a cause — a price, a portion, a count — and the cause has a name.
How much of your revenue passes through platforms, and what that costs. When this climbs, the store can grow sales and lose contribution at the same time.
Against the roster you planned. A quiet week with full staffing is an ordinary decision; three of them in a row is a pattern.
The weekly page is store-only: what the store took in and what it cost to run the store. Rent, marketing, the owner's salary and head office belong on a separate page, monthly, because they do not change week to week and they blur the operating signal when mixed in.
Keeping them apart answers two different questions cleanly: "is the store working?" every Monday, and "is the business working?" once a month. Owners who merge the two usually end up unable to answer either.
Monday to Sunday, always. A week that moves is a page nobody trusts.
POS sales by channel, platform statements, roster. Same names, same place, every week.
Food cost needs both. If the count was skipped, the page says so instead of showing a number.
Every line gets a comparison column. The page is about movement, not totals.
The single biggest deviation, with its cause in one sentence, at the bottom of the page. That sentence is the whole point.
Filled on Monday morning by someone whose job it is. Read by the owner before noon.
No. The weekly page is built from three exports you already have — POS sales, the platforms' statements and your roster — plus the invoices and a stock count. A spreadsheet is enough. Your accountant's monthly statement is a different document with a different job.
Net sales are shown excluding VAT, with the VAT collected on its own line so the owner sees it as money that is not theirs. Mixing it into sales is the most common reason a restaurant thinks it is more profitable than it is.
Someone who is not the owner, on a fixed day, from the exports, with the owner reading it on Monday. If it depends on the owner finding time, it stops after three weeks — we have watched that happen in every business we have run.
Yes. A weekly one-page P&L and a monthly close within three working days are the two standing deliverables of Monthly Ops. Most clients start with the Number Audit so the first week starts from clean recipes and reconciled payouts.
Monthly Ops delivers this page every week and the close within three working days. Most clients start with a Number Audit so week one begins from a clean baseline.
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