Sales and seat use
Sales equals covers per day × operating days × average check. Covers per seat equals daily covers ÷ seats.
Business Plan Lab · United States
Restaurant feasibility model
Turn your own location, demand, cost and investment assumptions into a transparent monthly operating model. Every output shows its formula; no unsupported industry average is inserted.
Owner inputs
Calculated outputs
Official context
Planning model, not a forecast. The model does not include debt service, depreciation, income tax, sales tax, pre-opening losses, seasonality or local permit costs unless you include them in the inputs. State and local rules must be checked for the chosen city.
Working model
Build the monthly economics
All fields are required unless marked optional. Values stay in this browser tab and are not saved or transmitted.
Sensitivity
Your downside, base and upside cases
The scenario table appears after the base model is complete. Downside and upside remain unavailable until you enter their changes.
| Case | Sales assumption | Food cost | Monthly sales | Operating result | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downside | Enter downside changes to calculate. | ||||
| Base | Complete the required inputs to calculate. | ||||
| Upside | Enter upside changes to calculate. | ||||
Method
What the model calculates
Contribution
Sales less food, transaction and other variable costs.
Operating result
Contribution less the five fixed-cost inputs. This is not net income or cash flow.
Break-even sales
Total fixed costs ÷ contribution-margin ratio. The result is unavailable when the ratio is zero or negative.
Break-even covers
Break-even monthly sales ÷ operating days ÷ average check.
Opening funding
Opening investment plus working-capital reserve. Financing costs are not included.
Before relying on the result
Complete the local evidence pack
Demand
Footfall or delivery-zone evidence, service-period demand, competitor pricing and a documented covers build-up.
Site
Lease proposal, permitted use, occupancy limits, fit-out quotations, utilities capacity and accessibility requirements.
Labour
Staffing by shift, applicable state and local minimum wages, tip rules, payroll taxes, benefits and overtime.
Menu
Recipe-level ingredient quantities, supplier quotes, yield, waste, packaging and menu-mix evidence.
Compliance
Entity registration, food-establishment permits, health review, fire and building approvals, liquor rules and sales tax.
Funding
Fit-out schedule, deposit timing, contingency, pre-opening payroll, working-capital runway and financing terms.
Source and methodology ledger
Official context used in this model
These sources shape the planning and compliance framework. They do not supply any of the financial assumptions entered above.
Publisher: SBA · Scope: U.S. business-plan structure, startup-cost and break-even guidance · Retrieved 5 October 2026 · Update cadence: irregular · Units: none used · Missing-data behavior: contributes no financial value.
Publisher: U.S. Census Bureau · Scope: U.S. industry classification, including 722511 full-service restaurants and 722513 limited-service restaurants · Retrieved 5 October 2026 · Update cadence: periodic NAICS revisions · Units: none · Missing-data behavior: user selects “other” when neither classification fits.
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division · Scope: federal wage floor and the requirement to apply a higher state minimum where applicable · Retrieved 5 October 2026 · Update cadence: rule-dependent · Units: no wage value imported · Missing-data behavior: local wage input remains required.
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division · Scope: federal tipped-employee framework · Retrieved 5 October 2026 · Update cadence: rule-dependent · Geography: United States, subject to stricter state and local law · Units: no wage value imported · Missing-data behavior: user payroll assumption must reflect the chosen jurisdiction.
Publisher: FDA · Current page identifies the 2026 Food Code as the most recent full edition · Scope: model food-safety code for adoption by jurisdictions · Retrieved 5 October 2026 · Update cadence: full editions plus interim supplements · Units: none · Missing-data behavior: local adoption and permit requirements remain unresolved until the jurisdiction is researched.
Usage and licensing. These are public U.S. government webpages linked for attribution and context. The model does not reproduce an official dataset or imply agency endorsement. Review the SBA, Census Bureau, Department of Labor, and FDA usage policies. Before publication of a location-specific plan, record applicable state and local sources, supplier quotations, lease terms, observation dates and any permissions governing reused data.