Business Plan Lab · Saudi Arabia

Café and restaurant business plan

Turn your own location, demand, cost and investment assumptions into a monthly plan for a café or restaurant in Saudi Arabia. Menu prices are entered the way customers see them, including VAT. Every output shows its formula.

Your assumptions Calculated outputs Official context

A planning tool, not a feasibility study. The result is only as good as the numbers you enter. It excludes Zakat or income tax, loan repayments, depreciation, pre-opening losses and seasonality. Check your figures against real quotes, a lease offer and current government fees before you rely on them or show them to a lender.

Working model

Build the monthly economics

All fields are required unless marked optional. Values stay in this browser tab and are not saved or sent anywhere.

1. Location and format

Location tells you which municipality and rules to check. It does not fill in local costs.

Plan name optional City Region Format

2. Capacity and sales

Count every paying customer or order as one cover, including delivery orders. Currency is Saudi riyals.

Seats Operating days per month Customers or orders per day Average spend per customer, incl. VAT · SAR VAT included in your prices · %15% is the standard rate stated in ZATCA’s VAT guideline (see sources below). Enter 0 if you are not VAT-registered and charge no VAT.

3. Monthly costs

Enter costs without VAT if you are VAT-registered and reclaim input VAT. Use quotes, lease terms and your staffing plan. Enter zero only when a cost truly does not apply.

Rent and service charges · SAR per month Salaries, GOSI and expat government fees · SAR Electricity, water and internet · SAR Insurance, licences and permits, per month · SAR Marketing, accounting and admin · SAR

Food, drink and packaging · % of sales Card and delivery-app fees · % of sales Other variable costs · % of sales

4. Opening funding

Fit-out, equipment, licences and pre-opening · SAR Working-capital reserve · SAR

5. Your stress-test changes optional

Enter changes relative to the base case. These are your scenarios, not AboutFinancials forecasts.

Downside

Sales change · % Food-cost change · percentage points

Upside

Sales change · % Food-cost change · percentage points

Calculated from your inputs

Base case

Enter all required assumptions to calculate the model.

Monthly sales, net of VATUnavailable

VAT collected for ZATCAUnavailable

Monthly operating resultUnavailable

Operating marginUnavailable

Break-even sales, net of VATUnavailable

Break-even customers per dayUnavailable

Customers per seat per dayUnavailable

Opening funding enteredUnavailable

Transparent calculation

Monthly bridge

Sales, net of VAT: Unavailable
Less variable costs: Unavailable
Contribution: Unavailable
Less fixed costs: Unavailable
Operating result: Unavailable

Sensitivity

Your downside, base and upside cases

A plan with one outcome is a wish. The table appears after the base case is complete; downside and upside stay empty until you enter their changes.

Scenario changes are your assumptions. Results are calculations, not observed data or forecasts. Sales are net of VAT.
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

Sales, net of VAT

Customers per day × operating days × average spend, divided by (1 + VAT rate). The VAT part belongs to ZATCA, not to you, so it is shown separately.

Contribution

Net sales less food, card and delivery-app fees and other variable costs.

Operating result

Contribution less the five monthly fixed costs. This is before Zakat or income tax, financing and depreciation. It is not cash flow.

Break-even sales

Total fixed costs ÷ contribution-margin ratio. Unavailable when the ratio is zero or negative.

Break-even customers

Break-even net sales × (1 + VAT rate) ÷ operating days ÷ average spend.

Opening funding

Opening investment plus working-capital reserve. Financing costs are not included.

Before relying on the result

Check these six things in Saudi Arabia

Demand

Footfall at the actual site, competitor prices nearby, delivery-app demand in your zone, and a daily customer count you can explain.

Site

A written lease offer, permitted commercial use, fit-out quotations, and civil-defence and municipal requirements for the unit.

Staff

Saudization requirements for your activity and size on Qiwa, GOSI contributions, and work permit and residency costs for any expatriate staff.

Licences and tax

Commercial registration, the municipal licence through Balady, food-safety requirements, VAT registration and e-invoicing obligations with ZATCA.

Funding

Deposits, fit-out schedule, contingency, pre-opening salaries, and whether a financing or support programme applies to you.

After the operating result comes tax. Zakat applies to Saudi and GCC owners and corporate income tax to foreign ownership, each with its own base. Dariba.co explains Saudi VAT, Zakat and income tax in plain language.

Want this written up as a full business plan? We can turn your assumptions into a formatted plan with a narrative, three scenarios and a twelve-month view. Request a custom plan.

Source and methodology ledger

Official context used in this model

One value comes from an official source: the default 15% VAT rate. The other sources are where to check rules and fees; they do not supply any of the numbers you enter.

ZATCA · Guideline on Imports and Exports under VAT Provision

Publisher: Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority · Page 8 states that taxable persons charge VAT at a rate of 15% where the standard rate applies · Retrieved 7 October 2026 · Used for: default value of the VAT field, which you can change · Missing-data behavior: none; the field is always user-editable.

Balady · Ministry of Municipalities and Housing e-services

Scope: municipal commercial licences and related requirements · Retrieved 7 October 2026 · Units: no fee imported · Missing-data behavior: your licence cost input remains required.

Qiwa · Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development platform

Scope: Saudization (Nitaqat) status, work permits and labour services · Retrieved 7 October 2026 · Units: no quota or fee imported · Missing-data behavior: your staffing and payroll inputs remain required.

GOSI · General Organization for Social Insurance

Scope: employer social-insurance contributions · Retrieved 7 October 2026 · Units: no rate imported · Missing-data behavior: include contributions in your payroll input.

Ministry of Commerce

Scope: commercial registration · Retrieved 7 October 2026 · Units: no fee imported · Missing-data behavior: include registration costs in your opening investment.

Monsha’at · Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority

Scope: SME support and financing programmes · Retrieved 7 October 2026 · Units: none used · Missing-data behavior: contributes no financial value.

Usage. These are public Saudi government webpages and documents linked for attribution and context. The model does not reproduce an official dataset or imply endorsement by any authority. Fees, quotas and rates change; confirm the current figures on the official platform before relying on them.