Guide
Ten minutes, once a week.
Most reports get glanced at for the total. The total is the least useful thing in them.
In short
Read a weekly restaurant report in this order: orders by channel, average order value, gross profit, labour as a share of sales, and refunds or complaints. Compare against the same week last month and the same week last year, never against the previous week, because trade is weekly-seasonal.
Updated 28 August 2026
Start with orders by channel, not revenue
Revenue is an outcome of several things and tells you none of them. Orders by channel tells you where demand came from and, combined with what each channel costs, whether the week was as good as it looked. A week where direct orders fell and marketplace orders rose is a worse week at the same revenue.
Compare to the right period
Same weekday, same week last month, same week last year. Never the previous week, unless you enjoy discovering that Sunday is quieter than Saturday. Year-on-year catches seasonality that month-on-month misses.
Look for the thing that changed
You are not looking for the numbers, you are looking for the one that moved unexpectedly. Everything within its normal range needs no attention. Reading a report as a list of figures rather than as a search for anomalies is how ten minutes becomes forty and produces nothing.
Check refunds and complaints last but always
They are small numbers that lead everything else. A rise in refunds this week shows up as a fall in repeat rate next quarter. It is the cheapest early warning available and it is usually at the bottom of a report where nobody reads.
The honest limitation
A single week is noisy. Weather, a local event or a bank holiday move restaurant trade more than most management decisions do. Do not restructure anything based on one week; look for patterns across three or four.
Questions, answered straight.
Not covered here? Just ask us.
How long should this take?
Ten minutes. If it takes longer, your report has too much in it. Cut it back to the figures that change decisions.
Should staff see the report?
A version of it, yes. Teams that can see orders and average order value tend to influence both. Full financials are usually more than is useful.
What if I only get a monthly report?
Weekly is much better, because a monthly cycle means a bad pattern runs for four weeks before anybody sees it.
Which single number if I only look at one?
Gross profit by channel. It contains price, mix and cost in one figure and it is the one that decides whether a busy week was a good week.
See it run your restaurant.
Twenty minutes on your menu and your numbers. We'll show you what actually changes in the first month and exactly what it costs. If it's not right for your restaurant, we'll tell you that instead.
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