Break-even covers calculator

Enter the week's fixed costs, the average spend and the food and drink cost to see how many covers a week and a service you need to break even.

Costs a week that do not change with covers (£)

Wages, rent, rates, energy, insurance, loan repayments

Average spend per cover after VAT (£)

Food and drink cost as a share of sales (%)

Services a week

Lunch and dinner six days a week is 12

Covers you serve now in a week

Figures use 2026/27 rates and simple assumptions, for planning. Ask us to run it on your own figures.

How the figures are worked out

Each cover leaves its spend after VAT less the food and drink cost to pay the fixed costs.
Break-even covers are the week's fixed costs divided by what each cover leaves, rounded up.
Covers per service are the weekly figure divided by the services you open for, rounded up.
Profit at your current covers is what each cover leaves times the covers, less the fixed costs. Income tax and corporation tax are left out.

Send us a month of till reports and the wage bill and we will work out your real margins, labour cost and VAT position.