Restaurant owners should review several key reports weekly to catch problems before they become expensive. The most critical ones are sales summaries, food cost calculations, labor cost tracking, and cash position reports.

Start with a daily sales summary broken down by day of the week. Compare this week to last week and to the same week last year. Look for patterns. Is Tuesday consistently weak? Did a new menu item boost check averages? Is foot traffic declining? Spotting trends weekly gives you time to adjust marketing, hours, or staffing before revenue dips hurt cash flow.

Food cost percentage deserves weekly attention because it moves quickly in restaurants and food service businesses. Calculate your cost of goods sold by taking purchases plus beginning inventory minus ending inventory, then divide by food sales. Most full-service restaurants target 28-35% food cost while fast casual and pizza operations run lower. If your food cost jumps two points in a week, something changed. Could be waste, theft, portion creep, or supplier price increases. Weekly review means you investigate now instead of three months later when quarterly numbers look bad.

Labor cost works similarly. Calculate total labor dollars including payroll taxes as a percentage of sales. Most restaurants aim for 25-35% depending on service style. If labor ran high this week, ask why. Were sales unexpectedly slow? Did you overstaff? Did someone work unapproved overtime? Weekly tracking helps you adjust next week’s schedule based on actual data.

Prime cost combines food and labor percentages. This is the most important number in restaurant finance because it represents 55-65% of sales for most operations. If prime cost exceeds your target, you’re losing margin whether you realize it or not. Weekly prime cost tracking gives you 52 chances per year to catch and correct problems.

Review your cash position every week. Know your bank balance, outstanding payables, and what’s coming due. Restaurants often operate on thin cash reserves, so a slow week can create problems if you’re not watching. Understanding where you stand helps you time vendor payments and avoid surprises.

Check your voids, comps, and waste report. Every item that leaves the kitchen without generating revenue shows up here. Some comps are legitimate customer recovery. But unusual patterns might indicate theft, kitchen mistakes, or server training issues. Weekly review is often enough to spot anomalies.

If you do weekly inventory counts, review the results for shrinkage or spoilage patterns. A full inventory every week isn’t always practical, but counting high-value items like proteins and alcohol helps you catch problems between full monthly counts.

The common mistake is generating these reports but not actually reviewing them. Schedule a specific time each week, even just 30 minutes, to look at the numbers. A Monday morning review of last week’s performance sets you up to make better decisions all week.

Working with a bookkeeper near Gentry who understands restaurant operations means these reports get prepared correctly and on time. Monthly bookkeeping that includes weekly report packages gives you the information to manage proactively instead of discovering problems at year end.