Restaurant back office · Interactive calculator
The Hidden P&L
Back-office time is one of the most expensive line items in a restaurant that never shows up on the P&L. Enter your store's numbers. This is what it looks like when it does.
Store profile
QSR 130 · Fast Casual 110 · FSR 75
Assumptions
Case study: 12%
Audit range: 9 to 16
Leakage lines
Industry rules of thumb. Toggle off anything that doesn't apply to your operation and let the rest carry the case.
Annual cost that never hits the P&L
Per storeAvoidable turnover
2.6 hires avoided × $5,864 per replacement
$15,481
Manager time in the back office
12 hrs/week × $35/hr × 52 weeks
$21,840
Food cost variance
1 point of sales lost to shrink, waste, portioning drift
$15,000
Labor overspend
1 point of sales from gut-feel scheduling
$15,000
Receiving leakage
0.75% of purchases (purchases = 30% of sales)
$3,375
Total per store, per year
$70,696
22.0
Hires per year
2.6
Hires avoided
4.7%
Of annual sales
How to read this: the turnover and manager time lines are the citable anchor (Cornell, Black Box Intelligence, SHRM). The leakage lines are your own math. None of it includes the productivity gap of employees who stay past 90 days — treat that as upside.
See how Decision Logic closes the gap