Most hospitality businesses generate plenty of data — POS receipts, payment logs, supplier invoices — but very few owners sit down with a structured weekly number check. Here are the 5 metrics that give you the clearest picture of your business health.
1. Gross Margin per Product Category
What it is: The revenue generated from sales minus the direct cost of ingredients/inventory to produce those items, segmented by category (beer, wine, cocktails, spirits, food, merchandise).
Why it matters: Selling CHF 10,000 of draft beer (low margin, high volume) vs. CHF 10,000 of high-end cocktails (high margin, high labor) has very different effects on your bottom line. You must know which categories are pulling weight.
How to get it: Export weekly sales logs from your Point of Sale (POS) terminal, map each SKU to a product category, and subtract estimated cost price percentages.
2. Revenue vs. Budget (Week-over-Week)
What it is: A straightforward comparison comparing actual top-line revenue against your weekly operational budget target, as well as against the same week last year.
Why it matters: Spotting downward trends early saves businesses. If actual revenue starts falling short of budget targets for two weeks straight, you can adjust labor schedules and food purchases before hitting month-end loss.
3. Beverage & Food Cost % (COGS)
What it is: The ratio of inventory costs to sales revenue, measured as a percentage.
What good looks like: Typically, a healthy benchmark for food cost is 28% to 35%, while beverages (especially spirits and draft beers) can sit lower at 18% to 24%. Spikes in this percentage indicate kitchen waste, over-portioning, theft, or rising supplier prices.
4. Labor Cost as a % of Revenue
What it is: Total labor costs (front-of-house, back-of-house, management, and social contributions) divided by gross sales.
Industry benchmarks: Generally target 30% to 35% of gross revenue. Spikes occur when staff are kept on during slow shifts or rain days. Reviewing this weekly helps you adjust roster schedules and protect margins.
5. Cash Position vs. Same Day Last Week
What it is: The total liquid cash in bank accounts and cash drawers compared directly to the same day last week.
Why it matters: This is the simplest early warning cash flow signal. In hospitality, cash flow is notoriously cyclical. Comparing week-over-week days eliminates seasonal noise (e.g., comparing Monday to Monday) and alerts you to unexpected expense runouts.
How to Track This
Consolidating weekly transaction data from multiple payment terminals (like Twint, SumUp, and POS terminals) is the first step. You can build a manual template or create a custom tracker that pulls files automatically.
The goal is simple: spend less than 15 minutes a week inputting data, so you can spend your time acting on what the numbers tell you.
We built exactly this for a Zürich bar — and it took less than 2 weeks.
Curious what it would look like for yours? Read our detailed hospitality case study to see how we consolidated payment platform data into an automated Excel tracker.