Preparing a restaurant budget in advance is part of the restaurant business plan that you are counting on.
The real deal is the ability to balance the restaurant budget so that your cost is precisely your dollars’ worth. A perfectly balanced budget sheet ‘Nills’ both sides of the table to 0, so there is no difference in amount accrued vs. amount paid, etc.
Without a balanced restaurant budget, you are flying blind most of the time. Since there are no-cost control modules, your food cost variance and overhead expenses can vary all the time. In an ideal scenario, you don’t want to experience such situations.
Here are a few tips for balancing your restaurant budget:
- Track all your numbers through automated restaurant balance management software. You can also use a paper trail for calculations, but that will take a lot of time
- Calculate the theoretical and actual cost difference between goods, supplies, ingredients, infrastructure, or whatever your categories are. You would want to keep the substantial variance lower than the theoretical variance
- Use restaurant sales forecasting software to predict next quarter’s expense vs. profit scenario
- Sales should ideally cover the cost for all your items, supplies, employee payrolls, and other billables
- Manage your employee wages through contract agreements. Permanent hires can accrue unwanted expenses on those days where customer count is meager.
At the end of the day, how exactly you manage your restaurant budget is up to you. Feel free to improvise according to the nature of your expenses and the food business.
