Running a restaurant isn’t just about great food and friendly service — it’s about managing numbers. Behind every successful restaurant is a leadership team tracking restaurant metrics that reveal what’s really driving performance.
In 2025, the most profitable restaurant operators are using data to make smarter decisions about staffing, scheduling, menu design, and labor costs. Understanding which metrics matter (and which are just noise) can make the difference between surviving and thriving.
This guide covers the most important restaurant metrics you should track, how to measure them, and how hiring and workforce tools help keep those numbers moving in the right direction.
Why Restaurant Metrics Matter
Metrics tell your story in numbers. They show you:
- Where you’re profitable
- Where you’re losing money
- How efficient your team is
- How guests are responding
Without tracking these data points consistently, it’s easy to make decisions based on gut feeling — which often leads to wasted labor, overspending, and missed growth opportunities.
Restaurant metrics give you visibility and control — helping you adjust before small issues become big problems.
Key Restaurant Metrics You Should Be Tracking
Sales Metrics
Your sales data forms the foundation for every other restaurant performance metric. These numbers help you understand how well your restaurant is performing day to day.
1. Gross Sales
The total revenue from food, drinks, and other sales before taxes and expenses. This metric shows your overall business volume and helps set benchmarks for other metrics like labor and food costs.
2. Average Check Size (or Average Ticket)
Formula: Total Sales ÷ Number of Transactions
Tracking your average check size helps identify whether guests are ordering higher-margin items or if your upselling strategies are working.
3. Sales per Labor Hour (SPLH)
Formula: Total Sales ÷ Total Labor Hours
SPLH shows how much revenue you generate for every hour worked by staff — a critical indicator of labor efficiency. If your SPLH is dropping, it might be time to reexamine scheduling, staffing levels, or training.
Labor Metrics
Labor costs remain one of the biggest expenses for restaurants — and one of the easiest to lose control of.
4. Labor Cost Percentage
Formula: (Total Labor Cost ÷ Total Sales) × 100
Most restaurants aim for 25–35%, depending on their service model. This metric should be tracked weekly (or even daily) to catch inefficiencies early.
5. Turnover Rate
Formula: (Employees Who Leave ÷ Average Number of Employees) × 100
High turnover is a silent profit killer. It leads to training costs, reduced service consistency, and increased stress on remaining staff. Restaurants using StaffedUp reduce turnover by improving applicant quality, automating follow-ups, and organizing hiring across multiple locations — creating consistency that drives retention.
6. Time-to-Hire
This measures how long it takes to fill an open position. A long hiring process leads to schedule gaps, burnout, and overtime costs. Streamlined recruiting with automation tools can reduce this time dramatically.
Cost Metrics
Your costs directly impact profitability — but tracking them accurately is where many operators struggle.
7. Prime Cost
Formula: (Labor Cost + Cost of Goods Sold) ÷ Total Sales × 100
Prime cost should generally be under 65% for most restaurant types. It’s a top-level indicator of how efficiently you’re managing your biggest controllable expenses.
8. Food Cost Percentage
Formula: (Cost of Goods Sold ÷ Total Food Sales) × 100
A healthy food cost percentage usually falls between 28% and 35%, depending on your concept. Tracking this metric helps identify waste, over-portioning, or pricing issues.
9. Operating Expense Ratio
Formula: Total Operating Expenses ÷ Total Sales × 100
This includes rent, utilities, marketing, and administrative costs. Keeping this ratio low means more of your revenue translates to profit.
Guest Experience Metrics
The guest experience directly impacts repeat business — and metrics help you measure it objectively.
10. Customer Retention Rate
Formula: ((Repeat Customers ÷ Total Customers) × 100)
Loyal guests are far more profitable than first-time visitors. A high retention rate indicates consistency in service and food quality.
11. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
This measures how likely guests are to recommend your restaurant. A score above 50 is considered excellent in hospitality.
12. Online Review Ratings
Your Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor ratings are modern word-of-mouth. Tracking review volume and sentiment helps identify areas for improvement.
Pro tip: Encourage reviews from happy guests and train your staff to respond professionally to negative ones — consistency in feedback management is another key operational metric.
Productivity and Efficiency Metrics
13. Table Turnover Rate
Formula: Number of Tables Served ÷ Number of Tables Available
This metric measures how efficiently you’re using seating during busy hours. Higher turnover means greater revenue potential — but be careful not to rush guests.
14. Inventory Turnover
Formula: Cost of Goods Sold ÷ Average Inventory
A high turnover rate indicates efficient use of ingredients and less waste. A low rate could signal over-ordering or slow-moving menu items.
15. Employee Productivity Rate
Formula: Total Sales ÷ Number of Employees
This provides a quick snapshot of how efficiently your team contributes to overall sales performance.
How Technology Simplifies Tracking
Manually tracking all these restaurant metrics can be time-consuming. Fortunately, the best operators now use integrated software systems that combine data from scheduling, payroll, POS, and hiring tools.
For example:
- POS systems track real-time sales and menu performance.
- Scheduling software (like 7shifts or Toast) monitors labor hours and forecasts needs.
- Hiring platforms like StaffedUp centralize recruitment, helping maintain a stable workforce that directly affects metrics like turnover and labor efficiency.
When these systems work together, you gain a complete view of your operation — from hiring and onboarding to labor performance and profit tracking.
Which Restaurant Metrics Matter Most to You?
Not every restaurant needs to track every metric. What matters most depends on your concept, size, and goals.
Here’s a quick breakdown by priority area:
| Goal | Key Metrics to Track |
| Improve Profitability | Prime Cost, Food Cost %, Labor Cost %, Operating Expense Ratio |
| Boost Employee Performance | Turnover Rate, SPLH, Productivity Rate |
| Strengthen Guest Experience | NPS, Retention Rate, Review Ratings |
| Optimize Operations | Table Turnover, Inventory Turnover, Time-to-Hire |
Choosing the right metrics prevents data overload and focuses your management efforts where they matter most.
Connecting Hiring Metrics to Restaurant Performance
One of the most overlooked sets of restaurant metrics involves hiring and retention. These “people metrics” are just as critical as financial or operational ones.
Metrics to track include:
- Applicant-to-Hire Ratio – measures how efficiently you’re screening candidates.
- New Hire Turnover – shows whether your onboarding process is working.
- Cost-per-Hire – helps manage recruitment budgets.
By tracking these numbers through a hiring platform like StaffedUp, restaurant operators can see direct links between better recruiting and lower labor costs.
For example, a reduction in new hire turnover often corresponds to higher guest satisfaction scores — since consistent, well-trained teams deliver better service.
Case Study: Tracking Metrics Across Multi-Unit Operations
A regional restaurant group with eight casual dining locations struggled to maintain consistent performance metrics across locations. Each GM tracked labor, turnover, and food costs differently — making it impossible to identify trends at the corporate level.
After implementing StaffedUp to centralize hiring and integrate with their scheduling and POS systems, the company achieved:
- A 22% reduction in turnover across all units
- A 14% improvement in SPLH (sales per labor hour)
- Standardized reporting on labor and applicant flow
- Consistent onboarding practices that improved retention within 90 days
With these changes, management finally had a unified dashboard view of performance metrics across locations — enabling proactive decision-making instead of reactive fixes.
How to Start Tracking Restaurant Metrics the Right Way
- Choose 5–10 core KPIs that directly impact your restaurant’s financial health.
- Automate data collection wherever possible — integrate your POS, scheduling, and hiring software.
- Set clear targets for each metric (e.g., labor cost under 30%, turnover below 40%).
- Review weekly to identify trends early.
- Take action on your findings — adjust scheduling, retrain staff, or optimize menus as needed.
The key is consistency. Restaurant metrics are only useful if they’re measured regularly and acted upon.
Using Metrics to Drive a People-First Culture
The best operators know that behind every number is a person — and behind every person is a process.
Tracking metrics isn’t about micromanagement; it’s about creating transparency and fairness. Employees who understand how their performance affects results are more engaged and productive.
Tools like StaffedUp make that connection tangible — giving managers better visibility into applicant flow, staff quality, and turnover trends, which directly influence overall business health.
Final Thoughts
In 2025, the restaurant industry runs on data. Operators who understand their key restaurant metrics — from sales to labor to hiring — are better equipped to make informed decisions that sustain long-term profitability.
Metrics aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. They’re signals that help you balance efficiency with culture, service with profit, and growth with stability.
To strengthen your hiring metrics and build a more consistent, data-driven workforce, explore StaffedUp — the hospitality hiring platform built for restaurants that want smarter staffing and stronger performance.
