How It Works: Input → KPI → Diagnosis → Priority → Action

Every restaurant produces more numbers than any owner can use. GenerateKPI is built around one loop that turns a few of them into a decision each week. The same loop runs through the free template, the articles and the Restaurant Performance System — this page explains it once.

The loop

1. Input

You enter a small set of figures you already have: sales by category, covers, cost of goods, labor cost and hours, recorded waste, a stock value in the weeks you count, and a repeat-guest count if you can measure it. Weekly for the sales, cost and labor figures; the stock value whenever you count. Ten to fifteen minutes, from a POS report, payroll and supplier invoices.

2. KPI

The inputs become a short list of ratios — food cost, labor cost, prime cost, average check, gross and operating margin, sales per labor hour, repeat guest rate, waste, inventory days on hand — each compared to a target you set for your own restaurant, and shown as a trend rather than a single number. The restaurant KPI guide explains why these and not forty others.

3. Diagnosis

A KPI that moved is a question, not an answer. Food cost up three points: prices, portions, waste, mix or shrinkage? Labor cost up: wage rates, overtime, a rota that did not match the covers, or a sales dip? The diagnosis step identifies which KPI moved, on which side and by how much in dollars, and gives you the driver checks in order — because each driver has a different owner and a different fix.

4. Priority

Most weeks more than one thing has moved. Priority is the size of the gap in dollars. A two-point food-cost rise on $15,000 of weekly food sales is $300 a week; a one-point labor-cost rise on $20,000 of weekly sales is $200. The first one gets the week.

5. Action

One action, one owner, one deadline, checked at the next review. Re-cost the top ten dishes. Rebuild the Tuesday rota from covers by hour. Start the waste log. Small, specific and finished — then the loop runs again.

Where each piece of GenerateKPI fits

	Input	KPI	Diagnosis	Priority	Action
Restaurant KPI articles	What to collect	Formulas and interpretation	What moves each number	—	Practical actions per KPI
Free Excel template	Monthly entry sheet	17 KPIs, colour-coded vs. your targets	—	—	—
Restaurant Performance System	Weekly entry	Owner dashboard and trends	Rule-based diagnosis and driver checks per KPI	Ranked by dollar impact	One recommended action per week

Why weekly, and why so few numbers

Monthly is too slow for food and labor — by the time the P&L arrives, four weeks of the problem have already happened. Daily is too noisy — a bad Tuesday is not a trend. Weekly matches how restaurants actually run: one rota, one order cycle, one set of bank movements. And the number of KPIs is small on purpose. The review only happens if it fits in the gap between the Monday order and the Monday lunch service.

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