Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
Prime cost %
66.0%
Total prime cost
$27,700
Sales left for rent, overhead, profit
$14,300
Health flag
Watch closely
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How to use this
- 1Enter food & beverage cost (period) ($).
- 2Enter total loaded labor cost (period) ($).
- 3Enter net sales (same period) ($).
- 4Read your prime cost % on the right — it updates as you type.
- 5Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Prime cost is food cost plus total labor cost (wages, taxes, benefits, management) as a percentage of sales, and it is the most reliable single indicator of restaurant health because it captures the two biggest controllable expense buckets in one figure. Rent, utilities, and other overhead are mostly fixed and hard to move quickly, but food and labor respond to daily decisions. Industry benchmark: healthy full-service restaurants run prime cost at 60-65% of sales, quick-service can push toward 55-60% due to lower labor need, and anything consistently over 70% signals a business that will struggle to cover rent, debt service, and profit. This calculator adds your food cost dollars and total labor dollars, divides by sales, and flags where you sit against the standard bands so you know whether to focus on menu pricing, purchasing, or scheduling first.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Food & beverage cost (period): 13500 $
- Total loaded labor cost (period): 14200 $
- Net sales (same period): 42000 $
Results
- Prime cost %: 66.0%
- Total prime cost: $27,700
- Sales left for rent, overhead, profit: $14,300
- Health flag: Watch closely
What each field means
Inputs
- Food & beverage cost (period) ($)
- The food & beverage cost (period) used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 13500 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Total loaded labor cost (period) ($)
- The total loaded labor cost (period) used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 14200 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Net sales (same period) ($)
- The net sales (same period) used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 42000 $ so you have a working example on load.
Results
- Prime cost %
- Returned as a percentage and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Total prime cost
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Sales left for rent, overhead, profit
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Health flag
- Returned as a plain value. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
What's a healthy prime cost target?
Most full-service restaurants aim for 60-65%. Quick-service and fast casual can run 55-62% with lower labor need per transaction. Above 70% consistently means there is little left to cover rent, debt payments, and owner profit even before other overhead.
Why is prime cost better than watching food cost and labor cost separately?
The two trade off against each other constantly — cheaper ingredients that need more prep labor, or convenience products that cost more but save labor hours. Prime cost captures the net effect of those trade-offs in one number, so you don't optimize one at the expense of the other.
How fast can prime cost change month to month?
It can swing 3-5 points quickly from a bad scheduling week, a spike in commodity prices, or a slow sales period that doesn't get matched by lower staffing fast enough. Weekly tracking catches problems before a full month locks in a bad number.
What should I fix first if prime cost is too high?
Check which side moved: if food cost jumped, look at portioning, waste, and vendor pricing first since it's usually the faster fix. If labor jumped, review the schedule against actual sales curves before assuming you need fewer people overall.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
Related tools
Food Cost Percentage Calculator
Find your plate cost as a share of menu price and where it lands vs. target.
Restaurant Labor Cost Percentage Calculator
Total labor spend as a share of sales, with a benchmark check.
Break-Even Covers Calculator
How many customers per day you need to cover fixed and variable costs.
Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Prime Cost Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/prime-cost-calculator
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/prime-cost-calculator" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prime Cost Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Prime Cost Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/prime-cost-calculator) (2026).