How I help

A restaurant audit that shows where you are losing money

I support restaurants and hotel F&B operations across Poland. I analyse costs, profitability and work organisation to find where money is being lost and recommend practical steps to improve performance.

Compare scope and prices

Scope of analysis

Restaurant costs: reviewing products, stock and the team’s work

We select one area or review the whole F&B operation, depending on your needs. I investigate the causes of discrepancies and opportunities to reduce losses. Cost optimisation should also take account of product quality and efficient service.

Sales and pricing

I compare sales, prices, discounts and the order mix with costs. I assess what remains to cover labour, other costs and profit.

Your restaurant has sales but no profit. What should you check?Read the article

Products, recipes and stock

I analyse food cost, purchase prices, portions, yields and stock reconciliation. I compare actual consumption with recipes, recorded waste and non-sales usage.

How does preparation waste affect portion cost?Read the article

Labour costs and Prime Cost

I review the full cost of labour and its share of sales. I combine this with product costs to calculate Prime Cost, then consider it alongside the venue’s other costs.

How do you calculate restaurant Prime Cost?Read the article

For hotel F&B operations, I also cover agreed areas such as breakfast, bars, banqueting and conferences, as well as coordination between the kitchen, service and sales teams.

Organisation and management

Work organisation: rotas, responsibilities and procedures

I review whether staffing matches demand and the tasks outside guest service. I analyse productivity, shift handovers and the responsibilities of the owner, manager and team. I check whether procedures support daily work and are actually followed.

An audit supports restaurant management through diagnosis and recommendations. It does not mean taking over daily operations. Organisational changes should improve the use of time without compromising service quality.

How does staff scheduling affect costs and performance?Read the article How do you clarify roles, implement standards and delegate responsibility?Read the article

Profitability

Restaurant profitability: from costs to results

Turnover alone does not tell you whether a restaurant is making money. During an audit, I examine how sales, food cost, Prime Cost, labour costs and work organisation affect performance. This helps identify sources of loss and determine how to improve restaurant profitability without arbitrary cost cutting.

Restaurant profitability: how do you calculate and improve it?Read the article See examples of previous results

The audit process

From a conversation to an action plan.

Agree on the scope

We discuss your situation. Before starting, we agree on the scope, price and data required.

Review the data and daily operations

I compare sales and costs with what happens on site and speak with the team.

Receive findings and a plan

The report identifies the causes of problems and prioritises actions. We discuss the recommendations.

Need help putting recommendations into practice? This is covered by the 360° Audit plus implementation support programme. Focus and 360° Audits conclude with findings and a plan.

After the audit: priorities, an action plan and progress checks

The report organises findings by the scale of the issue and its urgency. We discuss what to change, who is responsible and when to review progress. Restaurant profitability is assessed against sales and the full range of costs, not food cost or Prime Cost alone.

With the Focus and 360° Audits, implementation remains the responsibility of the owner and manager. The 360° Audit plus implementation support programme also provides help with putting recommendations into practice. The examples below use fictional data.

Report extract · sheet 01 · stock

An unexplained 3 kg difference in stock reconciliation

Finding: A stocktake and comparison of consumption with sales and recorded non-sales usage revealed an unexplained 3 kg difference for one product during the period reviewed.
What do we check?: Stocktake accuracy, recipes, portion sizes and records of non-sales usage. The difference alone does not establish its cause.
Task and deadline: The head chef checks recipes and portions and records non-sales usage for 14 days.
Progress review: After 7 and 14 days, the owner compares the reconciliations: the difference in kg and PLN, and its size relative to sales.
Scale and priority: To be established after checking the cause and whether it recurs. In the overall report, we compare this discrepancy with the other findings within the agreed audit scope and identify what to address first.

Example data and calculation

Stockroom and kitchen: 10 kg opening stock + 20 kg deliveries − 8 kg closing stock = 22 kg consumed. No returns or transfers out of the property.

Sales according to recipes account for 18 kg of raw product, including standard preparation losses. Recorded non-sales usage: 1 kg. Unexplained difference: 22 − 18 − 1 = 3 kg.

At PLN 30/kg excluding VAT, this single difference is worth PLN 90. It illustrates the diagnostic method; it is not the value of the whole audit, a confirmed loss or a savings forecast. Without further data, we do not extrapolate it to a month or year.

Second illustrative example · recipes

Omitted preparation waste and an incorrect system recipe understated the cost of a dish’s main ingredient.

Finding: The dish’s price calculation did not account for 20% preparation waste in the main ingredient. The system also recorded a 180 g portion instead of 200 g after trimming. Both errors understated portion cost and overstated the expected margin.
Action: The head chef weighs the ingredient before and after trimming to establish the actual waste percentage. The person responsible for recipes corrects the quantity, unit and treatment of waste in the system. The owner recalculates the cost of the whole dish and reviews the selling price.
Review: We check the portion prepared using the corrected recipe, its cost and the amount of raw product deducted by the system. Waste is included only once, either through the raw quantity before trimming or through the yield setting.

See how both errors affect portion cost

Assumptions: the ingredient costs PLN 40/kg excluding VAT before trimming. A portion requires 200 g after trimming and waste is 20% of the purchased weight. One kilogram yields 800 g of usable product. The example excludes further cooking losses.

Raw quantity required: 200 g ÷ 80% = 250 g. Correct main ingredient cost: 0.25 kg × PLN 40 = PLN 10 excluding VAT per portion.

Without waste, the calculation showed 0.20 kg × PLN 40 = PLN 8. The incorrect 180 g system entry, also excluding waste, reduced the displayed cost to PLN 7.20. Total understatement: 10 − 7.20 = PLN 2.80 per portion.

Across 100 portions sold, the difference is PLN 280. This corrects the recorded cost of one ingredient; it is not an automatic saving or a recommended price increase. Pricing decisions must consider the dish’s other costs.

Preparation

What information will be needed?

Useful information includes sales and purchase reports, stocktakes, recipes, rotas and employment costs. We agree on the exact list for your chosen scope.

You do not need a complete set of documents for the first call. Simply tell me what concerns you.

Data confidentiality

Before you share documents, we agree on confidentiality, how data will be shared, access and the date for return or deletion. We prepare only the information needed for analysis, without employee names or guest data wherever possible. Publication of a specific property’s case study or results is agreed separately.

How do we work with the team?

Before the visit, we agree with the owner on how to explain the audit’s purpose to employees. We look for the causes of problems, not people to blame. Observation fits around the venue’s work and longer conversations take place outside peak periods. Findings are based on data and observation, not individual opinions.

The next step

Let’s establish what your venue needs.

After our call, I will suggest an appropriate scope of work.

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