Break-even Calculator
The most important number on a restaurant P&L. Enter rent, salaries, utilities, and variable cost rate — get your daily and monthly break-even. Public extract of the in-product panel.
Monthly fixed costs
Variable cost & operating days
You need ₹33,586/day to break even. With a 34% variable cost rate, contribution margin is healthy.
If your variable cost % moves…
Even a 2-point swing on food cost % changes break-even materially. This is why a weekly menu-engineering review matters more than most owners think.
| Variable cost % | Daily break-even | Monthly break-even |
|---|---|---|
| 30% | ₹31,667 | ₹9,50,000 |
| 32% | ₹32,598 | ₹9,77,941 |
| 34% | ₹33,586 | ₹10,07,576 |
| 36% | ₹34,635 | ₹10,39,063 |
| 38% | ₹35,753 | ₹10,72,581 |
| 40% | ₹36,944 | ₹11,08,333 |
| 42% | ₹38,218 | ₹11,46,552 |
What this calculator gets right
Most Indian restaurant break-even templates online give a single static number. This one runs a sensitivity table at ±2 to ±8 percentage points on variable cost — because in real operations, food cost % moves with onion / tomato / chicken weekly. If the table shows your daily break-even swinging by ₹15,000-₹25,000 over a 4-point variance, your business is one mandi spike from a loss month.
For a deeper tear-down — fixed-vs-variable taxonomy, channel-wise contribution margin, and a weekly drift alert — see the in-product Break-even panel.
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Common questions
What's the break-even formula for a restaurant?
Monthly break-even = Total fixed costs ÷ (1 − variable cost rate). Variable cost rate is food cost % + variable labour + packaging + commission. Daily break-even is the monthly number divided by operating days.
What's a healthy variable cost rate for an Indian restaurant?
Most well-run Indian restaurants land between 32% and 38%. QSR with heavy aggregator presence creep to 42%. Casual dining with strong dine-in mix can be 28-34%. Fine dining with alcohol can be 26-32% on the food side, but liquor cost economics are different.
Are the monthly fixed costs in my model right?
The most-missed line is depreciation (interior + equipment over 5-7 years). The most-overstated is utilities — many owners include LPG and packaging here when those are variable. Use the in-product version for a clean fixed-vs-variable split.
How do I share my result?
Click 'Get a shareable link' under the calculator. We generate a stable URL — no login required. Send it to your partner, accountant, or banker.
Is this the same calculator Forkcast uses inside the product?
It's the public extract. The in-product version pulls fixed costs from your actual P&L, blends in seasonality and weekend mix, and runs sensitivity per channel (dine-in vs Zomato vs Swiggy).
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