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Start Here
Overview
Your daily financial picture at a glance. This is the page you check every morning before you walk in.
Total Revenue
Gross sales pulled automatically from Square. Updated daily.
This is your top line — everything flows from here.
Food Cost %
What you spent on food and supplies as a percentage of revenue. Pulled from your supplier invoices automatically.
Target: 28–35% depending on concept.
Labor Cost %
Total wages as a percentage of revenue. Calculated from Square timecards every day.
Target: 25–35% for most concepts.
Prime Cost %
Food cost + labor cost combined. The single most important number in your restaurant.
Target: under 65%. Top operators run 55–60%.
How to read it
Green means you're on target. Amber means you're close to your limit. Red means you're over and need to act. Every number compares to the targets you set during onboarding — you can update them anytime in Settings.
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Sales
Revenue
Every dollar that comes through your Square POS — broken down by day, payment type, and location.
Gross Revenue
Total sales before any deductions. This is what Square reports.
Covers
Number of transactions or guests served. Pulled from Square automatically.
Average Check
Revenue divided by covers. Tells you if your menu pricing is working.
If avg check drops, look at what's selling vs what isn't.
Revenue by Day
Which days of the week drive the most revenue. Useful for staffing decisions.
Automatic
Revenue syncs from Square every day. You never need to enter anything manually. It just appears.
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Cost Tracking
Food Cost
What you actually spent on food and supplies — tracked automatically from your supplier invoices.
Food Cost %
Total food and supply spend divided by revenue. Your most important cost to control.
Industry average: 28–35%
Spend by Vendor
How much you spent with each supplier — Sysco, US Foods, local vendors — broken out automatically.
Invoice Log
Every invoice received, parsed, and categorized. Auto-posted invoices show as Live. Manual entries are flagged separately.
Coverage %
What percentage of your food spend is being tracked automatically vs entered manually.
Higher is better. Set up invoice forwarding for more coverage.
How food cost tracking works
Forward your supplier invoices to your unique PrimeIQ email address — find it in Settings. Every invoice is parsed automatically by AI. The vendor name, date, and total amount are extracted and posted to your food cost. No manual entry required after setup.
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Cost Tracking
Labor Cost
Actual wages from Square timecards — calculated automatically every day when employees clock in and out.
Labor Cost %
Total wages as a percentage of revenue. Calculated from real clock-in data — not estimates.
Target: 25–35% depending on concept.
Total Hours
Hours worked across all employees for the period. Pulled from Square timecards.
Overtime Hours
Hours worked over 40 per week per employee. Overtime costs 1.5x — catching it early saves money.
You get an alert on Wednesday and Thursday when anyone approaches 40 hours.
Labor by Day
What you spent on labor each day of the week. Helps identify overstaffed shifts.
How it works
Employees clock in and out on your Square POS terminal. PrimeIQ reads those hours every night, multiplies by their hourly rate, and calculates your labor cost percentage against that day's revenue. No payroll software required.
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The Key Number
Prime Cost
Food cost plus labor cost. The single most important number in restaurant finance. If you only track one thing, track this.
What it is
Prime cost = food cost % + labor cost %. It represents the two biggest controllable costs in your restaurant.
Why it matters
Everything else — rent, utilities, marketing — is relatively fixed. Prime cost is what you can actually control week to week.
Excellent prime costUnder 55%
Good prime cost55–60%
Industry average60–65%
Needs attentionOver 65%
What to do if prime cost is high
Look at food cost and labor cost separately. Usually one is driving the problem. High food cost — check your invoices for price increases and look at waste. High labor cost — review your scheduling, look for overstaffed shifts, check for overtime.
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Finance
Break-Even Calculator
How many covers you need to serve before you start making money. Share this number with your floor manager every morning.
Break-even covers
The number of covers per day you need to cover all your fixed and variable costs.
Below this number and you're losing money. Above it and you're profitable.
Contribution margin
How much each cover contributes toward covering your fixed costs after variable costs are paid.
How to use this
Every morning before service, know your break-even number for today. Tell your floor manager. If you're at 80 covers by 7pm and you need 120 to break even, you know to push desserts, drinks, or move tables faster. It makes the number actionable.
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Sales
Payment Methods
Your payment mix from Square — cash, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and contactless. Every card type has a different processing fee.
Payment mix
What percentage of sales come through each payment type. Amex costs more than Visa to process.
Processing fees
Estimated total credit card fees for the period based on your payment mix and Square's rates.
This comes out of your margin — worth knowing exactly how much.
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Operations
Sales by Hour
When your revenue actually happens throughout the day. Useful for scheduling, staffing, and prep planning.
Revenue by hour
Which hours of the day drive the most sales. Pulled from Square transaction timestamps.
Covers by hour
When your guests actually arrive. Helps you staff the right number of people at the right time.
How to use this for scheduling
If your data shows 40% of your revenue hits between 7pm and 9pm, that's when you need your best staff. If Tuesday 3pm is consistently dead, don't schedule extra people for it. Let your own data drive your schedule — not habit.
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Finance
Voids & Comps
Every voided transaction and comp logged automatically from Square. High void rates are often a sign of theft, training issues, or system problems.
Voids
Transactions that were started and cancelled. Some voids are normal — high void rates are not.
Industry norm: under 2% of revenue
Comps
Meals or items given away. Track this to understand the real cost of hospitality decisions.
Comps should be intentional — not a habit.
What high voids might mean
A sudden spike in voids — especially from one employee or one shift — is worth investigating. It can indicate training issues, system problems, or in some cases theft. PrimeIQ flags unusual void patterns so you can catch them early.
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Finance
P&L Statement
Your full income statement — revenue, cost of goods, labor, fixed costs, and estimated net profit. Formatted the way your accountant expects it.
Gross revenue
Total sales from Square for the period.
Cost of goods
Food and supply costs from your invoice tracking.
Labor costs
Total wages from Square timecards for the period.
Estimated net profit
What's left after all tracked costs. An estimate — your accountant has the exact number.
Use this for operational decisions, not tax filing.
Important note
The P&L in PrimeIQ is an operational estimate based on tracked costs. It's designed to give you a real-time picture for decision-making — not to replace your accountant's official P&L for tax purposes. The more completely you set up food cost and fixed costs, the more accurate it becomes.
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Finance
Industry Benchmarks
How your numbers compare to restaurants of similar size and concept. Context makes your data meaningful.
Food cost — casual dining28–32%
Food cost — fine dining32–38%
Labor cost — full service30–35%
Labor cost — fast casual25–30%
Prime cost — top operatorsUnder 60%
Prime cost — industry average60–65%
Void rate — acceptableUnder 2%
Net profit margin — restaurant3–9%
How to use benchmarks
Don't chase industry averages — beat them. The top 20% of independent operators run prime costs under 60%. That's your target. The benchmarks show you what's possible, not what's acceptable.
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Daily Digest
Your Morning Email
Every morning before you walk in, PrimeIQ sends you a summary of yesterday's performance — automatically.
What's in it
Yesterday's revenue, food cost %, labor cost %, and prime cost. Compared to your targets. No login required.
When it arrives
Every morning at 6am. Before your first shift starts.
Weekly report
Every Monday morning you get a full week summary — revenue, costs, and a breakdown of the week's performance.
Overtime alerts
Wednesday and Thursday afternoons if any employee is approaching 40 hours — so you can adjust shifts before overtime kicks in.
The point
You shouldn't have to log into a dashboard to know if yesterday was a good day. The morning email is designed so you get your most important numbers while you're still having coffee — before any decisions are made for the day.