Example P&L for a Restaurant
What a statement-built P&L looks like for a small counter-service cafe: three dense months of processor deposits collapsed into readable lines, with prime cost worked out month by month.
- This example shows a counter-service cafe banking $54,140.34 to $61,793.32 a month across the quarter, from daily processor settlements, delivery platform payouts, and weekly cash deposits.
- Prime cost (food plus payroll) is the number that runs a restaurant. Here it falls from 65.1 percent of banked sales in April to 63.2 percent in June, just under 64 percent for the quarter.
- Food cost runs 31.0 percent of revenue for the quarter and payroll 32.9 percent, both inside normal counter-service territory.
- Net income before owner pay is $31,898.41, an 18.3 percent margin. The owner works the line unpaid; after a market-rate manager wage this store lands in the single digits, which is the honest norm for the trade.
- A single month of this store's statements runs past 250 lines. Recurring patterns (processor, distributors, payroll) categorize once, which is what makes the statement-based method workable at restaurant density.
- The numbers are fictional, but the format, categories, and judgment calls are exactly what a reconciled statement-based P&L delivers.
Below is a complete example profit and loss statement for a fictional counter-service cafe, Bluebird Corner Cafe LLC, covering April through June 2026. A restaurant's bank statement is dense but regular: daily card settlements, weekly distributors, biweekly payroll, monthly rent. This example shows what that density collapses into, and every total on the page is computed from the lines, so the document foots the way a delivered report must.
Use it two ways. If you are building your own P&L, this is the target format: each revenue stream as one line, food and payroll split out so prime cost is computable, occupancy and fees visible, and owner activity below the statement. If a lender, landlord, or prospective buyer just asked for financials, the reading notes explain the two percentages they will compute first and the owner-pay caveat they will ask about.
| INCOME | April | May | June | Total |
| Card processor deposits | $48,123.64 | $52,405.18 | $55,654.02 | $156,182.84 |
| Delivery platform payouts | $4,216.70 | $3,962.15 | $4,489.30 | $12,668.15 |
| Cash deposits | $1,800.00 | $2,100.00 | $1,650.00 | $5,550.00 |
| Total income | $54,140.34 | $58,467.33 | $61,793.32 | $174,400.99 |
| EXPENSES | April | May | June | Total |
| Food & beverage (COGS) | $16,842.12 | $18,026.47 | $19,183.05 | $54,051.64 |
| Payroll | $18,423.18 | $19,015.52 | $19,862.04 | $57,300.74 |
| Rent & occupancy | $7,423.86 | $7,389.12 | $7,567.04 | $22,380.02 |
| Merchant & platform fees | $1,482.16 | $1,608.84 | $1,712.09 | $4,803.09 |
| Repairs & maintenance | $684.50 | $1,893.27 | $426.15 | $3,003.92 |
| Software & supplies | $312.84 | $312.84 | $337.49 | $963.17 |
| Total expenses | $45,168.66 | $48,246.06 | $49,087.86 | $142,502.58 |
| NET PROFIT | $8,971.68 | $10,221.27 | $12,705.46 | $31,898.41 |
- Owner draws $16,500.00: The owner pays herself in draws, which are equity movement, not an expense. Burying them in payroll would understate profit.
- Transfer to tax savings $6,000.00: Moving money to the store's own savings account for quarterly taxes changes nothing about profit.
Line notes
- Card processor deposits: Daily Toast settlements collapsed into one line. This processor debits its fees separately, so deposits arrive gross.
- Delivery platform payouts: DoorDash and Uber Eats, each on its own weekly cycle. Categorized once per platform.
- Cash deposits: Weekly trips to the branch. Cash spent from the till before deposit would be invisible here.
- Food & beverage (COGS): Two broadline distributors plus Restaurant Depot runs. This line drives food-cost percentage.
- Payroll: Biweekly payroll-service debits. The owner works the line daily and takes no wage here; her pay is the draws below.
- Rent & occupancy: Rent plus utilities. The fixed amount each month has to clear before anything else counts.
- Repairs & maintenance: May includes a $1,893.27 walk-in compressor repair. Irregular but never optional.
Prime cost, month by month, in this example's numbers
April banked $54,140.34 and spent $16,842.12 on food and $18,423.18 on payroll: prime cost of 65.1 percent. By June, sales of $61,793.32 against $19,183.05 of food and $19,862.04 of payroll bring prime cost to 63.2 percent. For the quarter, food is $54,051.64 (31.0 percent of the $174,400.99 banked) and payroll $57,300.74 (32.9 percent), so prime cost runs just under 64 percent. Falling prime cost on rising sales is the pattern an operator wants: the kitchen and the schedule are scaling better than linearly.
The direction matters more than any single month. A five-delivery-week month against four payroll cycles bumps these ratios around, which is timing, not performance. Prime cost creeping upward across a quarter while sales stay flat is the classic early warning; this store shows the opposite.
Why 18 percent when restaurants famously make 5
Net income before owner pay is $31,898.41 on $174,400.99, an 18.3 percent margin. That is not a contradiction of the single-digit reputation; it is the owner-pay caveat in action. The owner works the line six days a week and takes no wage through payroll; her $16,500.00 of draws sit below the statement. Charge the store a market-rate manager wage instead and the margin lands in the single digits, which is exactly where a well-run counter-service store belongs. Full-service concepts usually run thinner still.
A buyer or lender reading this P&L will make that adjustment themselves, and a P&L that shows the draws honestly below the statement makes the adjustment easy. One that hides owner pay somewhere in expenses, or omits it entirely, invites the reader to distrust every other line.
What the bank sees that the POS does not
The POS knows gross tickets. The bank knows what settled after fees, refunds, and chargebacks, and what actually left for food, labor, and rent. This example keeps merchant and platform fees visible ($4,803.09 for the quarter) instead of letting them vanish inside net deposits, and cash appears only when deposited: $5,550.00 across the three months. Cash spent from the till before deposit never reaches any statement-based record, which quietly shrinks the documented store.
The May repairs line is worth a note too: $1,893.27 of it is one walk-in compressor failure. Repairs are irregular in this trade but never optional, and a reader sees a reserve-worthy line, not a red flag, as long as the surrounding months look like April's $684.50 and June's $426.15.
Use this format yourself
The free restaurant P&L template is this exact layout as a spreadsheet with the categories pre-loaded. For the full walk-through of categories, judgment calls, and what lenders ask a restaurant for, read the restaurant P&L guide. And to see a statement-built report with working charts and reconciliation detail, the full sample report is a complete delivered order for a different fictional business.
Common questions
Yes. The free restaurant template below is this exact format as a spreadsheet with the categories pre-loaded. Or upload your statements and RapidPnL builds the reconciled version for you in minutes.
Yes. Revenue then reflects what settled to the bank, and the basis note says so. Where the statement itemizes fees they are broken out; where it cannot, consistency matters more than grossing up.
For counter service it is workable; many operators aim for the low sixties or better. Full service usually runs higher on labor. The trend across months tells you more than the level, and the industry guide covers the ranges honestly.
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Written by a licensed CPA. This guide is general information, not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice, and does not create a professional relationship. Lender requirements and bank websites change; confirm specifics with your lender and financial institution.