Prime cost: the number that tells you if you’ll make money
Food cost + labor cost — the single number that predicts your profit.
What it is
Prime cost = cost of goods sold (food + beverage) + total labor cost, as a percentage of sales. It’s the two biggest, most controllable costs in the business combined into one number.
Why it matters more than either alone
Food cost and labor trade off against each other — cheaper prep can mean more labor, convenience can mean higher food cost. Prime cost captures both, so you can’t improve one by quietly blowing out the other.
A healthy target
Many full-service restaurants aim to keep prime cost around 60–65% of sales; below that, there’s usually room for rent, overhead and profit. The exact number depends on your model — but watching the trend weekly is what keeps it honest.
Watch it weekly, not at month-end
Prime cost found out at month-end is a post-mortem. Tracked weekly — with real food spend and burdened labor against real sales — it’s a steering wheel: you can adjust ordering and scheduling while the month is still winnable.
PULSE brings both halves together in real time: food & beverage spend from your invoices and burdened labor from your schedule and time clock, measured against live POS sales — so prime cost is a weekly steering number, not a month-end surprise.