Do you know your average check?

AVERAGE CHECK is one of the figures that a restaurateur has to constantly know. Sadly, most managers don't even bother knowing these significant reports that can definitely help them in decision-making.

The Average Check is your Total Sales divided by Number of Guests.

Average Check = Total Sales

________

Number of guests

What do you need to get to your average check? A report of your total sales and a report

of your total number of guests. If you don't have a POS system, it is fine and this reporting can be done manually. Just total your sales to get your sales report. For the total number of guests, instruct your waiters to indicate number of guests for each orderslip and total those too.

Average check can be computed daily, weekly or month or even yearly. Just use the corresponding sales report and guest total for whicever time you wish. If you wish to get the average check on a daily basis, compute it using the data from the day you want to know your average guest check and so on.

The average guest check or average check tells you the average amount of money your cguests spend in your restaurant. It tells you if your computed per person rate or costing is quite congruent with what your guests actually buy.

Knowing your average guest check aids you in making the following decisions:

• price adjustment
• making specials
• costing and pricing
• creating promotions

There will be times the average check figure dips and this means you have to entice your customers to buy more. Furthermore, your guest check multiplied by your seating capacity multiplied by your turnover gives you your sales forecast. It can also allow you to play around the times you need to fill in or those times the restaurant can be made busier.

Like other restaurant reports, when you know your average guest check, it helps you think of ways to increase your sales and to attract customers.