Break-even & cash
Break-Even Sales Calculator
How much do I have to sell before this place makes a dollar?
Split your costs into the ones that move with sales and the ones that arrive whether you open or not. Break-even is the sales figure where what is left over from the first group exactly covers the second.
Your figures stay here. The calculator runs on this device; the share link stores its numbers after the # in the URL.
Worked answer$91,304See it ↓01
Your numbers
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The answer
Break-even sales per month
$91,304
46.0% of every dollar goes to fixed costs and profit
- Contribution marginWhat is left from each sales dollar after variable costs, to put against fixed costs.46.0%
- Contribution per sales dollar$0.46
- Total variable cost54.0%
- Fixed costs per month$42,000
- Break-even sales per day$3,512
- Break-even covers per month2,403
- Break-even covers per day93
Above this number every additional sales dollar contributes its margin straight to profit. Below it, the same margin is the rate you lose money.
03 Show the arithmetic
Total variable cost % = cost of goods % + variable labour % + other variable %
Contribution margin ratio = 1 − total variable cost %
Break-even sales = fixed costs ÷ contribution margin ratio
Break-even covers = break-even sales ÷ average check, rounded up to the next whole cover
04 What the answer leaves out
- Salaried management belongs in fixed costs, not variable labour. Putting it in the wrong bucket moves break-even substantially.
- This is a monthly model. A venue with heavy seasonality should run it against a realistic month, not an annual average.
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