Pizzeria break-even calculator
Break-even is your monthly fixed costs divided by what one order contributes after food cost and app commission. For a pizzeria the commission line decides it: with 40% of orders going through an app at 25%, the example below needs 44 orders a day instead of 38 selling direct.
Monthly fixed costs
Wages, payroll taxes and what you pay yourself.
Gas for the oven, electric, water.
Insurance, software, accountant, licenses.
Your trade
Before sales tax and tip.
Against the menu price.
Orders per day
44
over 26 open days
Orders per month
1,140
Monthly sales
$34,193.55
Before sales tax, to break even
- Monthly fixed costs
- $21,200
- Food cost per order
- $8.40
- Average commission per order40% of orders
- $3
- Contribution per order62.0%
- $18.60
The formula
Break-even = fixed costs ÷ contribution per order
Contribution is what is left of an order once the ingredients and the commission are paid. It is what covers rent and payroll. While it is positive, every extra order moves you toward break-even; if it is negative, selling more makes things worse. Not sure of your food cost ratio? Work it out per pie first.
The line generic calculators leave out
An ordinary break-even tool asks for a “margin” and stops. For a pizzeria that isn’t enough: app commission is charged only on the orders that go through the app, and at 25% or 30% it is often bigger than the food cost. Burying it in an average margin hides the single biggest lever you have.
| Share of orders via an app | At 0% commission | At 25% commission |
|---|---|---|
| 0%, all direct | 38 | 38 |
| 25% | 38 | 42 |
| 50% | 38 | 46 |
| 75% | 38 | 52 |
| 100%, all through apps | 38 | 58 |
Calculated with this tool using the values it loads with and 26 open days a month. Rounded up to whole orders. Sales tax is excluded because US menu prices are quoted before it.
That last row is the argument in one line. The same kitchen, costs and menu needs more than half as many orders again when every order pays commission: 58 a day instead of 38. Moving even a third of your regulars to your own site changes the math more than any price increase you would dare to make. See what your current app bill is per year.