Preparing your records
What to prepare for a hospitality performance review.
You probably already have much of the information we need. There is no need to build a new spreadsheet or tidy every file before we speak.
Start with the decision.
Write down what you would like to understand. Perhaps a busy service is leaving less than you expect, a supplier increase has made you question prices, or you are deciding whether different opening hours would be worthwhile.
That question guides the information we use. A menu review may need product sales and recipe costs; an opening-hours review also needs staffing and the costs that would change. Collecting everything is rarely the best first step.
Make a short note of the systems you use and the dates your records cover. A small sample can help establish what is usable before you prepare a larger export.
Sales and till information.
A CSV or spreadsheet export is usually easier to work with than screenshots or printed totals. Depending on the question, useful fields include:
- Date and time, product or category, quantity and selling price.
- Discounts, refunds and any separately recorded fees.
- Sales channel, such as eat-in, takeaway or delivery.
- A site identifier where several venues are being compared.
Note whether figures include tax and whether there are missing days. If you changed product names, prices or till buttons, a brief explanation helps avoid a misleading comparison.
Customer names, contact details and payment-card information are not needed for this work. The till reports guide explains which exports suit different questions.
Staffing and product costs.
For staffing, actual hours and labour costs are more useful than a rota alone. If only planned hours are available, say so. Include preparation and closing work where relevant, and note unusual events such as training, absences or a temporary change in service.
Totals by day, shift or role may be enough; identifiable employee records are usually unnecessary. We can agree the right level of detail before anything is shared.
For products, use the costing information you already have: supplier prices, recipes, portion sizes, packaging and waste records. Note when costs or selling prices changed. An estimate is still useful if it is clearly labelled and we understand its limitations.
For delivery, keep the platform statements as well as till totals. Sales, commissions, discounts and refunds can explain why the amount received differs from the order value.
Add the context only you know.
A short timeline can explain an apparent change in performance. Note closures, equipment problems, local events, menu changes, opening-hours changes or periods when you operated differently.
Longer records can help show seasonality. Up to approximately 12 months may be useful where available and relevant, but the period is agreed around the question. More files do not automatically lead to a better answer.
For several sites, note differences in opening hours, menu and service model. A fair comparison needs to recognise those differences.
If your records are incomplete.
That is something to discuss, not something to be embarrassed about. The sample check helps establish what we can answer, what is missing and whether a narrower review would be more useful.
If substantial cleaning or extra work is needed, we agree it before proceeding. If the records cannot support a conclusion, the review will make that clear.
Do not send business records with your first enquiry. We will agree what is needed, how it will be shared, who needs access and how long it will be kept before work starts. You can read the review scope and deliverables first if helpful.