48-Hour Profit Triage Report

How to read this This is the structure and depth of the written report you receive for £95 + VAT. The business is invented, but every figure below reconciles: the assumptions are stated, the arithmetic follows from them, and the actions are costed against the gap they are meant to close. Read section 3 first if you only read one.

The business in this example 62-cover independent bistro in a market town. Six days a week, lunch and dinner. Around £38,000 a month excluding VAT. No delivery platforms. Owner works in the kitchen and takes a modest wage through payroll.

Monthly sales£38,000£456,000 a year

Net result now+£1,1403.0% of sales · £13,680 a year

Under the stated scenario−£885−2.3% of sales · −£10,620 a year

1. Verdict

This business is not failing because sales are too low. It is failing because prime cost has moved faster than menu price, and the busiest dishes no longer carry enough gross margin to absorb labour and energy.

Risk band: RED — profit becomes loss under the planning assumptions set out in section 3.

2. Margin snapshot

Line	Now	% of sales	Scenario	Comment
Food and drink suppliers	£13,604	35.8%	39.0%	Above the workable band for this menu style.
Payroll, including owner pay	£12,996	34.2%	35.6%	Quiet weekday shifts carry too many paid hours.
Prime cost	£26,600	70.0%	74.6%	The number that decides whether anything is left.
Energy and utilities	£1,786	4.7%	5.4%	Consistent with an out-of-term contract.
Rent, rates and all other costs	£8,474	22.3%	22.3%	Held flat in this scenario.
Net result	+£1,140	3.0%	−2.3%	Crosses below break-even.

3. The scenario, and exactly what it assumes

A stress case is only useful if you can see inside it. These are the three movements applied above, and nothing else changes:

Suppliers +9%. A planning assumption chosen for this example. In a live report this comes from your own invoice history, line by line, not from a sector average.
Payroll +4.1%. The National Living Wage rose to £12.71 an hour from April 2026 for workers aged 21 and over, an increase of 4.1%. That is a published, dated change. Applying it to the whole payroll line is a deliberately simple upper-bound treatment: a chef already on £16 an hour does not receive the uplift, though pay differentials often get partly restored around it. A live report splits payroll by wage band instead of assuming one rate, which usually moves this figure down.
Energy +15%. A renewal assumption chosen for this example. In a live report this comes from your actual contract end date and current quoted rates.

Those three movements add £2,025 a month of cost. That is the whole of the swing from +£1,140 to −£885. Rent, rates and every other line are held flat, so nothing is hidden in a residual.

4. What it would take to stand still

To absorb £2,025 a month without changing a single cost, this business would need +5.3% across the menu, and would need covers to hold at the higher prices. That is the real size of the problem, stated as the one number an owner can act on.

One distinction worth being exact about: +5.3% restores the cash, not the margin. Sales become £40,025 against costs of £38,885, which returns the same £1,140 a month — but on a larger sales figure that is 2.85% rather than 3.0%. Standing still in pounds and standing still in percentage terms are not the same job, and a report that blurs them is not worth commissioning.

5. Where the margin actually goes — one dish, costed

Generic advice is easy. The reason the written report is worth commissioning is that it names the line and shows the arithmetic. This is one dish from the example menu:

Dish 3 — example menu · 210 covers a month

Plate cost£4.85

Sell price£11.50

Gross margin57.8%

Band for this style68.0%

Correction modelled: +£1.60, taking the dish to £13.10. Gross margin moves 57.8% → 63.0%. On 210 covers that is £336 a month from one line.

It does not go to the full 68% band in one move, deliberately. Whether covers hold at £13.10 is a judgement for the operator who knows the room, and the report says so rather than assuming it. What the report gives you is the price, the resulting margin and the monthly value, so the judgement is an informed one.

This example has no delivery platforms. Where a business uses them, the report separates platform sales from counter sales and treats commission as its own cost line, because platform volume can raise turnover while weakening the net result — which is the opposite of what the headline suggests.

6. The first three actions, ranked

1. Reprice two high-volume dishes

£420 – £680 / month

Dish 3 above is £336 of this on its own. The second dish carries the rest of the range, from £84 to £344 depending on its cover count and how far its price has slipped. Correct the two doing the most damage; do not raise the whole menu.

2. Cut one low-yield labour block

£300 – £500 / month

The Tuesday and Wednesday prep-and-close pattern is heavier than those days' revenue can carry.

3. Challenge supplier line drift

£180 – £350 / month

Three regular lines have moved faster than menu price since the last review.

These three actions target £900 – £1,530 a month against a £2,025 swing.

They do not close the whole gap, and the report says so rather than implying otherwise. Closing the remainder means costing the menu dish by dish and rebuilding the rota against the trading pattern. That is the £395 + VAT Menu & Margin Diagnostic, and your £95 is credited in full against it within 30 days.

7. What the report costs against what it targets

£95 + VAT, once. £900 – £1,530 a month identified.

In this worked example the three actions target £10,800 – £18,360 over a year if they are implemented and hold.

Stated as arithmetic from this example, not as a promise about your business. What a report finds depends entirely on what your figures show, and some businesses are told their costs are already tight.

8. Where this sits

~£129/monthCosting software, per site. Powerful once every invoice and recipe is loaded. Weeks of setup.

£95 + VAT onceThis written report. Rough figures in, 48 hours, no setup, no subscription.

~£2,000A typical menu-engineering consultancy project.

9. What to send

For the £95 + VAT Triage: rough monthly sales, supplier spend, payroll and your standing costs. Screenshots, a bank app export or a scribbled list are all workable.

For the £395 + VAT Diagnostic: the current menu, your last four supplier invoices, a typical wage summary, and one month of takings split by day if you have it.

Commission the 48-Hour Profit Triage

Written report within 48 hours of your figures arriving. Credited in full against the £395 + VAT Diagnostic within 30 days.

Commission the Triage — £95 + VAT Run the free Profit Check first

This is a worked example prepared to show the structure and depth of the written report. The business, its figures and its menu are invented. It is not a client result, not a testimonial, and not advice for your business. MyProfit reports are independent economic and cost analysis: not statutory filing, public practice services, assurance work, legal, tax or regulated financial advice. Figures given as ranges are estimates of order of magnitude, not guarantees of recovery, and no saving or outcome is promised. All prices exclude VAT; VAT is charged at the prevailing UK rate and shown on your invoice. VAT registration: . ICO registration: .