What ran three units from memory is buckling at eight. Prime cost has drifted two points, and nobody can say where: by the time the number moves, the drift has usually run two months. We have run groups through this stretch on a monthly audit of every unit, walked and scored from the landscaping to the grease trap.
The controls break in the same places: a schedule posted late, invoices entered at month-end, comps nobody reviews at close, a pre-shift run without a plan.
The closing manager’s flash each night names who opened, who ran the mid-shift and who closed, and the kitchen’s opener and closer, so a comp or an overtime hour has an owner by the next pre-shift.
Tell us what’s breaking.
Bring last period’s P&L and a week of schedules.
Book a call with Jon (opens in a new tab)Start with an install
Each install builds one system in your units: the shift checklist and the daily grade, the food-cost read, or the labor model. This engagement adds the monthly audit across every unit, the period P&L reviews and the reset plan for a unit that slips.
The audit runs during service, and lost dollars get their own line.
The audit is walked during a live shift: the steps of service timed at three tables, five server greets heard, a line check with the GM and chef, and a taste plate.
Beside prime cost, one more number gets totaled every P&L period, unit by unit: the money lost to unapproved overtime, comps, cash short and spend over plan. It is counted on its own, so a saving on another line cannot hide it.
Example scope of work
Examples of what the scope can include; yours is written to the problem you bring.
The audit
- Operating baseline by unit: prime cost, cost of goods against theoretical, labor, restaurant-level profit and turnover, with each missing control listed.
- Monthly audit on one form: people, facilities, financials, service and kitchen, every item marked in line or an opportunity, and every opportunity given an action plan.
- Beverage audit on the same cycle: the back bar, batches against the written recipe, and pour accuracy.
- In-house health inspection: the chef and GM score the unit monthly on the health department’s own weighted form.
Every night and every week
- Areas of responsibility by role: the systems the GM, service, bar and kitchen managers each own, reported on at the weekly manager meeting.
- Nightly flash to leadership and the next pre-shift: sales against last year by daypart, guests and check average, labor and overtime, comps and voids, and a written reason for any swing.
- Weekly GM recap: one page to the director of operations ahead of the weekly ops review, with sales and why they moved, comps by reason, cost of goods against theoretical by category, and labor and overtime.
- Declining budget for controllables: each line set from the period’s projected sales and spent down week by week, every invoice logged against what remains.
Every period
- P&L resolution file: every questioned ledger line answered by accounting and misposted costs moved, before any GM is asked to manage to the number.
- Period P&L review per unit: the lost-dollars total, every variance given its cause in writing down to a late vendor bill, and a what, who and when list that opens the next one.
- Unit report card: every unit graded against plan on sales, cost of goods, labor, profit, guest and mystery-shop scores, in four bands with the trend.
The director of operations
- Director of operations calendar: an audit in each unit, dinner shifts including weekends, inventories counted beside the managers, and a daily call to each unit.
- Reset plan for a unit that slips: every action written by area of responsibility with an owner, a date and a status, read weekly until it closes.
How it runs: a standing weekly call with your managers. Your director of operations walks the audits after a working session with us, and we are on site where a unit needs it.
Fees are set by the scope and the value of the outcome, agreed before the work starts, with any time on site built in, never by the hour, the day or the visit.
The order of the work
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 01 | The audit comes first, before any system changes |
| 02 | The lowest-scoring units on the audit get the flash, the weekly recap and a reset plan before the rest |
| 03 | Your director of operations runs the weekly ops review with the GMs; we check each unit’s what, who and when alongside them |
| 04 | The rest of the group follows once the first units’ reset plans close |
| 05 | Done when the weekly ops review runs on schedule without us |
If this is the problem, bring it.
The call works out where the fix starts.
Book a call with Jon (opens in a new tab)Further reading
When a busy restaurant still isn’t making moneyCommon questions
How often will we see progress during an engagement?
Will managers push back on a monthly audit?
Will you force one standard on every unit?
Who runs it
RANGE was founded by Jon Peck, who spent twenty years running multi-unit restaurant groups: eight brands built and scaled, twelve openings across six concepts in three years, and more than $100 million of annual P&L owned.