CHECKLIST
Weekly Close Checklist
About fifty minutes each Monday, and the venue runs on numbers four days old at most. Hospitality moves too fast for a monthly close: the week is the natural unit, one menu cycle, one rota, one delivery pattern, and restaurants that close monthly are steering a fast car by the rear-view mirror.
- Five sections, seventeen checks, fifty minutes a week
- The five Monday numbers, each from a free tool on this hub
- Ends with one written decision, or it was a scrapbook
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Who this checklist is for
Owners and managers who currently find out how the month went when the month is over, and want the same information every Monday for the price of a coffee’s worth of time.
You find out about bad weeks at the month end
By then the rota that caused it has run three more times. The five numbers, takings against last week and last year, food and drink GP from the counts, labour percentage on ex-VAT sales, the cash position, and wastage in pounds, put the problem on the desk while the week that caused it is still warm and the next week’s rota is still changeable.
Your numbers exist but never in the same place
The checklist is the assembly line: seven signed cash-ups feed the takings line, the stock count feeds the GP tracker, the rota planner’s plan meets the hours actually worked, the bank balance lands on the 13-week forecast’s actuals row, and the tips pass to the tronc records. Each piece exists in a tool; Monday is where they meet.
Your reviews end with nodding
The last section is the discipline that separates a close from a scrapbook: one decision, written down, every week. A price, a portion, a rota change, a supplier conversation. The look-ahead reads bookings against last year and rolls the cash forecast one week, so the decision is about next week rather than an inquest into last.
FACTS
The five numbers, named
Takings with both comparisons, because seasonality lies to one of them. Food and drink GP earned from counts, not purchases. Labour with on-costs in and VAT out, the honest convention. Cash on the real bank balance. Wastage in pounds, from the log, because the number is always worse than the guess.
17 checks
Five sections, one Monday hour
4 days
The oldest any number gets before it reaches the desk
FACTS
Why weekly beats monthly in this trade
A GP point on the demo venue’s food is £7,523 a year, and a point lost in week one of a month costs four weeks before a monthly close even notices. The weekly rhythm catches it at one: same-night cash variances, same-week GP drift, and a labour percentage read against the rota that is still a plan. Monthly numbers are for the accountant; weekly numbers are for running the place.