The manager's day, week and month: running the numbers

Degree and diploma programmes in hospitality management are built on the same four modules: food and beverage operations, cost control and finance, people and law, and safety. What they teach is a routine, because a venue is run by whoever keeps the routine when it's busy. This course is that routine, compressed. Meyer's version of it is 'constant gentle pressure': the manager's job is to notice the small drift every hour and correct it without drama.

1. Open: walk the building (fire exits, lights, toilets, temperature logs, cellar alarm), count floats, check bookings and allergies, brief the team in five minutes.
2. Trade: one lap of the room every thirty minutes; taste one dish and one drink per service; fix the small thing now.
3. HACCP records: fridge and freezer temperatures twice daily, cooking and hot-holding temperatures, deliveries checked and logged, cleaning schedule signed. Inspectors ask for the records before they look at the kitchen.
4. Close: cash-up by till and by person, card totals reconciled, tips recorded for the Tips Act statement, wastage logged, kitchen isolated, building secured.
5. Flash report before you leave: sales (net of VAT), covers, average spend, labour cost and labour %, any incident. Five lines, every night, same format.

• Wage % = total staff cost (pay + employer PRSI + holiday accrual) ÷ net sales. Set your band and hold it; one hour over the PRSI line is the commonest leak.
• Food GP% and drink GP% from a weekly stock count: opening + purchases − closing = cost of sales. Draught, spirits, wine and food each get their own line.
• Wastage and comps as a % of sales. If it isn't logged it isn't managed.
• Publish next week's rota early, with the forecast beside it, and compare forecast to actual every Monday.

Read the P&L in this order: net sales → cost of sales → gross profit → labour → contribution → occupancy (rent, rates, insurance, energy) and overheads → operating profit. Know your break-even: fixed costs ÷ gross margin %. A venue with €40,000 of monthly fixed costs at 68% blended GP breaks even at €58,824 net sales a month, about €1,960 a day on a thirty-day month. Every pricing and rostering decision is a decision about that number. Bord Bia's 2025 report puts it bluntly: the market grew 5% in euros while footfall stayed flat and menu prices sat 26% above 2020, so growth comes from margin discipline and share, not from a rising tide.

Meyer's hiring rule: technical skill is the 49% you can teach; warmth, curiosity, work ethic, empathy, self-awareness and integrity are the 51% you can't. Interview for stories, not claims. Then train relentlessly on the 49%: the courses on this site are free so you can assign one a week. Induct properly (contracts, the tips policy, fire exits, allergens, the cellar rules) before the first shift, not after. Keep a training file per person; it is the first thing the WRC, the HSA and the insurer ask for.