The 5 coffee shop numbers to check every morning

You don't need a dashboard with 40 charts. Five numbers, checked the same way every morning, tell you almost everything.

1. Net sales (versus the same day last week)

Compare Tuesday to last Tuesday, not to Monday. Weather and events explain a lot. A drop for three weeks running is a real signal.

2. Labor %

Labor cost / net sales. Many cafes start with a target around 25 to 35% and tune it to their own data.

3. Discounts and comps %

Discounts plus comps / gross sales. Under about 3 to 5% is a common starting point. A spike often means a promo, a new barista being generous, or a register habit worth a conversation.

4. Average ticket

Net sales / orders. This is the cleanest way to see whether upsells, pastry pairing or a price change is working. Watch the trend week over week.

5. Waste

Pastries, milk and drinks tossed, in dollars. Even a rough nightly count on a clipboard shows which items to bake or order less of.

A 2-minute routine

• Export yesterday's sales summary and labor report from your POS.
• Paste them into your AI assistant with your targets.
• Ask for 3 lines: what's off, why it might be, and one thing to do today.

Make it automatic

Numbers by Nine for Cafes turns this into a daily brief that lands before you open, set up for Toast, Square or Clover. Get the kit or start with 5 free prompts.