After service: how the day went

At eleven at night, with the last table gone and the chairs going up, the owner of the sample restaurant in this tour wants three answers before going home. Was it a good day? What sold? And what should be in the till? This tour reads all three from the Reports screen, set to today, in four stops.

Each stop is expanded below into what you look at, what the numbers mean and what you might do with them tomorrow. Then come tips, common mistakes and where to go next.

What does the top line of Reports tell you?

It gives you the day in one sentence: what was taken from served orders, how many orders that was, the average served order and the busiest hour. In the sample it reads: today, £2,681.90 from 73 served orders, an average served order of £36.74, and 13:00 as the busiest hour.

Underneath sit four period buttons: Today, Last 7 days, Last 30 days and Last 3 months. Tonight you stay on Today; on Monday morning you might look at the week.

Step by step

1. Open Reports and choose Today. The title line updates with takings, the order count, the average served order and the busiest hour. Read this first; everything else on the screen explains it.
2. Look at Busy hours. A bar for each hour shows how many orders were placed in it. In the sample, lunch climbs from 14 orders at 12:00 to 17 at 13:00, then drops to 6 at 14:00. The evening is steadier: 4, 9, 13 and 10 between 17:00 and 20:00. The busiest bar is coloured differently so you see it without reading numbers.
3. Read Best sellers. Dishes are ranked by portions sold, with cancelled orders left out. The chicken souvlaki leads with 29 portions, then moussaka with 22, halloumi salad with 17 and baklava with 15. A bar under each makes the gap easy to see.
4. Check How orders came in. This splits the day's orders by type. In the sample, 58 of the 73 were dine in (about 79%) and 15 were takeaway (about 21%).
5. Finish with Cash and card. A single bar splits the takings between the two. The sample shows £418.50 in cash and £2,263.40 on card. A short line underneath reminds you that takings count served and completed orders.
6. Use the cash figure for the drawer. £418.50 is the cash the till recorded. Add your opening float and you have what the drawer should hold before you count it. Our end-of-day cash-up guide walks through the count itself.
7. Make one note for tomorrow. Pick the single thing the report suggests: a dish to prep more of, a quiet hour to staff lighter, or a takeaway trend to watch.

What did the sample day look like?

A quick check that the figures agree: £418.50 plus £2,263.40 is £2,681.90, the takings in the title. And £2,681.90 divided by 73 orders gives the £36.74 average. When the numbers on one screen add up like this, you can trust them in a conversation with a partner or an accountant.

How do you turn the report into decisions?

Start with best sellers and stock. If 29 souvlaki went out on a Saturday, the chicken order for next Saturday needs to cover that plus a margin. If a dish keeps topping the list and is also the one you most often take off the menu mid-service, you are under-ordering it. The menu tour shows how switching a dish off works, and our guide to food cost percentage helps you check the best seller is also earning its place.

Then look at busy hours. A 13:00 peak with 17 orders and a 14:00 drop to 6 suggests a lunch shift that can end earlier for one person. A steady evening from 18:00 to 20:00 suggests the reverse: no single rush, but a longer stretch that needs cover throughout.

Finally, cash against card. In the sample, roughly one pound in six came in as cash. That is the money you physically handle, count and bank, so it is where small errors creep in. Knowing the figure before you count keeps the count honest.

Tips

• Read the report before you count the cash, not after. Know the expected figure, then count; the guide on cashing up explains why the order matters.
• Compare like with like. A Saturday against a Tuesday tells you nothing. Use Last 7 days to see each day in context.
• Watch the average order, not just takings. Takings rise with covers; the average rises when people order a starter or dessert. They need different fixes.
• Keep one line in a notebook. "Sat: souvlaki 29, peak 13:00, short on lemons" is enough. Over a month it becomes a planning tool.

Common mistakes

• Reading the report while orders are still open. Takings count served and completed orders. Run it after the last bill is paid, or the figure will be low.
• Treating best sellers as best earners. The most portions is not always the most profit. Cross-check against what each dish costs to make.
• Ignoring cancelled orders. They are left out of best sellers for a reason. If cancellations are frequent, find out why rather than letting the report hide them.
• Skipping the card check. The card figure is what the till recorded. Confirm it against the card terminal's own total before you close the day.

What should you do next?

If you have not seen the earlier stops of the restaurant's day, the lunch service tour and the evening orders tour show where these numbers come from. For the money side, cash flow for a small business explains why card takings and cash in the drawer arrive in your bank at different times, and how to run a restaurant puts this nightly review into a weekly routine.

How EasyTaskr helps

EasyTaskr's restaurant Reports show takings from served orders, the average order, busy hours, best sellers, how orders came in and cash against card, for today or a longer period. End-of-day closing then lets you cash up and lock the day. The restaurant and figures in this tour are sample data.