Covers & Revenue Forecast Calculator
Covers and revenue forecast calculator for restaurants, pubs and bars. Turn seat count, table turns, occupancy and average spend into weekly, monthly and annual revenue - plus the money you're losing to empty seats.
Venue
Service
Optional benchmarks
Opportunity scenarios
More bums on seats. More money in the till. Now you can see exactly how much.
- Occupancy +5%£10,010.88 / month
- Occupancy +10%£20,021.76 / month
- One extra table turn per service£32,535.36 / month
- Average spend +£2£8,133.84 / month
- Average spend +£5£20,334.60 / month
Increasing average occupancy from 65.00% to 75.00% could generate an additional £20,021.76 per month.
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What to work out next
All calculators →About this calculator
More bums on seats. More money in the till. Now you can see exactly how much. This calculator turns your seat count, table-turn time, service length and average spend into a full revenue forecast - weekly, monthly and annual - and shows the money you're leaving on the table with every empty seat.
Model lunch and dinner separately or as one combined service, then test the impact of pushing occupancy up 5 or 10 points, adding a table turn, or nudging average spend by £2 or £5.
Formula: Max covers per service = Seats × (Service hours × 60 ÷ Turn minutes). Expected covers = Max × Occupancy %. Revenue = Expected covers × Average spend.
What this calculator does
Turns seat count, table turns, occupancy and average spend into a covers and revenue forecast for the night, week, month and year - and shows what the empty seats are costing you.
Who it is for
- Operators building a budget or a business plan.
- Managers setting realistic session targets for the team.
- Anyone assessing whether a site's capacity can support its rent.
How to use it
- Enter your seat count and the length of the trading session.
- Enter your average dining duration to get the number of table turns available.
- Enter the occupancy you realistically achieve, and your average spend per cover net of VAT.
- Review the forecast and the opportunity scenarios for higher occupancy or spend.
The formula
- Turns available = Session length in minutes / Average dining duration in minutes
- Maximum covers = Seats x Turns available
- Forecast covers = Maximum covers x Occupancy%
- Revenue = Forecast covers x Average net spend
Worked example
A 60-seat restaurant, a four-hour dinner service, a 90-minute average dining time, 65% occupancy and a £28.00 net average spend, trading six nights a week.
- Turns = 240 minutes / 90 = 2.67
- Maximum covers = 60 x 2.67 = 160
- Forecast covers = 160 x 65% = 104 per night
- Revenue = 104 x £28.00 = £2,912 a night, or £17,472 a week
104 covers and £2,912 a night. Each percentage point of occupancy is worth about £45 a night, or £14,000 a year across six nights.
How to read your result
- Maximum covers is a theoretical ceiling. No restaurant fills every seat on every turn, so treat 100% occupancy as impossible rather than aspirational.
- Dining duration is the lever most operators forget. Cutting an average 90-minute turn to 80 minutes adds capacity without adding a single seat.
- A small rise in average spend is usually easier to achieve than the same rise in covers, and it costs nothing in extra service.
What to do next
- Compare the forecast against your break-even covers to see how much headroom the site has.
- Stagger booking slots so turns line up with your actual dining duration.
- Test one specific spend driver - an aperitif, a side, a dessert - and remeasure after four weeks.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using gross average spend, which overstates revenue by a sixth on standard-rated sales.
- Assuming table sizes always match party sizes; a two-person booking on a four-top costs you two seats for the turn.
- Forecasting from a peak week rather than a representative one.
Assumptions and limitations
- Assumes even demand across the session; in reality bookings cluster around peak times.
- Does not model walk-ins, bar trade or seasonality unless you adjust occupancy yourself.
Dumb Bambi provides general business information, not accounting, tax or legal advice. Read our calculation methodology or tell us about a mistake.
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Keep going with these tools
- Break-Even Calculator - How many units you need to sell to break even.
- Labour Cost per Cover Calculator - Labour % of sales, per cover and per trading hour.
- No Show Cost Calculator - Monthly and annual revenue lost to no-shows.
Frequently asked questions
What occupancy should I aim for?+
60–70% is healthy for casual restaurants across a full week. Peak services often exceed 90%; quiet Mondays drag the average down.
How do I work out my table-turn time?+
Divide total covers by the number of tables used in a service, then divide service length by that number. Most casual venues sit at 75–100 minutes; fine dining runs 120+.
Is the annual revenue realistic?+
It assumes 52 trading weeks with your current occupancy. Discount for closures, holidays and seasonality if you need a conservative view.
Why include revenue lost to empty seats?+
It reframes marketing spend. If you're losing £6,000 a month to empty covers, spending £500 on a promotion to fill them is an easy yes.