Owner Math
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For restaurants

Before you open, buy or change a restaurant, know its math.

You have a lease to sign, a restaurant to buy, or one to run, and a spreadsheet with blanks in it. The rent cell is empty, so the sheet counts it as zero, and a rent of zero makes any restaurant look great. Owner Math builds your month from the menu up and shows the math on every line. A cost you have not given stays a dash, not a zero.

Open the free demo Paid once, yours for good

The demo is free, with no account and no card. It is built for a laptop. On a phone you can read your numbers, but build the model on a computer.

Italian restaurant example

70 seats · one steady month · the same math as the app, running in your browser

Menu prices

Pre-tax profit, per month

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How it adds up

  1. Working out the example…
Example numbers, each one labelled in the app. Open the demo to swap in your own.

§ 01 — Start, buy or run

One tool for every stage of your restaurant.

Start a restaurant
Model it before you sign a lease. Build the menu, the staff, the rent and the loans, and see the monthly profit, break-even and payback.
Buy a restaurant
Check the seller's numbers before you pay. Add their spreadsheets and answer a few plain questions. You see what the business really earns for you and whether it can carry the loan.
Run your restaurant
Each month, add your real sales and costs and see them next to the plan. Before you change something, try it first: a new hire, food costs going up, new menu prices or a rent increase.

§ 02 — Why this exists

Built by an owner who had to guess.

Our founder bought an Italian restaurant. He did not know what his costs were. He did not know what his staff really cost once the payroll taxes the law adds were in. He did not know what his menu needed to charge, or if he was making a profit at all.

Owner Math is the tool he wished he had on day one. You start with the thing you already know, your menu. You end with the numbers nobody hands you.

§ 03 — From menu to profit

Four steps, and you can see every one.

Start from an example, a Mexican restaurant or an Italian restaurant, or start from a blank page.

  1. 01

    Start with the menu.

    Build each dish from its ingredients. You get the plate cost, the food cost % and a suggested price. Then your menu is sorted into Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles and Dogs. You see what to push, what to fix and what to cut.

    Menu engineering chart for the Italian restaurant example. Each dish is a dot by popularity and margin. Seven are Stars, seven are Plowhorses, and none are Puzzles or Dogs.

  2. 02

    Add your staff.

    Pick each role, the pay and the hours. You see what one hour of each person really costs you. That means their pay plus the employer taxes the law requires: Social Security, Medicare, FUTA and state unemployment. Workers' comp and benefits go in too. Florida rates are filled in.

    True cost per hour by role in the Italian restaurant example. A chef paid $27.44 an hour costs $30.80 once taxes, workers' comp and benefits are added.

  3. 03

    Rent or own, and every bill.

    Lease the space or buy the building with a mortgage. Add insurance, utilities, phone, your POS and every other bill. Each cost shows its tax benefit next to it.

  4. 04

    See the profit.

    You get a monthly profit and loss, the guests you need each day to break even, your payback time and a 60-month cash plan. Turn on "Show the math" and every line shows how it was worked out.

§ 04 — The dash rule

If we don't know a number, you see a dash.

Most plans fill a gap with a guess, or count it as zero. A rent of zero makes any restaurant look great. We leave the gap open. It is marked missing, it is listed, and we tell you where to fill it in.

The numbers we do fill in are marked too. A value tagged "example" is a placeholder for your own quote. A rate with a short code, like B9, comes from a named source you can check.

Try it at the top of the page: tick "I don't have a rent quote yet" and watch the profit turn into a dash.

A Missing inputs panel from the app. Three inputs are marked missing, each with a link to where you fill it in. Until then, every amount that uses them shows a dash.

§ 05 — After you open

Keep your plan next to the real month.

Demo mode
Plan before you open. Change any number as often as you like, right up to opening day, and keep tweaking each month after.
Live mode
Once you are open, enter each month's real sales and costs. You see them next to your plan, line by line.
What if?
Hire or let go of someone, with the employer payroll taxes counted. Raise menu prices or change one dish. Ingredient costs go up 8%. The landlord asks for more rent. See what each one does to profit, break-even and payback. Then apply it, or undo it.
More locations
Add as many sites as you run, at no extra cost. Each one copies your base model, so you change only what is different, like the rent or how busy it will be.
Bring your own AI agent
Connect the AI you already use, like Claude or ChatGPT. It reads your real months, finds where profit leaks, and tests fixes with the same What if? math, payroll taxes included. It cannot change your plan by itself. Every change it suggests waits for you to approve it, and you can undo it. It comes with lifetime access, at no extra cost. How to connect it, and what it cannot do.

§ 06 — Taxes and your CPA

Know what is due, and hand your CPA a clean draft.

Planning estimate — not tax advice. Your CPA reviews and files.

Quarterly taxes

One calendar with every payment due. It covers your 1040-ES estimates with the safe harbor, Form 941 payroll, FUTA (Form 940), and Florida's RT-6 and DR-15.

No tax on tips or overtime

The new federal law (OBBBA) lets workers deduct tips and overtime from 2025 to 2028. We show what that may be worth to your staff and to you, and what you still owe as the employer. The rules we follow are in IRS Notice 2025-69.

What the business is worth

Three ways a buyer might price it: a multiple of SDE, a multiple of EBITDA, and an asset floor. Each one is a range, with the math.

The CPA handoff

Your plan laid out the way the forms ask for it, line by line: Schedule C, 1120-S, 1120, 1065 and more. Get a PDF marked DRAFT, a CSV file, or a share link.

Tax calendar for 2026 in the Mexican restaurant example. One lane each for the 1040-ES estimates, Form 941, FUTA, Florida RT-6 and Florida sales tax. Estimates that need a missing input show a dash. Which forms apply, from the CPA handoff. Forms 4562, 941, 940, W-2 and W-3, 1099-NEC, 8846, 8027, Florida RT-6 and DR-15 apply. Schedule C, 1120-S, 1065 and 1120 wait until a business type is set.

§ 07 — Pricing

Pay once. Yours for good.

No subscription. No monthly bill. One payment gets you everything, for every restaurant you have, for as long as you want it.

Free demo

For looking hard before you leap.

$0

No account. No card.

Open the free demo
  • The examples, and a full model of one location
  • Demo mode, with the math on every line
  • Saved in your browser, on this computer
  • Export and import your model as a file

Lifetime access

Restaurants

For starting, buying or running your own restaurant.

$199once

One payment. Nothing billed again. 30-day money-back guarantee, until you export a finished packet.

  • Start: your own restaurant, saved to your account, on any computer
  • Buy: check a seller's spreadsheets and what the business earns for you
  • Run: Live mode, each month's real numbers next to your plan
  • What if? A new hire, food costs going up, new menu prices, rent
  • Any number of locations and models
  • Taxes, valuation, and packets for your bank and your CPA
  • Bring your own AI agent: it checks your numbers and suggests changes, and you approve each one
  • Every future update

Both products

For an owner with a restaurant and another kind of business, or both in mind.

$299once

Restaurants and Business together, for less than two. Same 30-day money-back rule.

  • Everything in both products
  • Any number of locations of each
  • One license key for both

Already own Owner Math for Business? Add this one for $100, paid once. Sign in and add it from your account.

After you pay, we email you a license key. Paste it into the app to sign in. Not right for you? Email us within 30 days of buying and we refund the full amount, unless you have exported a finished packet (CPA, lender, investor or filing). Exporting one ends the refund window. If you refund an add-on, only that product is removed. See Refunds. Had an account before? Sign in first so your saved models come back.

§ 08 — Questions

Straight answers.

Is this tax advice?

No. It is a planning estimate. Every tax rate shows its year and its source, and you can change any of them. Your CPA reviews and files.

Where is my data kept?

In the free demo, your model is stored in your browser, on this computer. It is not sent to our server. With lifetime access, your models are also saved to your account, so you can open them on any computer. You can export a file at any time.

Does it work on my phone?

It is built for a laptop or desktop. On a phone you can read your numbers, but building a model needs a bigger screen and a keyboard.

What kinds of business does it fit?

This page is for restaurants: one you plan to open, one you plan to buy, or one you run now. Start from the Mexican or the Italian restaurant example, or start blank. For a salon, a shop, a trade or an office, see Owner Math for Business.

Does it work outside Florida?

Florida is filled in, including its payroll taxes and the RT-6 and DR-15 filings. Some other states have rates loaded. For a state we have not checked, a rate shows as missing until you enter it. We never slip in a guess.

Is it really one payment?

Yes. You pay once and keep everything for good: every feature, every location and every update. There is no subscription, and we never bill you again.

What if it is not right for me?

Email us within 30 days of buying and we refund the full amount, unless you have already exported a finished packet. Exporting one ends the refund window.

How do I sign in?

After you pay, we email you a license key. Paste it into the app to sign in. Lost it? Use "Lost your key?" in the sign-in box and we will email it again.

What does a second location cost?

Nothing more. Lifetime access covers as many locations as you have.

Does it run payroll or do my books?

No. It is a planning tool. It does not pay anyone, file anything or replace your POS or your bookkeeping.

Run the numbers tonight, before you sign, buy or change a thing.

Open the free demo Paid once, yours for good