One hour a week, on the same day every week, is enough to run the business side of a small food business. In that hour you do five things: sort receipts, reconcile sales and cash, check what each product earned, update the costs that changed and plan next week. Anything you do not look at weekly you find out about late, after it has already cost you a month of profit.
Why one hour, always the same day
A review that waits until you have time never happens. Pick a quiet day and do it before you go shopping, because what you decide in the review changes your shopping list. Monday morning or Sunday evening works for a lot of people.
An hour is enough if you do it every week. Leave it for a month and you will need a whole afternoon, and half the receipts will be gone. The routine does not replace keeping your tax records; it is there so that you know, every week, whether the business is making you money.
The routine, block by block
1. Receipts and purchases (15 minutes)
Gather every receipt from the week: the wholesaler, the supermarket, packaging, gas. Record each purchase with date, item, quantity and price. If an ingredient went up, flag it; you will use it in block 4. Photograph every receipt and keep them in a folder by month. Thermal paper fades.
2. Sales and cash (15 minutes)
Write down how many units of each product you sold and through which channel. Then reconcile: your sales should match what came in by card, cash and bank transfer. If it does not, find the gap now, while you still remember the week. If business and household money are mixed, this block will show you quickly.
3. Margin by product and waste (10 minutes)
For each product, multiply units sold by its contribution margin (price minus variable cost). That shows which product earned you the most money, which is not always the one that sold the most. Also record what you made and did not sell, at cost: that is your waste for the week.
4. Costs that changed (10 minutes)
Look at the ingredients you flagged in block 1. If one went up enough to move your cost, recalculate the products that use it. You do not need to recost everything every week; only what changed.
5. Next week (10 minutes)
With all of that, decide how much of each product to make, write the shopping list and check what is pending: big orders, bills, and renewal dates for licences and registrations. The guide to permits and registration covers what belongs in the calendar.
Worked example: a week of brownies and granola
You sell brownies at $3.50 each and jars of granola at $9.00. The variable cost of a brownie is $1.30 and of a jar, $4.60. This week you baked 149 brownies.
Block 2, sales:
- Brownies: 140 × $3.50 = $490.00
- Granola: 30 × $9.00 = $270.00
- Total: $760.00
Payments in: $455.00 by card, $245.00 in cash and $60.00 by bank transfer. That is 455 + 245 + 60 = $760.00. It reconciles.
Block 3, margin and waste:
- Brownies: 140 × (3.50 − 1.30) = 140 × 2.20 = $308.00
- Granola: 30 × (9.00 − 4.60) = 30 × 4.40 = $132.00
- Total contribution: $440.00
- Waste: 149 − 140 = 9 brownies × $1.30 = $11.70
Block 4, costs: mixed nuts went from $18.00 to $22.00 per kg at the wholesaler. Each jar uses 0.12 kg. The jar now costs you 0.12 × 4.00 = $0.48 more: $5.08. Your margin per jar falls from $4.40 to $3.92. At 30 jars a week, that is 30 × 0.48 = $14.40 less per week, about $62 a month. Now you know there is a decision to make: raise the jar to $9.50, which would leave you 9.50 − 5.08 = $4.42, change the nut mix, or accept the smaller margin while the price is high.
Block 5, plan: you sold 140 of 149 brownies. Next week you bake 144 and keep granola at 30 jars.
The weekly sheet looks like this:
| Number | This week | Last week |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | $760.00 | $720.00 |
| Purchases | $310.00 | $285.00 |
| Contribution | $440.00 | $418.00 |
| Waste | $11.70 | $6.50 |
Four numbers, compared with the week before. If one moves a lot, that is your question for next week. This week, waste nearly doubled: worth checking whether your busiest day shifted.
Once a month, half an hour more
In the last week of each month, add up the four weeks and look for trends: whether contribution is rising or falling, which product is growing, how much went to waste in total. That is the moment for bigger decisions, such as dropping a product or changing channel. The guide on which numbers to track in your business covers which ones are worth following month to month and which are noise.
Where to record it
A notebook works if you always use it. A spreadsheet or an app does the sums for you and lets you compare weeks without flipping pages. The guide to digital tools for small food businesses covers what to move to digital first, and the operations guide shows how this routine fits with inventory and records.
Do it with the calculator
When block 4 tells you an ingredient went up, put the new price into the food cost calculator for each product that uses it, one at a time, and see in a minute how much its loaded cost and margin change.
Frequently asked questions
What day is best for the weekly review?
Your slowest day, and before you go shopping. For many small food businesses that is Monday morning or Sunday evening. What matters is that it is the same day every week, so it does not depend on how you feel.
What if I do not have an hour one week?
Do the first two blocks only: receipts and sales. Those are the ones you lose if you let them slide. The rest can catch up the following week.
Do I need an accountant for this?
Not for the weekly routine: it is for you to know how the business is doing. For tax returns and anything your tax office requires, ask an accountant or check your local tax rules.
Are this week's purchases the same as the cost of what I sold?
No. You might buy a sack of flour that lasts three weeks. Purchases tell you how much cash went out; cost of goods sold tells you what the things you sold cost you.