What your restaurant’s average check shows

Prices went up 10%, and the month’s average check rose 12.93%. That alone does not justify keeping the new prices. In the example below, the average order of each type contributed more, but total contribution for the month fell.

The average check is revenue divided by the number of orders. It changes when guests pay more for the same dish, order more items or pricier ones, or when the mix of people ordering changes. The average does not tell you which happened. Contribution for the period shows whether the restaurant earned more after variable costs.

All figures describe a hypothetical restaurant and are in US dollars. Here, contribution means revenue minus all variable costs, not net profit. In this model, average check rose while monthly contribution declined.

Comparing two months

The restaurant sells takeout only. It has weekday orders for one person and evening orders for a group. There is no delivery, so the calculations exclude delivery fees and courier costs. Taxes are also outside the model: guests pay the amounts in the tables, card fees apply to those payments, and no tax on revenue is deducted. For your own restaurant, check which taxes are included in guest payments and the full amount subject to card fees.

	Orders	Average order amount	Revenue
Weekday	800	$20.00	$16,000.00
Evening	400	$50.00	$20,000.00
Total	1,200		$36,000.00

Average check for the first month: $36,000 / 1,200 = $30.00.

The owner then raised every menu price by 10%, leaving the dishes unchanged. The model assumes that some guests stopped ordering because of the increase: weekday orders fell 20%, and evening orders fell 10%.

	Orders	Average order amount	Revenue
Weekday	640	$22.00	$14,080.00
Evening	360	$55.00	$19,800.00
Total	1,000		$33,880.00

Average check for the second month: $33,880 / 1,000 = $33.88.

Before and after the increase:

	Before	After	Change
Average check	$30.00	$33.88	+12.93%
Revenue	$36,000.00	$33,880.00	−5.89%
Orders	1,200	1,000	−16.67%

The check rose more than prices did. Next, separate the price effect from the rest.

Breaking down growth in the average check

First, apply the new prices to last month’s order mix. This gives the check you would have had with the same proportions of weekday and evening orders:

(800 × 22 + 400 × 55) / 1,200 = $33.00

Every price rose by exactly 10%, so 30 × 1.1 gives the same answer. Price accounts for +$3.00 of the increase.

That leaves 33.88 − 33.00 = +$0.88 that the price change alone does not explain.

Growth in the check = check₀ × (price index − 1) + remainder

This is where the exact arithmetic ends: breaking down the remainder requires more than an order count. It can reflect different baskets within an order type, a change in the weekday-to-evening mix, or a shift between delivery and pickup. That last possibility applies to restaurants with delivery, not this example. You need each order’s type or channel and its basket contents. If price increases varied by item, use those records to calculate the price index too: price the previous period’s basket at the new prices.

In the model, the answer is known because it was built in: basket contents stayed unchanged within each type, so each type’s average order amount rose by the same 10%. The remainder came entirely from order mix. There were 160 fewer weekday orders and 40 fewer evening orders; the weekday share dropped from 66.7% to 64.0%.

With price calculated first, it accounts for 77% of the $3.88 increase and order mix for 23%. Basket size contributes nothing. Calculate order mix first instead, and the allocation changes to $0.80 for mix and $3.08 for price. Basket size still contributes zero.

What to calculate instead of the average check

To calculate contribution for the period, deduct variable costs from the same orders. Last month’s food cost was 32% of the order amount: $6.40 for weekday orders and $16.00 for evening orders. The model assumes food costs in dollars stayed unchanged after the price increase. This is a modeling assumption. Because prices rose, food cost became a smaller share of the check. Packaging costs $0.80 per order, and the assumed card fee is 3% of the guest’s payment.

Contribution per order	Weekday	Evening
Amount, before → after	$20.00 → $22.00	$50.00 → $55.00
Food cost	−$6.40	−$16.00
Packaging	−$0.80	−$0.80
Card fee, before → after	−$0.60 → −$0.66	−$1.50 → −$1.65
Contribution, before → after	$12.20 → $14.14	$31.70 → $36.55

	Contribution for the period
Before	$22,440.00
After	$22,207.60
Change	−$232.40 (−1.04%)

Contribution per order rose 15–16% within each type. Across all orders, average contribution rose about 19%, helped by the larger share of expensive evening orders. Monthly contribution still fell. At the previous order volume, the new prices would have added $3,492. Losing 200 orders, valued at the new prices, removed $3,724.40.

The result depends on how many orders the restaurant lost and which ones. With the same 1,000 orders split into 390 evening and 610 weekday orders, monthly contribution would have risen to $22,879.90. Average check and contribution per order describe an average order; contribution for the period covers the restaurant’s entire month. These measures can point in opposite directions. So decide whether to keep the new prices by contribution for the period; average check only suggests where to look.

A direct comparison between these months works only because the model attributes every change to price. A real restaurant also faces seasonal changes. To test prices, compare a subset of repriced items with unchanged items over the same weeks.

Three levers and how to test them

A restaurant affects its average check directly through price, basket size, and the free-delivery threshold. The effect of each depends on the restaurant, so test them on your own data.

Price

Repricing immediately changes the amount paid for orders containing those items. Its effect on order count is unknown in advance: orders fell in the model, but another restaurant may see no change. Comparing consecutive months mixes price with seasonality, marketing, and outside events, so it only shows where to look. For a more precise estimate, raise prices on some items and compare portions sold and contribution for the repriced and unchanged groups over the same weeks. Review both groups together: guests may switch from the repriced items to others. Even then, the result remains an estimate.

Basket size

An extra item or a larger size changes the order amount. An added item’s contribution is its price minus food cost and card fees; total contribution must account for all variable costs. With prices held constant, track items per order and the share of larger sizes. You need the contents of each basket to do this. Only your data can show how many guests choose an addition.

Free-delivery threshold

A threshold can raise or lower average check. If it is below the current average delivery check, new orders close to the threshold pull the average down. Removing a delivery fee also lowers the check if your report includes that fee in the order amount. Calculate the threshold’s contribution separately: comparing checks before and after does not tell you whether the threshold pays off. If delivery was previously paid, examine four groups:

• Existing delivery orders already above the threshold: no items are added, and you stop collecting the delivery fee.
• Existing delivery orders topped up to reach the threshold: you gain the added items’ contribution and lose the delivery fee.
• Former pickup orders switching to free delivery without being combined with other orders: there is no delivery fee to lose, but you now pay a courier. Add the contribution of any items bought to reach the threshold. Count each order only in this group.
• New orders placed specifically because delivery is free: calculate their contribution after deducting courier costs.

Handle combined orders separately, without counting them again in the second or third group. Compare the contribution of one order above the threshold with the total contribution of the smaller orders it replaces. Only previously paid delivery orders lose a fee; pickup orders had none. Packaging and a courier are now needed for one order. If every original order was for pickup, the courier is a new expense.

To assess the threshold, add up contribution changes across all groups and combined orders. Contribution from new orders and added items must cover the delivery fees lost in the first two groups and courier costs for orders switching from pickup. For combined orders, also account for changes in packaging and courier costs. Leave unchanged orders below the threshold out of the comparison: they still pay for delivery. The same calculation applies to delivery discount levels, except only part of the fee is lost.

You do not control order mix directly. It responds both to your decisions, including the price increase in this model, and to events outside the restaurant. Here, its change explains the remainder of the increase in average check.

What you can configure in Eatery Club™

Prices, dish contents, and modifications come from the POS. They are not edited in the admin panel, because synchronization would overwrite the changes. Get food costs for the contribution calculation from your POS or accounting system. The panel controls menu presentation and delivery zone terms; it also shows delivery statistics and lets you start order exports.

Create modification categories in the POS, then set their sequence in the panel. That sequence determines the order of options in the menu and cart (modification categories). For individual modifications, the panel provides active status, display order, and translations (modifications). Only basket data for comparable periods can show whether reordering options changes the share of orders with an add-on.

A product group puts separate products on one card, where guests switch between choices such as «Лате M», «Лате L», and «Лате XL» (Latte M, L, and XL). Create the group in the panel; it is not sent to the POS (product groups). Only your order data from before and after the change can show whether the card affects size selection.

The «Радіуси доставки» (delivery areas) row contains the default delivery fee, order amount for free delivery, minimum order amount, and delivery discount levels. Each amount threshold has its own discount percentage (delivery zones). If the restaurant uses a POS, the delivery service in this row must match the service set up in the POS. Otherwise, the panel and POS will show different delivery charges.

Where to get the data

«Статистика доставки» (delivery statistics) shows «Середній чек самовивезення» (average pickup check) and «Середній чек доставки» (average delivery check) separately. The number tiles have a period selector. The channel-share pie charts show an overall total without period selection (delivery statistics). When the two channels have different average checks, a shift in their shares changes the combined average even if baskets stay unchanged. Calculate each channel’s share for a specific month from orders, not these charts.

To analyze the remainder, you need each order’s type or channel and basket contents. Start an export in «Замовлення» (Orders). The completed file appears in «Експорт» (Export), along with its export type, such as «Замовлення» (Orders) or «Вартість замовлень» (Order value) (data export). Check the fields in your own file. If basket contents are missing, use the POS records, provided the system stores receipts by line item.

Use the POS for financial calculations and «Статистика доставки» for operational monitoring. The panel covers website, app, kiosk, and QR menu orders; the POS usually includes dine-in orders too. Revenue, order count, and average check must come from one source and cover the same channels. Otherwise, the calculation will not reconcile.

Monthly review

1. Put order count and average check in the same table. A higher check cannot be assessed without order volume.
2. Calculate the price index. With a uniform increase, the price component of check growth is known; with varying increases, reprice the previous period’s basket at current prices.
3. Calculate contribution for the period: it shows whether the restaurant earned more after variable costs. Use food costs in dollars, not as a percentage of the new selling price. Check taxes included in guest payments: exclude VAT, sales tax, and any other tax collected from guests from revenue, but calculate card fees on the full payment. Deduct any tax you pay on revenue as well. Contribution is not net profit.
4. Compare delivery and pickup checks separately, alongside each channel’s share for the month. Changes in those shares affect the combined average.

Use the price index to calculate the price component of check growth, then subtract that component from the total growth. The remainder can reflect basket size or order mix; you can separate their effects only with individual order records. If orders have also declined, calculate contribution for the period: it will show whether the restaurant earned more after variable costs.

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The Help Center documents menu, delivery zone, and statistics settings in Eatery Club.