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Insights on running your cafe on your own numbers.
Running a Cafe by the Numbers: The Operator's Guide
Most cafe guides are staffing pitches in disguise. Here is the operator version: count what you use, cost every drink, and order from your data.
Sep 2, 2026·6 min read
A Square Inventory Template for Your Coffee Shop
Build your count sheet on the columns Square already exports, so your counts line up with your catalog instead of living in a second, separate vocabulary.
Sep 2, 2026·7 min read
Square Recipes and Modifiers: The Tracking Gap
Square Recipes deducts the base recipe and stops there. Every milk swap rides in as a modifier, uncounted, and my own oat order shows what that does.
Sep 2, 2026·6 min read
Square Variations Not Tracking Inventory: A Fix
Your item tracks stock and its variations sit at zero. Four checks that find the cause, in the order they take, plus the catalog trap I walked into.
Sep 2, 2026·6 min read
Why Cafes Fail: The Numbers Behind the Closures
The 90 percent first-year failure stat is folklore. Here is what the actual closure research says, and the ordinary arithmetic that closes a cafe.
Sep 2, 2026·6 min read
A Coffee Shop Inventory Spreadsheet and Count Sheet
A coffee shop inventory spreadsheet built for a real 60-item cafe: beans, milk, matcha, pastries, in walk order, with the columns that make it usable.
Jul 24, 2026·8 min read
The Honest Coffee Shop Food Cost Percentage
Most cafes calculate food cost from this month's invoices over this month's sales. That number swings with your ordering, not your bar. Here is the honest way.
Jul 24, 2026·7 min read
Does a Cafe Need Inventory Software Beyond Square?
Square records the sale, not the milk that left the fridge. An honest test for whether your cafe has outgrown it, and when the answer is still no.
Jul 24, 2026·7 min read
Why Your Coffee Shop Inventory Doesn't Match
You counted, and the number is off. In a cafe the mismatch usually hides in the milk swaps your register never subtracted, not in theft or bad counts.
Jul 24, 2026·6 min read
A Coffee Shop Recipe Costing Template That Works
Most costing templates cost one drink as you typed it. Here is how to build a cafe sheet that handles milk swaps, extra shots, and your real mix.
Jul 24, 2026·6 min read
Revenue Per Labor Hour: A Coffee Shop Benchmark
The revenue per labor hour benchmark you find online is folklore, and even a real one hides your two worst hours. Here is how to compute your own from Square.
Jul 24, 2026·6 min read
Coffee Shop Sales Patterns by Day of the Week
Your busiest day barely tells you what to order. In a cafe the weekday that matters is the one whose drink mix burns a different shelf. Read the curve.
Jul 24, 2026·6 min read
Delegating the Cafe Inventory Count to Staff
Handing the count to your manager is not a trust problem, it is a verification one. Every count gets a name on it and checks itself against what Square sold.
Jul 24, 2026·6 min read
How Much Milk Does a Coffee Shop Use? Find Yours
The gallons-per-week averages you find online describe a cafe that isn't yours. Your real milk number lives in your Square sales, split by drink and by day.
Jul 24, 2026·8 min read
What AI Demand Forecasting Really Does for a Cafe
A vendor says 97 percent accurate and never shows the math. In a cafe the forecast is real, but the model matters least. One deleted modifier proves it.
Jul 24, 2026·6 min read