How to find money leaks in your restaurant: the 7-signal checklist

Seven signals, in the order of how fast they pay back. This is the exact set our agents read; you can check every one from data you already have.

1. Voids by name, not by store. Store void rate vs its peers, then broken out by employee and shift. Concentration by name is the tell. (Void Hunter)

2. The 3P gap. Blended-effective take rate per platform vs your contract rate — commission, ads, promos, refund chargebacks, DashPass premium all-in. This is routinely points of margin, not basis points. (3P Fee Finder)

3. Labor drift. Scheduled hours vs clocked hours, plus unbudgeted overtime and ghost shifts — the gap between the schedule you approved and the payroll you ran. (Labor Leak)

4. Tip variance. Week-over-week tip movement per name. A server whose tips fall 30% while the store's hold steady is telling you something about sections, shifts, or service — sometimes about the till. (Tip Variance)

5. Catering reconciliation. Invoice-vs-POS gaps on catering orders. Big tickets, loose process — catering leaks are small in count and large in dollars. (Catering Leak)

6. Vendor price drift. Same SKU, same vendor, price up 7% in a month while a competitor held. Nobody re-quotes mozzarella weekly; the drift compounds until someone looks. (Vendor Drift)

7. Pour variance. Beverage poured vs beverage sold. The bar is the oldest leak in the industry for a reason. (Beverage Score)

Most kitchens are carrying 2–4 points of recoverable cost across these seven. Every one of these agents runs free on a CSV export from Toast, Square, Clover, or PDQ at never86.ai/trial — 60 minutes, no card, and it names your stores and your line items, not hypotheticals.