Glossary

Average check

Average check is total sales divided by the number of covers, showing how much each guest spends on average.

How average check works

Divide sales by covers for a given period and you have the average check, sometimes called average spend per head. It reveals whether guests are ordering appetizers, drinks, and dessert or stopping at a single entree.

Menu layout, upselling, and add-on prompts all move this number, which is why a small lift in average check across thousands of covers compounds into meaningful revenue.

Example

A cafe serves 300 covers and rings $5,400 in a day, an $18 average check. Adding a prompted pastry or second coffee that raises it to $20 yields an extra $600 a day on the same traffic.

See also

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