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Bar Profit Calculator
Use this free calculator to estimate your bar's daily profit and loss. Enter your sales figures, pour cost, labor rate, and fixed overhead to get an instant P&L breakdown — the same calculation bar owners use every night to know if they're in the black.
Calculator Inputs
Results
Enter your figures and click
"Calculate Profit" to see your P&L
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Bar Profit FAQ
What is a good profit margin for a bar?
A healthy bar profit margin typically falls between 10% and 15% of total sales. High-volume bars in prime locations can reach 20%+, while smaller neighborhood bars often land between 5% and 10%. The biggest lever is pour cost: keeping your cost of goods sold (COGS) below 25% of sales is the industry benchmark. Labor is typically the largest controllable cost, making scheduling efficiency critical to profitability.
How do you calculate bar profit?
Bar profit is calculated by subtracting all costs from total sales:
Pour Cost = Sales × (Pour Cost % ÷ 100)
Labor = Sales × (Labor % ÷ 100)
Daily Rent = Monthly Rent ÷ 30
Daily Utilities = Monthly Utilities ÷ 30
Profit = Sales − Pour Cost − Labor − Daily Rent − Daily Utilities
This calculator uses that exact formula. For a more complete picture, you'd also factor in insurance, merchant processing fees, marketing, and supply costs — but these four categories account for the majority of a bar's daily overhead.
What is pour cost?
Pour cost (also called cost of goods sold or COGS) is the ratio of what you paid for your alcohol and mixers to what you sold them for. It's calculated as:
Pour Cost % = (Cost of Goods) ÷ (Sales Revenue) × 100
Industry best practice is to keep pour cost under 20–25%. A pour cost above 30% is a red flag — it usually means over-pouring, theft, spoilage, or pricing that's too low. Tracking it nightly is one of the most effective ways to protect your bar's bottom line.