# Prime cost

Prime Cost puts each day's sales next to its labor cost and theoretical food cost, and shows the share of sales each one takes. Web app, admins by default.

For: Admins · On: Web · [Help Center](https://www.mays.app/help) › [Reports & insights](https://www.mays.app/help/reports-insights) · Last updated October 5, 2026 · Mays Team

Prime cost is what you spend on labor and food. **Insights → Prime Cost** puts both next to your sales, day by day, and shows the share of sales each one takes.

**Who:** admins. Anyone else needs a custom role with the **View insights** permission, and then sees only the locations they work at. See [Roles and permissions](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/roles-and-permissions). Insights is part of every plan, on the web app only.

**What it needs:**

- **Sales** from a connected POS: [Square](https://www.mays.app/help/integrations/connect-square) or [Union POS](https://www.mays.app/help/integrations/connect-union-pos).
- **Labor** from the time clock: finished punches, and a wage on each person or position. See [Positions and wages](https://www.mays.app/help/scheduling/positions-and-wages).
- **Food cost** from inventory: the items you sell mapped to recipes, and a cost on each ingredient. See [POS mapping and automatic depletion](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/pos-mapping-and-depletion). Inventory is part of the Pro plan.

## Open Prime Cost

1. Go to **Insights → Prime Cost**.
2. Click the date button to change the dates. The page starts on the last 14 days, today included. Pick **Last 7 days**, **Last 14 days**, **Last 30 days**, **This month** or **Last month**. Or set **From** and **To** and click **Apply**.
3. Choose **Day**, **Week** or **Month** for the columns.
4. Under **Filter data → Branches**, tick the locations you want. The page opens on the location picked at the bottom of the sidebar. Tick **Select all** to see every location together.

![The Prime Cost page for South from Sep 11 to Sep 23, by day: the chart Labor %, Food %, and Prime Cost % of Revenue with Labor % in green, Food % stacked on top in amber and the Prime Cost % line around 48–65%, the table below with Revenue, Labor Cost, Theoretical COGS, Invoice Spend, Labor %, Food % and Prime Cost % for each day, and Filter data on the right with South ticked under Branches](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__prime-cost__01-prime-cost.e0ad7bb305.png)

In the chart, **Labor %** (green) and **Food %** (amber) are stacked, so the top of the amber band is your prime cost. The black line is **Prime Cost %**. Hover over a day to see its numbers.

## What each row means

| Row | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| **Revenue** | Net sales from your POS: what the items sold for after discounts, without tax, tips or service charges. Canceled and voided orders don't count. |
| **Labor Cost** | Hours from finished time clock punches, times each person's hourly wage, plus overtime. People on a weekly salary add a seventh of their salary for every day. |
| **Theoretical COGS** | The cost of goods your sales should have used: what your recipes say each sale takes, at each ingredient's cost. |
| **Invoice Spend** | What your posted vendor invoices came to. It's there to compare with, and isn't part of any percentage. |
| **Labor %** | Labor Cost ÷ Revenue. |
| **Food %** | Theoretical COGS ÷ Revenue. |
| **Prime Cost %** | (Labor Cost + Theoretical COGS) ÷ Revenue. |

**Total**, at the end of the table, covers the whole date range. A percentage shows **—** on a day with no sales.

**Which wage:** the one saved on the punch when it was made. If the punch has none, Mays uses the person's hourly wage, then their wage for that position, then the position's default wage. Overtime (weekly, daily, double time and 7th-day) is added on top, priced the same way as the pay summary: by your overtime settings in **Scheduling → Settings** and, with Labor law compliance's **Overtime law** on at a location, by the law at its address where it's more protective (see [Labor & compliance](https://www.mays.app/help/time-clock/labor-compliance)). Payroll taxes and benefits aren't included.

## Costs by category

Below the table, two cards split the costs by the category of each inventory item:

- **Theoretical Usage by Category:** the Theoretical COGS.
- **Invoiced Spend by Category:** the Invoice Spend. Invoice lines that aren't matched to an item are **Uncategorized**.

![The Prime Cost table and, below it, the two cards: Theoretical Usage by Category (Dairy & alternatives, Coffee & tea, Bakery, Produce, Packaging, Syrups) and Invoiced Spend by Category (Dairy & alternatives, Coffee & tea, Packaging), each with a dollar total](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__prime-cost__02-cost-by-category.84346a4748.png)

## Good to know

- **Food cost is theoretical.** It comes from sales and recipes, not from stock counts, so waste and over-portioning don't show here. To see those, compare with counts on [Theoretical vs actual usage](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/theoretical-vs-actual-usage).
- **Only mapped sales count toward food cost.** A menu item that isn't mapped to a recipe adds nothing. With no items mapped, **Food %** reads **0.0%**.
- **Food cost shows up the next morning.** Mays works out what recipes used overnight, so today's **Theoretical COGS**, **Food %** and **Prime Cost %** stay low until then.
- **Food % covers everything your recipes use,** including drinks and packaging like cups and lids, divided by all your sales.
- **Revenue can be higher than your POS's net sales.** Refunds aren't taken off, and Square orders that are still open, such as unpaid online orders, are counted.
- **Days are each location's own days,** in its time zone. Weeks run Monday to Sunday.
- **There's no export.** To get these numbers by email each week or month, schedule a **Prime Cost** report. See [Alerts and scheduled reports](https://www.mays.app/help/reports-insights/alerts-and-scheduled-reports).
- **The filters hide on narrow screens.** If you don't see **Filter data**, make the window wider.
- **The schedule's Labor % won't match.** The **Labor %** on the schedule builder compares *scheduled* labor with Square payments, tax included. Insights uses hours actually worked and net sales from Square or Union.

## Related articles

- Reports & insights: [Labor cost insights](https://www.mays.app/help/reports-insights/labor-cost-insights) — Labor Cost compares staffing with sales hour by hour, scheduled hours with hours worked, and tracks labor cost as a share of sales over time. Web app, admins by default.
- Reports & insights: [Vendor spend](https://www.mays.app/help/reports-insights/vendor-spend) — Vendor Spend totals what you spent with each vendor from posted invoices, shows it by week, month or quarter, and flags items whose price moved. Web app, admins by default.
- Reports & insights: [Alerts and scheduled reports](https://www.mays.app/help/reports-insights/alerts-and-scheduled-reports) — Get a notification when labor runs hot, a vendor raises a price or a form reading is out of range, and have a labor, prime cost or vendor spend summary emailed every week or month.
- Inventory: [POS mapping and automatic depletion](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/pos-mapping-and-depletion) — Map each item you sell in Square or Union to a recipe, and every night Mays takes that recipe's ingredients out of stock for what you sold.
- Inventory: [Recipes and plate costing](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/recipes-and-costing) — A recipe lists what goes into one menu item. Mays prices each ingredient from your vendor prices and shows the plate's cost, cost % and margin.
- Inventory: [Theoretical vs actual usage](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/theoretical-vs-actual-usage) — Compare what your sales say you used with what you actually used. The Theoretical page shows each ingredient's deliveries, waste, transfers and recipe use.
- Scheduling: [Positions and wages](https://www.mays.app/help/scheduling/positions-and-wages) — Create the jobs people work — Barista, Cashier, Line Cook — with a colour and a default hourly wage, give people their positions and pay, and see where Mays uses them.
- Integrations: [Connecting Square](https://www.mays.app/help/integrations/connect-square) — Connect each store's Square account so Mays gets its sales, payments, tips and refunds, sold-out items and team. Admins and managers can connect; one Square location per Mays location.
- Integrations: [Connecting Union POS](https://www.mays.app/help/integrations/connect-union-pos) — Connect a store's Union POS with the API key and client ID from Union, and Mays brings in its sales every 10 minutes. One client ID covers one venue and one Mays location.
- Team & roles: [Roles and permissions](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/roles-and-permissions) — What the built-in Admin, Manager and Employee roles can do, how location access works, and how to build a custom role from individual permissions.

## Still need help?

Send us a support request and a real person on the Mays team will get back to you.

[Contact support](https://www.mays.app/contact?topic=support) · [Call +1 (561) 286-3939](tel:+15612863939)

Canonical: https://www.mays.app/help/reports-insights/prime-cost