Restaurant business plan: free template and the numbers lenders check

You have the site, the menu and the name, and the bank wants a business plan. The loan officer will skip to two numbers: how much of your own money goes in, and whether the restaurant's cash covers the loan payments with room to spare.

A restaurant business plan has the eight sections the SBA lists (executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, menu and service, marketing and sales, funding request, financial projections). For an SBA 7(a) loan, a start-up must put in at least 10% of total project cost, and its projections must show cash flow covering loan payments at least 1.10 times for loans of $350,000 or less, or 1.15 times for larger loans. This guide gives you the template, the lender tests, 2024 industry medians and what SBA loans to restaurant start-ups actually looked like in fiscal 2026. Last checked: 4 November 2026.

What sections does a restaurant business plan need?

The U.S. Small Business Administration's guide to writing a business plan describes two formats: a traditional plan and a one-page lean startup plan. Lenders commonly ask for the traditional one. Here is what each section means for a restaurant:

The SBA says to forecast five years, and to make the first year more granular, by quarter or even by month. For a restaurant, use monthly: cash is tightest in the opening months, and a quarterly total hides the month you run short.

What numbers do lenders check in a restaurant business plan?

Lenders want to see the loan repaid even if sales come in below plan. For SBA 7(a) loans the rules are in the SBA's lending rulebook, SOP 50 10 8.1, which applies to loans numbered from 1 October 2026:

• Equity. A start-up (trading for a year or less) must inject at least 10% of total project costs: "all costs required to become operational, regardless of the source of funds".
• Debt service coverage. Operating cash flow (EBITDA, with some lender adjustments) divided by all business loan payments, including the new loan. For a Standard 7(a) loan (over $350,000) it must be at least 1.15, and a start-up's projections must reach 1.15 within two years of funding. For a 7(a) Small loan ($350,000 or less) the floor is 1.10, reached within one year.
• Credit and ability to repay. The SBA's 7(a) page adds that the business must be creditworthy and unable to get the credit on reasonable terms elsewhere.

Those are minimums; your lender can ask for more. 7(a) loans go up to $5 million. For small amounts, SBA microloans go up to $50,000 (average about $13,000), at rates generally 8% to 13%.

Turn the rules into a test before you send the plan:

Check with your lender or an SBA resource partner for your situation.

What do SBA loans to new restaurants look like?

A typical SBA loan to an independent full-service start-up in fiscal 2026 was $350,000 over 10 years at a variable 9.25%. That is our analysis of the SBA's 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan data (as of 30 September 2026), for 7(a) loans approved in fiscal 2026 to businesses marked "Startup, Loan Funds will Open Business", excluding franchises:

Some loans also buy the building: 19% of the full-service loans run 20 years or more. For how big the whole project usually is, see how much it costs to open a restaurant.

The same data shows how start-up loans end. We took every 7(a) loan approved in fiscal 2010 to 2014 (old enough that only 1% to 4% are still open) and counted those the SBA has since charged off, meaning written off after default:

Loans approved before the 2012 NAICS revision are counted under the matching 2007 codes (722110, 722211 and 722213). Full-service start-up loans that failed did so a median 5.1 years after approval, so the risk does not end after year one. About 85% of start-up loans were repaid in full, but start-up loans were charged off about twice as often as loans to established restaurants. That is why lenders lean on equity, coverage and your own experience.

What benchmarks should your restaurant financials use?

Use the National Restaurant Association's 2024 medians from its 2025 Restaurant Operations Data Abstract, which the NRA says are not a standard or goal, so use them as a check on your assumptions. For full-service restaurants: food and nonalcoholic beverage cost 32.0% of sales, payroll and benefits 36.5%, occupancy 5.7% and pre-tax income 2.8% (4.0% for limited-service). The table, sources and what each ratio means are in our US restaurant profit margin guide; here is how to use them in a plan.

Adding the full-service food and payroll medians gives about 68.5%, our arithmetic rather than an NRA figure; the only prime cost median the NRA has published is 65%, for limited-service. A full-service plan showing prime cost well below 65% needs an explanation. Scale helps: the NRA reported that full-service restaurants with $2 million or more in sales ran a 31.0% food cost and 4.3% pre-tax income, against 33.7% and 1.1% below $2 million (16 October 2025).

Worked example: a $1.2 million full-service P&L

Here is a first-year P&L built on the NRA medians. It is illustrative: each line is a median, not the result of one real restaurant.

Break-even. The SBA's break-even formula is fixed costs divided by (price minus variable costs). In sales dollars:

• Variable costs: food at 32% plus card fees at about 3% = 35% of sales, so each dollar of sales contributes 65 cents.
• Fixed costs a month: payroll $36,500 + occupancy $5,700 + everything else except card fees ($20,000) = $62,200.
• Break-even sales: $62,200 / 0.65 = $95,692 a month, about $1.15 million a year, only 4% below plan.

Treating all payroll as fixed is a simplification, so run it with your own schedule. If servers are paid a tipped cash wage, our guide to the tip credit shows how to model it.

Debt service coverage. Borrow $350,000, the fiscal 2026 median, over 10 years at 9.25%. The payment is $4,481 a month, or $53,774 a year. Lenders work from EBITDA, so add back what the P&L already deducted: about $31,400 of first-year interest on this loan, and depreciation, which we assume at $40,000 ($400,000 of build-out and equipment over 10 years). EBITDA is about $105,000, and coverage is $105,000 / $53,774 = 1.95. It passes.

Now apply the tests from the table above:

The lesson: each dollar of lost sales takes 65 cents of EBITDA with it, so at median margins a 10% miss wipes out the cover. To pass, the plan needs a smaller loan, more equity, or a margin story the lender believes. Your lender sets the rate, term and adjustments, so ask how they calculate it.

Equity. If the total project costs $500,000, a 10% injection is $50,000 of your own money, before any reserve your lender asks for. Our cost to open a restaurant guide builds the project total, including working capital and a contingency.

Stress test. The NRA's analysis of 8 July 2026 found total expenses for an average restaurant rose 36% from 2019 to 2026, and its example restaurant needs 29% more sales than in 2019 to break even. Show the lender your plan at 85% and 70% of forecast sales, with what you would cut at each level.

How do you build the 12-month cash flow?

Cash flow is different from profit. It counts when money moves: loan drawdowns, equipment payments, deposits, sales tax collected and paid. A profitable restaurant can still run out of cash in month three.

Build sales from covers, not from a target: covers per service, times average check, times services open. Show a ramp over the first months, and say what it is based on.

Copy this layout into a spreadsheet, one column per month:

12-MONTH CASH FLOW                     Pre-open  M1  M2  M3 ... M12  Total
Cash at start of month
CASH IN
  Owner equity
  Loan drawdown
  Food sales (covers x average check)
  Beverage sales
  Sales tax collected
  Gift card sales
CASH OUT
  Build-out and equipment
  Food and beverage purchases
  Payroll, payroll taxes and benefits
  Rent, common area charges, property tax
  Utilities
  Insurance
  Card processing fees
  Software and card reader rental
  Marketing
  Repairs and maintenance
  Sales tax paid to the state
  Loan payments (principal and interest)
  Owner draw
Net cash for the month
Cash at end of month
EBITDA for the month / loan payments for the month = coverage

Keep the minimum "cash at end of month" visible. If it goes below one month of fixed costs, the plan needs more reserve or a slower opening. Gift card sales are cash in but not yet revenue; our restaurant gift cards guide explains why.

Restaurant business plan template

Copy this outline into a document and fill in the brackets. Keep the main plan readable in one sitting and move detail into appendices.

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (1 page)
   Concept: [cuisine, service style, average check $]
   Location: [address, square feet, seats]
   Opening: [month, year]
   Total project cost: $[ ]  Your equity: $[ ] ([ ]%)  Loan requested: $[ ]
   Year-one sales: $[ ]  Break-even month: [ ]  Debt service coverage: [ ]

2. COMPANY DESCRIPTION
   Legal entity, owners and ownership split
   Why this concept, why this neighborhood

3. MARKET ANALYSIS
   Who lives, works and passes by: [counts, sources]
   Competing restaurants within [ ] miles: name, price point, busy times
   Your position: [what you do that they do not]

4. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT
   Owners, chef, general manager: experience and role
   Opening team and hours per role

5. MENU AND SERVICE
   Sample menu with prices and food cost % per dish
   Hours, service style, covers per service

6. MARKETING AND SALES
   Pre-opening plan, reservations, delivery, events, regulars

7. FUNDING REQUEST
   Uses of funds table (build-out, equipment, working capital, contingency)
   Sources of funds (equity, loan, other)
   Loan terms assumed: amount, rate, term, fixed or variable

8. FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS
   Sales forecast: covers x average check, by month
   Year-one P&L by month, years two to five annually
   12-month cash flow
   Break-even sales and month
   Debt service coverage: at plan, at 90% of sales, with rate +2 points
   Sensitivity: sales at 85% and 70% of plan, and what you would cut

APPENDICES
   Resumes, lease or letter of intent, menu, floor plan, quotes, permits

Name a source and date for every assumption. "Food cost 32%: NRA 2025 Restaurant Operations Data Abstract, 2024 median, full-service" is far stronger than "food cost 30%". To price dishes, use the menu price calculator and the food cost calculator.

What should the risk section say?

Be direct, and use real numbers. The often-repeated claim that 90% of restaurants fail in year one is not supported by government data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Business Employment Dynamics, table 7 tracks accommodation and food services establishments (a wider group than restaurants). Of those that opened in 2016, 90.3% were still open after one year, 80.9% after two, 59.6% after five and 42.9% after ten. The SBA charge-off table above adds the lender's view: more than one full-service start-up loan in ten was written off.

Then show what you will watch each week (sales, prime cost, cash, coverage) and what you will do if a number slips. A coffee concept has different numbers, covered in our coffee shop business plan. UK owners should use our UK restaurant business plan.

Can TablePort handle this for you?

TablePort fits your plan as a monthly operating cost rather than an upfront purchase.

1. Add one software line. US list prices, per location a month before sales tax: POS Starter $59, Reservations $59, Staff $59, and a card reader rental at $12. Plans are month to month; cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid month, with no cancellation fee.
2. Plan labor against sales. The rota (staff schedule) shows wage cost against sales, with FLSA, California and New York presets.
3. Compare actuals with the plan. The daily report gives you sales and an AI-written summary with margin recommendations each day.

The honest limit: TablePort does not write your business plan or lend money. Card processing and metered usage are extra. See pricing.