Cloud Kitchen Startup & Break-Even Planner

About the Cloud Kitchen Startup & Break-Even Planner

Plan a delivery-only kitchen before you sign the lease. Enter what it costs to start — equipment, fit-out, the rent deposit, licences, technology, launch and opening stock — the monthly rent, staff and other costs, your average order and how fast orders grow, and what Swiggy, Zomato and your own orders each cost you in commission, payment fees, the GST on those fees, discounts, ads and delivery.

The planner works out what one order leaves you, the orders a day you need to break even, the first month with an operating profit, the money you need to start and keep going until the kitchen pays for itself, and the time to break even: the month in which what it has earned pays back everything it cost to start. A month-by-month plan, a chart and sensitivity tables show what moves the result most — the menu price, the orders you reach, the commission and the food cost — and the FSSAI fee follows the official fee schedule for your turnover.

Without a pass the result is a free preview: the time to break even in full, the first rows of each table, the chart as a watermarked picture and the business plan’s first pages with their figures hidden; every other figure, the business plan PDF, the monthly plan as CSV and Copy summary unlock with a Premium pass. Your plan is worked out in your browser, and keeping it here or as a plan file needs no pass.

Common uses

• Deciding whether a cloud kitchen idea pays back before signing a lease or buying equipment.
• Showing a partner, an investor or a landlord a plan with its numbers and assumptions.
• Comparing a location, a menu price or a channel mix side by side as saved plans.
• Setting the orders-a-day target the kitchen has to reach, and the money to keep in hand until it does.

How the plan is worked out

• One order, for each channel: net sales = menu value + packaging charged − your share of discounts; contribution = net sales − commission − payment fee − other platform fees − GST on those fees − ads − your own delivery − food (your food cost % of the menu value) − packaging − other costs. The average order weighs each channel by its share of orders.
• Each month: orders a day climb from the first month’s to your target over the months you choose (in equal steps, or slowly, then faster, then levelling off), then grow by your % a month. Contribution = orders × contribution an order; fixed costs = rent (rising each year by your %), staff (with yearly raises) and the other monthly costs; operating profit = contribution − fixed costs. Licences are renewed each year.
• Break-even: the orders a day to break even = fixed costs ÷ (contribution an order × days open). The time to break even is the first month in which the operating profits so far, less loan interest and renewals, have paid back everything spent to start (setup, FSSAI and, if you choose, the rent deposit).
• Money needed: the lowest point of the cash — what it cost to start plus the losses until the kitchen pays for itself — and the buffer of months of fixed costs you choose.

Swiggy, Zomato and your own orders

Platform commission is charged on the order value after the discount you fund; the payment fee comes on top; and the platform adds GST to both. Restaurant service is taxed at 5% only when no input tax credit is taken (Notification No. 46/2017–Central Tax (Rate)), so that GST is a cost. GST on the food itself is left out of sales: for delivery orders the platform pays it (section 9(5) of the CGST Act, Notification No. 17/2021–Central Tax (Rate)), and on your own orders you collect it and pay it on. The 0.1% TDS the platforms hold back is a tax credit you claim, not a cost. Your own orders save the commission but carry your delivery cost and marketing: the plan shows each channel’s contribution side by side. To check what a running kitchen is really paid, read its payout reports in the Swiggy & Zomato Payout & Profit Analyzer.

Licences and their fees

A food business needs FSSAI registration or a licence: registration (₹100 a year) up to a turnover of ₹12 lakh a year, and above it a State licence, ₹2,000 a year for food service businesses including restaurants; a business that operates in two or more States takes a Central licence (₹7,500 a year) — Schedule 3 of the FSS (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011. The planner picks the fee for the plan’s first-year turnover, and takes your own fee instead when you type one (a Central licence, another category); to see which licence fits your kitchen, use the FSSAI Licence Checker. Trade licences, shop and establishment registration and fire safety are set by your State and municipality, so enter their fees from your local office.

The business plan

The PDF has five parts: the summary with the time to break even, the money needed and one order by channel; the start-up budget and how the money needed adds up, with the loan if you take one; the month-by-month plan; the break-even chart with the three sensitivity tables; and every assumption, with the official figures and their sources. It is made on your device from what you entered.

Limitations

• Every figure is yours to enter: commission rates, rents, salaries and equipment prices differ by city and agreement, and the sample plan’s are only examples.
• Profits are operating profits before depreciation and income tax; a bank’s project report also needs them, for example from the Project Report Generator.
• Orders follow a smooth climb and steady growth; festivals, rain and the platforms’ ranking make real months uneven.
• The FSSAI fee follows the official fee schedule; other licence fees depend on your State and municipality.
• An estimate from your own figures, not financial advice.

Privacy

On this device: nothing is sent

The plan is worked out in your browser and never uploaded. What you type is kept in this browser’s storage so it is there next time, with the plans you save; a plan file goes only where you save it.