8 Restaurant Expenses You Should Always Track in Ireland

Running a restaurant in Ireland means juggling rising food prices, wage expectations, and shifting customer habits, all while keeping your business profitable. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the eight most common restaurant expenses in Ireland and how to get better visibility and control over them.

1. Food and Beverage Costs

Your food and beverage spend is one of your biggest monthly outgoings. From seasonal vegetables to house wine, tracking ingredient prices over time helps you stay ahead of margin creep. Smart operators in Ireland are turning to invoice automation tools to keep a running tally of costs and spot inflation patterns early.

Once you’ve nailed ingredient-level tracking, you can move on to recipe and plate costing — critical steps for calculating your cost of goods sold (COGS).

Toast Tip: There’s no “perfect” food cost percentage. While the Irish average hovers around 30%, your ideal figure depends on your concept, pricing model, and supplier agreements.

According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, 85% of Irish diners say rising food costs have directly influenced menu pricing. Transparency matters, too — over 58% of guests say they want more visibility into portion sizes and value.

2. Labour Costs

Wages, holiday pay, employer PRSI, and training time all add up — especially in Ireland’s competitive labour market.

While you can calculate labour as a percentage of sales or hourly cost, the key is consistency. Most Irish operators spend around 15% of their total sales on staff wages.

To keep things under control, many restaurateurs are investing in digital scheduling software and Toast’s labour tracking tools to optimise shift patterns, reduce overtime, and support employee retention.

According to the Toast Voice of the Restaurant Industry in Ireland, managing staff rotas is now one of the top challenges for operators, alongside payroll and onboarding.

3. Non-Food Supplies

Takeaway packaging, cleaning supplies, uniforms — these non-food items often fly under the radar but can account for a significant monthly expense. Compostable containers, branded paper bags, and eco-friendly cutlery are now standard for Irish restaurants offering delivery or collection.

Modern restaurants are including packaging in their plate costing calculations to ensure it’s priced into each order and not eating into their margins.

4. Equipment and Maintenance

From espresso machines to extraction hoods, kitchen and FOH equipment inevitably needs repair or replacement. Irish restaurants are encouraged to set aside a monthly reserve fund for emergency breakdowns and to schedule preventive maintenance where possible.

Operators using Toast’s Kitchen Display Systems (KDS) and handheld ordering tech report fewer bottlenecks and less downtime — and staff can spend more time serving guests.

5. Rent and Occupancy Costs

Whether you’re paying rent on a premises in Dublin’s city centre or a rural pub in Clare, occupancy costs — including business rates, cleaning, and repairs — form a substantial monthly line item. Toast’s Ireland report shows that operators typically allocate 10% of their monthly budget to this category.

Don’t forget to review lease agreements annually and assess opportunities to renegotiate terms or reclaim VAT on commercial rents where applicable.

6. Utilities

Electricity, gas, water, broadband — they all keep your business running. These fixed or semi-fixed costs are easier to manage when you track them over time. Many Irish operators opt for balanced billing plans to spread out high-usage winter months.

According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, where 200 Irish diners were surveyed about restaurant pricing and value, 51.5% believe rent and utilities are the single biggest cost challenge for restaurants today.

7. Marketing

Billboards may be out, but targeted digital ads, email campaigns, and loyalty rewards are very much in. Many Irish restaurateurs now include Instagram influencer fees and paid ads in their monthly spend.

The good news? 81% of Irish guests say loyalty rewards would make them more forgiving of higher prices.

Investing in a CRM or loyalty platform can help you get more value from every marketing euro.

8. Technology Systems

POS systems, inventory software, scheduling apps, and accounting tools — tech isn’t optional anymore. On average, Irish restaurants now spend around 10% of their monthly budget on technology.

Toast’s own research shows that restaurants using all-in-one tech systems are better positioned to:

• Reduce admin time

• Avoid lost tickets or miscommunications

• Improve guest turn times and table turnover

Fixed vs Variable Costs

Some expenses, like rent and internet, stay consistent month to month. Others — like produce costs or overtime — fluctuate. Group your monthly expenses into fixed and variable categories so you can plan cash flow and monitor profitability more effectively.

According to our consumer preferences survey, 74% of Irish consumers say they’d be more understanding of higher prices if they understood restaurants’ break-even challenges.

Final Thoughts

With food costs still climbing and customers expecting more for their money, you can't afford to wing it anymore.

The good news? When you actually get your spending sorted and invest in the right people and tools, running your restaurant becomes a whole lot less stressful. You'll stop losing sleep over whether you can make rent next month and start focusing on what you got into this business for in the first place.