# Unit economics: profit, break-even and prices

Shipped · October 3, 2026 · 1.37.0 · Standards and recipes, Inventory, Assistant

A new Unit economics page adds rent, labor and card fees to what each drink costs, to show profit on a typical day, where it breaks even, and prices to try.

![Unit economics for a cafe: about $376 profit on a typical day, a bar showing where the $1,137 in sales goes, and break-even at about 153 sales a day.](https://handbook.company/marketing/updates/unit-economics-profit-break-even-and-prices.webp)

## What was asked for

The Menu already says what each size costs and keeps after its recipe, its cup and the extras given away. A shop pays for more than goods, though. Rent, wages, card fees and insurance come out of every day, and a drink that looks healthy on its own can still leave the day short. The ask was a page that adds all of it up: margins, the sales a day it takes to break even, and what prices should be.

## What the page shows

Unit economics sits under Operations, beside the Menu. It opens on a typical day: about how much profit it makes, what that comes to a month, and one bar showing where the money goes, from goods and card fees to labor, rent and what is left. Under it is break-even, the number of sales a day that covers every cost, drawn against the day you expect.

Further down, each sale is broken into its goods, its card fee and its share of rent and wages, down to the profit one sale makes. Every size is listed with what it keeps after goods and card fees. A what-if panel moves sales, prices or goods costs by a percent, and the whole page follows without saving anything.

## Your costs and a typical day

Rent and other costs are entered by the day, week, month or year. Wages go in as hours a week at an hourly rate, with a payroll percent on top, or as an amount. The card fee, the days you open and a profit goal sit beside them. A typical day is your estimate of how many of each size sell, typed in once and changed whenever it moves.

## Prices and free extras

From the profit goal and a typical day, the page works out how much of a sale goods can take, and names each size over it with a price to try, rounded up to the next quarter. Each one opens its item on the Menu, so a price is a tap away. Free extras, like oat milk given at no charge, are added up to what they cost a sale and a month, choice by choice.

## What the figures rest on

Every figure says what it rests on, at the top of the page. A size with no price or no cost yet is named and left out, never counted as zero. When something in a size has no price, its cost is the least it could be, so profit reads at most and break-even at least, with the size named. Until costs and a typical day are in, the page shows which step lights up which part.

## Who sees what

Unit economics comes with the Menu, so it needs Recipes and Inventory turned on.

- Owners and admins see the page and change its costs and typical day
- Staff never see it, since it works from wages, rent and what each size costs
- The assistant can say what is on the menu to anyone, and these figures to owners and admins
- The demo shows the page without changing it

## What comes next

The typical day is an estimate for now. Next is an import of the item sales reports a point of sale already produces, so the page can work from what actually sold.

## What people asked for

- Asked for labor, rent and every other cost on top of menu costs, to show margins, daily break-even and what prices should be.

Source: https://handbook.company/updates/unit-economics-profit-break-even-and-prices/

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