Decoding the “Revenue by Hour” Report on FABi Manager: The Key to Optimizing Business Performance

In today’s highly competitive F&B industry, understanding the hourly “pulse” of your business provides a significant advantage for restaurants and cafés. To evaluate business performance over time, the “Revenue by Hour” report on FABi Manager is one of the most powerful tools available. In this article, iPOS.vn helps restaurant owners leverage this data to accurately identify peak hours that generate the highest revenue, while also building effective demand-stimulating strategies for off-peak periods—turning challenges into opportunities for revenue growth.

1. Identifying Peak Hours and Off-Peak Hours Through the “Revenue by Hour” Chart

Understanding your restaurant’s business rhythm is essential to optimizing revenue and operations. The “Revenue by Hour” report provides a clear, data-driven view of how your business performs throughout the day.

On the FABi Manager application, owners can easily access this report without manual bookkeeping or guesswork. The data is automatically aggregated in real time from sales recorded on the iPOS FABi POS system. Owners can flexibly select and compare different time ranges—by day, week, or month—for deeper analysis.

The report visualizes revenue through an intuitive chart. Peaks on the chart represent “golden hours”—periods when customer traffic and revenue reach their highest levels.

Troughs indicate off-peak hours, when both traffic and revenue tend to decline.

Analyzing this chart allows you not only to identify common peak times such as lunch (11:00–13:00) or dinner (18:00–20:00), but also to discover unique peak hours specific to your restaurant—along with time slots that require targeted revenue-optimization strategies.

2. Peak Hours: Maximizing Revenue Growth Potential

Once peak hours are identified, the next step is to fully capitalize on these opportunities. These are the moments when your restaurant needs to operate at maximum efficiency.

Below are three key recommendations from iPOS.vn to help maximize growth potential:

2.1. Strengthen Staffing During Peak Hours

High customer volume and rapid table turnover require sufficient staffing levels—front-of-house staff, kitchen staff/baristas, and cashiers. Staff shortages during peak hours can increase wait times, reduce service quality, and directly result in lost revenue.

Owners should plan work shifts and staffing levels carefully to ensure efficiency while avoiding unnecessary labor costs.

2.2. Optimize Service and Kitchen Workflows

Having enough staff is not enough if workflows remain inefficient. Peak-hour operations demand speed and coordination. Restaurant owners should focus on shortening service stages such as ordering, food preparation, and payment.

• For prepaid models, select POS devices that fit the counter layout and aesthetics, with large screens, smooth touch response, and stable connectivity to ensure fast operation.
• For table-service models, prioritize compact devices such as PDAs or digital table menus, allowing customers to place orders independently.

In the kitchen, depending on restaurant scale, owners may implement a Kitchen Display System (KDS) to send orders directly to the kitchen, reducing staff movement and minimizing errors.

The ultimate goal is to maximize table turnover while maintaining food quality and service standards.

2.3. Menu Management and Ingredient Preparation

Use other detailed reports in FABi Manager, such as best-selling items or order logs, to identify the most popular dishes during peak hours. Based on this insight, ensure sufficient ingredient preparation and pre-processing before peak periods.

A highly effective strategy during peak hours is to introduce combo or set menus.
These reduce customer decision time, make ordering easier for staff, and help kitchens and bars operate more efficiently.

3. Off-Peak Hours: Turning Challenges into Demand-Generating Opportunities

Off-peak hours are often a concern for restaurant owners. However, with the right strategy, they can become valuable opportunities to stimulate demand and increase revenue.

3.1. Flexible Promotional Programs

Offer promotions exclusively during off-peak hours, such as:

• Drink “Happy Hour”

• Buy-one-get-one-free offers

• Limited-time discounts

These incentives encourage customers to visit during quieter periods and help maximize service capacity.

3.2. Develop Specialized Off-Peak Menus

Restaurants with strong peak-hour traffic may consider introducing menus designed specifically for off-peak times, such as:

• Brunch menus

• Afternoon snack sets

This gives customers a reason to visit outside traditional meal times.

3.3.Host Small Events or Experience-Based Activities

Owners can use their restaurant space to host workshops, mini sports screenings, film nights, or community gatherings.

These activities not only attract customers during off-peak hours but also strengthen brand awareness and emotional connection.

3.4. Optimize Staff Utilization

Off-peak hours should not mean idle staff. Instead, employees can:

• Receive training

• Prepare ingredients for peak hours

• Perform maintenance and cleaning tasks

This approach ensures time and labor are used efficiently.

4. Conclusion: Make Data-Driven Decisions, Not Just Intuitive Ones

In an increasingly competitive F&B environment, relying solely on intuition and experience is no longer sufficient. With the “Revenue by Hour” report in FABi Manager, restaurant owners gain a powerful data-driven advantage.

The ability to accurately identify peak and off-peak hours—combined with flexible time-based comparisons—provides deep insights into business performance. From this data, owners can make informed, strategic decisions that drive revenue growth and build a sustainable development roadmap grounded in accurate, scientific analysis.