Who writes this
The Owner's Notebook is a free library of guides, worksheets and calculators for people who run independent restaurants. It is published from Evansville, Indiana by Jason Dicken.
Jason Dicken
Restaurant operator and software builder
Jason built and sold Cobblestone Creamery, an independent shop in Evansville, and spent three years as a VP at SCORE, the SBA-affiliated small-business mentoring network. He now builds restaurant software, including the point-of-sale system that funds this site.
The guides here start from the numbers an owner actually looks at: food cost, labor cost, prime cost, break-even. Most of them ship with the spreadsheet that goes with the math, because a formula you cannot put your own numbers into is a formula you will not use.
Everything on this site is free. There is no paywall, no sign-up wall, and no email required to download a worksheet.
What's in the notebook
239 guides across 8 sections, and 240 free downloads. The sections are:
- Food Cost & Inventory
- Labor & Scheduling
- Menu & Pricing
- Marketing & Customers
- Operations
- Finance & Accounting
- Opening a Restaurant
- Technology & POS
How this site works
How the guides are produced, how the site is paid for, and what it does not claim to be are all set out in the editorial policy.
Still paying $470+/mo for your POS?
The Notebook is free because Cobblestone POS pays for it - a free, all-in-one POS for independent restaurants with AI assistant, online ordering, scheduling and loyalty included.