What is table turnover?

Turnover (or table turns) counts how many parties each table serves in a meal period. The simple formula is the number of parties seated divided by the number of tables. A 20-table room that seats 50 parties at dinner turns 2.5 times. The related measure, turn time, is the average minutes from seating a party to the table being reset for the next one.

Turnover matters because a dining room has a fixed number of seats and hours. Two restaurants with the same average cheque can earn very different amounts if one turns tables twice a night and the other three times. But faster is not always better: fine dining deliberately turns slowly, and rushing guests lowers the cheque and the tips.

The practical ways to turn tables are mostly about removing waits that guests do not choose: seating parties promptly, getting the first order into the kitchen quickly, firing courses on time, bringing the bill as soon as it is asked for, taking payment at the table, and resetting quickly. Matching table sizes to party sizes also helps, since a couple at a six-top wastes four seats for the whole turn.

SeroPOS does not time table turns directly. It helps with the steps that slow them down: the Table Selection screen shows each table as Available, Occupied or Processing with its seat count and waiter, BILL prints the cheque and marks the table as processing, and orders go to the kitchen the moment they are held. The back office Table Report shows total sales per table, which you can divide by the parties you seated.