Skai Solutions priced the four lines most cafe opening estimates leave out, and the first month of wages alone is A$19,094 for a four person roster at Restaurant Award minimums plus 12% super.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for Australian and New Zealand venues, so we talk to operators in their first eight weeks more than most people do, and the shortfall is almost never the fit out. It is the bond, the stock float, the first payroll and, since July 2026, the super that no longer waits a quarter. Every figure below comes from Fair Work, the ATO, the ABS or a government lease scheme, read on 27 October 2026.
There is no single number, because the fit out swings more than everything else combined and the fit out depends on what the last tenant left behind. What we can do is price the lines that estimates leave out, because that is where new operators run short. The build is the number everybody asks about. The bond, the opening stock, the first month of wages and the super that now leaves on every payday are the numbers that decide whether you get to month four.
So treat the build as one of five buckets, not as the answer:
A security bond is the line most first time operators treat as a formality. It is usually the single largest cheque after the build, it buys you nothing, and you cannot spend it.
The New South Wales rule is worth knowing even if you are leasing elsewhere, because almost no startup guide mentions it. Under the NSW retail lease rules, a cash bond must be deposited by the landlord or agent with the NSW Government's Retail Bond Scheme within 20 business days of receipt, and the scheme holds the money in trust. The landlord must give you a receipt. The security itself may be "a fixed amount or an amount equal to a certain number of months' rent", and it is negotiable.
Two things that page does not say, and we will not invent: it publishes no typical bond figure, so treat "three months is standard" as a rumour rather than a rule, and it states no penalty for a landlord who lodges late. What it does tell you is where to look if a bond goes missing at the end of a lease, which is not the landlord's account. Outgoings are a separate question again and they are on our commercial lease outgoings page.
Price it off your own forecast turnover and the ATO's published benchmark rather than off a supplier's minimum order. The ATO Small Business Benchmarks for coffee shops, built from 2023-24 tax returns and last updated 16 March 2026, put cost of sales at 35% to 41% of turnover for a cafe in the A$250,001 to A$600,000 band, with an average of 38%.
Our arithmetic on that benchmark, so you can substitute your own numbers: a cafe forecasting A$400,000 in year one is forecasting about A$152,000 of cost of sales at the 38% average, which is roughly A$2,920 a week of stock. Two weeks of float plus an opening fill is therefore in the A$5,000 to A$7,000 range for a cafe of that size, before any equipment. That is a far smaller number than most people fear and a far larger one than most people budget, because they budget the first order and not the float. The same benchmark is how we build food cost percentage, so use the two together.
Handle the benchmark honestly. It is cost of sales from lodged returns, not an audited food cost, and the ATO says a business outside the range is not automatically wrong.
This is the line that gets left out entirely, because people assume the till funds the roster from week one. It does not. Here is the arithmetic, and it is ours, from the published award rates in the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide for the Restaurant Industry Award MA000119, applying from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.
Take a modest four person full time roster: one Level 5 supervisor at A$1,189.40 a week, one Level 3 cook at A$1,062.90, and two Level 1 food and beverage attendants at A$1,004.90 each. That is A$4,262.10 a week, or A$17,048.40 for four weeks. Add superannuation at the general guarantee rate of 12.00% and the four weeks costs A$19,094.21. Those are minimums, before a single penalty rate, and weekend trade pushes it up. The classification detail is on our hospitality award pay levels page.
Now the part that changed this year. From 1 July 2026, under payday super, employers must pay the super guarantee on each payday rather than quarterly, and it is calculated on qualifying earnings rather than ordinary time earnings. The practical effect on an opening budget is direct: the first quarter of super used to sit in your account as an accidental float, and on our arithmetic above that float was about A$6,100 on a four person roster. It is gone. Anyone working off a pre 2026 opening budget is short by roughly that amount in the first three months.
No, and this is measurable rather than a matter of opinion. The ABS Producer Price Indexes output series for non-residential building construction rose 3.3% in the year to June 2025 and 4.4% in the year to June 2026. Compounding those two, which is our arithmetic on the ABS figures, gives 1.033 x 1.044 = 1.0784, so about 7.8% over two years.
A fit out scope costed in the June quarter of 2024 is understated by roughly 7.8% at June 2026 prices before anybody changes the scope. If you are working from a friend's numbers, or from a build they did two years ago, that is the escalation to apply. Scope it honestly: the index measures construction output prices only. Never apply it to rent, to wages or to food.
The honest answer by category rather than a pep talk. If the total of the five buckets above leaves you with less than about eight weeks of operating cost in reserve after opening day, the sensible move is to wait, or to take a smaller site, or to buy an existing trading business instead of building one. The reason is in the ABS data rather than in our opinion: of the 18,340 accommodation and food services businesses that started in 2022-23, 50.4% were still operating at June 2026, measured in ABS Counts of Australian Businesses released 18 August 2026. That is slightly better than the all industry figure of 49.2%, and it still means half.
The number that matters more than the opening total is the one on our restaurant break even point page, because the opening cost is a single event and break even is a weekly test. Our restaurant failure rate page has the rest of the survival data if you want to read it straight.
One figure we have deliberately left out: there is no published Australian benchmark for a cafe security bond, and no Tier A source for what a cafe actually pays in rent per square metre by suburb. We will not put a number on either. Ask two agents and a neighbouring tenant.
In the first eight weeks the phone rings more than it ever will again, and it rings with the calls that are worth the most: where are you, are you open yet, can you do twelve on Saturday, do you do gluten free. Every one of those goes unanswered in a venue where the only two people on are both on the floor, which is exactly how a new cafe is staffed.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for Australian and New Zealand venues so that the opening weeks do not quietly cost you the bookings that would have paid for them. Hours, location, bookings and the obvious menu questions get handled while you work. Setup takes five days.
How much does it cost to open a small cafe in Australia?
There is no single figure, because the fit out dominates and depends on what the previous tenant left. Price it as five buckets instead: the build, licences and council registration, the lease bond, opening stock, and working capital. Advertised rates for a standard cafe build were A$2,000 to A$3,500 a square metre in September 2026, and a basic refit of an existing food premises A$1,500 to A$3,000.
What costs do people forget when opening a cafe?
Four of them, and they are the ones that cause a cash shortfall rather than a budget overrun: the lease bond, which is capital you cannot spend; the opening stock float as opposed to the first order; the first month of wages before takings cover the roster; and, since 1 July 2026, superannuation on every payday rather than quarterly.
How much is the first month of wages for a cafe?
On our arithmetic from the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide for the Restaurant Industry Award MA000119, applying from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, a four person full time roster of one Level 5 supervisor, one Level 3 cook and two Level 1 attendants is A$4,262.10 a week, so A$17,048.40 for four weeks, or A$19,094.21 with superannuation at 12.00%. That is minimums with no penalty rates.
Does payday super change what it costs to open a cafe?
Yes, for cash flow rather than for total cost. From 1 July 2026 employers must pay the super guarantee on each payday rather than quarterly, calculated on qualifying earnings. The first quarter of super used to sit in the bank as an accidental float. On the four person roster above that was about A$6,100, and an opening budget written before 2026 is short by roughly that much in the first three months.
Who holds a retail lease bond in New South Wales?
The NSW Government does. A cash bond must be deposited by the landlord or agent with the NSW Government's Retail Bond Scheme within 20 business days of receipt, the scheme holds it in trust, and the landlord must give the tenant a receipt. The published guidance gives no typical bond amount and no penalty for late lodgement, so treat any number you are quoted as negotiable.
How much opening stock does a cafe need?
Work it from forecast turnover. The ATO Small Business Benchmarks for coffee shops, from 2023-24 returns and last updated 16 March 2026, put cost of sales at 35% to 41% of turnover in the A$250,001 to A$600,000 band, averaging 38%. On our arithmetic, a cafe forecasting A$400,000 needs about A$2,920 of stock a week, so an opening fill plus two weeks of float is roughly A$5,000 to A$7,000.
Is a two year old fit out quote still accurate?
No. ABS Producer Price Index output prices for non-residential building construction rose 3.3% in the year to June 2025 and 4.4% in the year to June 2026. Compounded, which is our arithmetic on their figures, that is about 7.8%, so a scope costed in the June quarter of 2024 is understated by roughly that much at June 2026 prices before the scope changes at all.
What share of new cafes and restaurants survive?
Of the 18,340 accommodation and food services businesses that started in 2022-23, 50.4% were still operating at June 2026, from ABS Counts of Australian Businesses released 18 August 2026. That is marginally better than the 49.2% all industry figure. It is the reason to hold eight weeks of operating cost in reserve after opening day rather than spending it on the build.