Quaternary chalcogenide materials offer a wide variety of chemical and physical properties, and hence, those compounds have been widely studied for several technological applications. Recently, experimental studies have found that the chalcogenide ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}{\mathrm{M}}^{\mathrm{II}}{\mathrm{M}}_{3}^{\mathrm{IV}}{\mathrm{Q}}_{8}$ family (${\mathrm{M}}^{\mathrm{II}}$ = $\mathrm{Mg}, \mathrm{Zn}, \mathrm{Cd}, \mathrm{Hg}, {\mathrm{M}}^{\mathrm{IV}}$ = $\mathrm{Ge}, \mathrm{Sn}$ and $\mathrm{Q}$ = $\mathrm{S}, \mathrm{Se}, \mathrm{Te}$), which includes 24 compounds, yields a wide range of band gaps, namely, from 1.07 to 3.4 eV, and hence, they have attracted great interest. To obtain an improved atomistic understanding of the role of the cations and anions on the physical properties, we performed a first-principles investigation of the 24 ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}{\mathrm{M}}^{\mathrm{II}}{\mathrm{M}}_{3}^{\mathrm{IV}}{\mathrm{Q}}_{8}$ compounds employing density functional theory within semilocal and hybrid exchange-correlation energy functionals and the addition of van der Waals corrections to improve the description of the weakly interacting layers. Our lattice parameters are in good agreement with the available experimental data (i.e., 11 compounds), and the equilibrium volume increases linearly by increasing the atomic number of the chalcogen, which can be explained by the increased atomic radius of the chalcogen atoms from $\mathrm{S}$ to $\mathrm{Te}$. We found that van der Waals corrections play a crucial role in the lattice parameter in the stacking direction of the ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}{\mathrm{M}}^{\mathrm{II}}{\mathrm{M}}_{3}^{\mathrm{IV}}{\mathrm{Q}}_{8}$ layers, while the binding energy per unit area has similar magnitude as obtained for different layered materials. We obtained that the band gaps follow a linear relation as a function of the unit cell volume, which can be explained by the atomic size of the chalcogen atom and the relative position of the $\mathrm{Q} p$ states within the band structure. The fundamental and optical band gaps differ by less than 0.1 eV. The band gaps obtained with the hybrid functional are in good agreement with the available experimental data. Furthermore, we found from the Bader analysis, that the Coulomb interations among the cations and anions play a crucial role on the energetic properties.