Staff Scheduling and Labour Cost Management

Go to Restaurant > Labor. The schedule view shows a week at a glance with staff names on the left and days across the top. Click a cell to create a shift — set start time, end time, and role (server, kitchen, bar, host). Drag to extend or shorten shifts. Copy last week's schedule as a starting point if your patterns are consistent. Published schedules notify staff via their POS login.

Enter hourly rates for each staff member in Staff > Profiles. The Labour dashboard shows total labour cost per day alongside revenue. The key metric is labour cost percentage — most restaurants target 25-35% of revenue. AskBiz calculates this automatically and flags days where labour cost exceeds your target. The Daily Brief includes yesterday's labour percentage.

Use AskBiz's forecasting to predict revenue by day of the week and hour. Compare predicted revenue against your current schedule to spot overstaffing on quiet days and understaffing on busy ones. If Wednesday evenings consistently generate 40% less revenue than Fridays, you probably need fewer servers on Wednesday. The data makes the conversation with your team factual, not subjective.

Set overtime thresholds in Labour > Settings. Shifts that exceed the threshold display a warning. Break times can be logged by staff through the POS — they clock out for break and clock back in. Total break time deducts from paid hours automatically. This keeps your labour cost calculations accurate and helps with compliance in jurisdictions that mandate break periods.