Turn a sales forecast and a labor cost target into the number of hourly labor hours you can schedule.
Labor budget = forecast sales × target %.
Hourly budget = labor budget − fixed salaried labor.
Hours = hourly budget ÷ average hourly wage.
A restaurant forecasts $25,000 in weekly sales with a 28% labor target: $7,000. Salaried managers cost $2,000, leaving $5,000 for hourly staff. At an average of $16.50, that is about 303 hours to schedule for the week.
Restaurants, retail and service businesses often set a labor cost target as a percentage of sales. This tool works backwards from that target to an hours budget the scheduler can use.
Include payroll taxes and benefits in the wage if your labor target includes them, so both sides of the calculation match.
A family-run pizzeria with no salaried staff forecasts $9,800 in sales for the week and targets labor at 24% of sales. With fixed salaried labor set to 0, the total labor budget and the hourly budget are both $2,352.00. At an average wage of $14.75, that allows about 159 hours to schedule across the week.
Hours to schedule is rounded to whole hours and uses one average wage, so a schedule heavy with higher-paid staff will run over budget at the same hours. Salaried labor comes off the top, so when forecast sales drop, the hourly budget drops by a larger percentage than sales do. Overtime is not included, and each hour paid at 1.5x uses the budget faster than the hours figure suggests.
Your own history and margins; targets vary by business type.
Include them on both sides or neither.
Adjust the schedule during the week.
No, it sets the hours budget for it.
Split them in proportion to each day’s forecast sales. If Saturday should bring a quarter of the week’s sales, give it about a quarter of the hours, then adjust for fixed tasks like opening, deliveries and closing.
No. Tips belong to employees and are not business revenue, so leave them out of the forecast. Including them would inflate the budget and schedule hours that sales do not support.
More for the same job
Instead of adding up timesheets before you open the labor hours budget calculator, let EZTime total employee hours. Book a demo to see it with your team.