Divide sales by hours worked to see how well your schedule matches demand, by day or by shift.
SPLH = sales ÷ labor hours.
Labor cost % = labor cost ÷ sales × 100.
Hours at target = sales ÷ target SPLH.
A café takes $18,400 in a week with 460 labor hours: $40.00 per labor hour. Labor cost of $5,980 is 32.5% of sales. At a $45 target, the same sales need about 409 hours, so the schedule was about 51 hours heavy.
Restaurants and stores use SPLH to set staffing levels: if a day’s SPLH is far below your target, the schedule had more hours than demand needed.
Compare SPLH by day part and day of week to find where to add or cut hours. Track labor cost percentage too, because wages differ between roles.
A boutique clothing store sells $10,440 in a week with 240 clocked hours: $43.50 per labor hour. Labor cost of $3,720 is 35.6% of sales. At a $46 target, the same sales would need about 227 hours, so the week ran about 13 hours heavier than the target allowed.
SPLH rises when sales grow or hours fall, so a high figure can come from understaffing as easily as from tight scheduling. The hours at target line is what the same sales would need at your target; a negative difference means you ran fewer hours than the target allows. Labor cost percentage appears only when you enter labor cost, and it must cover the same hours and period as the sales.
It depends on your prices and service model; set a target from your best weeks.
Hours worked by the staff you schedule against sales, usually hourly staff.
Decide and stay consistent.
Both; daily and by day part show more.
Run the calculator separately for slow and busy dayparts using each one’s sales and hours. Opening and closing need a minimum crew no matter what sales are, so their SPLH will be lower than the rush periods.
Use net sales after discounts and comps, without sales tax, and leave gift card sales out until they are redeemed. Otherwise SPLH looks better in weeks with heavy gift card sales even though no extra service was given.
More for the same job
Instead of adding up timesheets before you open the sales per labor hour calculator, let EZTime total employee hours. Book a demo to see it with your team.