Payroll day is too late to see the problem
Payroll runs and the ops director sees the total. It is higher than expected. Breaking it down by site takes finance another few days, and when it comes through, two sites ran well over their labour target for the whole period. One had a new GM who rostered generously while learning the site. The other had a manager covering sickness with overtime. Both are fixable, but they have already been paid.
This article is not about how a single GM plans a rota against covers. It is about head office seeing labour across the estate, consistently, while there is still time to act.
Why group-wide labour data is hard to get
- Different sites use different rota or clocking systems, especially after acquisitions.
- Rotas show planned hours, but actual clocked hours sit elsewhere or are edited by hand.
- Salaried managers, holiday pay and employer on-costs are not in the rota system at all.
- Staff who work across sites are costed to their home site, not where they worked.
- Sales data is in the EPOS, so labour percentage needs two systems joined.
The result is that the only complete number is the payroll total, and it arrives after the period is over.
What late labour data costs
Labour overspend found after payroll cannot be recovered. Found on Tuesday, it can be corrected by Friday. There is also a fairness cost: GMs are judged on labour percentages they could not see during the week, and area managers struggle to coach when the numbers are always behind. Staff moving between sites distort both sites' figures, which leads to wrong conclusions about who is overstaffed.
How we build group labour visibility
- We connect to each rota or clocking system your sites use, such as Fourth, Deputy, Planday or Rotaready, through their APIs or exports, and read planned and clocked hours by person, role and site.
- Hours are costed using the rates and on-cost percentages you maintain, including a weekly allowance for salaried managers.
- Shifts worked at a site other than someone's home site are costed to the site where the work was done.
- Sales by site and day are read from each EPOS and joined to the labour cost.
- The view shows labour percentage by site, day and week, planned against actual, and against target.
- Sites drifting over target mid-week are flagged to their area manager, with the days and roles that caused it.
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Planned vs clocked hours | Whether the rota is being followed |
| Labour percentage by day | Which trading days are overstaffed |
| Hours by role | Kitchen or front of house driving the cost |
| Cross-site hours | Borrowed staff costed where they worked |
Payroll itself stays with your payroll provider. This view is for management during the week, and it reconciles to payroll after the period closes.
What the week looks like with it
On Wednesday the area manager can see that one site is ahead of its labour target because of two long Monday shifts, and has a conversation with the GM before the weekend rota is final. The ops director sees every site on one screen with the same definitions. When payroll lands, there are no surprises, and finance spends less time breaking it down by site.
Does your group see labour like this?
- Site wage cost is only known after payroll.
- Sites use different rota or clocking systems.
- Planned and actual hours are never compared.
- Staff who cover other sites distort the figures.
- Labour and sales are joined by hand in a spreadsheet.