HS: Creating Custom Labor Budgets

Overview

A Labor Budget allows you to define labor targets by job and day of the week in HotSchedules. While a Default Labor Budget is used as the ongoing budget for future schedules, a Custom Labor Budget can be created for a specific week when labor expectations differ from normal operations.

Common uses for a Custom Labor Budget include:

• Holidays
• Special events
• Seasonal fluctuations
• Store promotions
• Other one-time staffing adjustments

Once created, a Custom Labor Budget applies only to the selected week and does not affect the Default Labor Budget.

Important: To use labor percentage budgeting and labor comparison tools, projected sales must exist for the selected week. Forecasts can be entered manually or generated using HotSchedules forecasting tools.

Create a Custom Labor Budget

1. Navigate to Forecasting > Labor Budget.
2. Select the Custom tab.

Fig. 1 – Custom Labor Budget Tab

3. Use the week selector to choose the week you want to budget for.
4. Create the budget using one of the following methods:

Option 1: Copy the Default Budget

If the custom week will closely follow your normal labor expectations:

1. Select Copy from Default.
2. Review the copied values.
3. Adjust any labor percentages or labor hours as needed.

Option 2: Build a Budget Manually

1. Select the appropriate cell for the desired day and job code.
2. Enter the labor percentage or labor hours value.
3. Continue updating values until the budget is complete.

Budget Types

Labor Budgets can be configured using either:

• Labor Percent – Budget labor as a percentage of projected sales.
• Labor Hours – Budget labor using scheduled labor hours.

Select the preferred option from the Budget Types drop-down menu.

Save the Custom Budget

After all budget values have been entered:

1. Review the budget for accuracy.
2. Select Post Budget to save the custom budget.

The Custom Labor Budget will now apply only to the selected week while leaving the Default Labor Budget unchanged.