Overview
As well as inputting revenue budgets and wage targets manually (see Knowledge Articles WFM - Inputting Budgets and WFM - Creating Wage Targets) in HR & Payroll it is possible for Fourth to carry out a bulk upload of this data. Budgets templates (in Microsoft Excel format) can be populated with figures and sent in to Fourth’s data team. There is a charge per template but it can save time and effort, especially if there are a large number of locations and their weekly values change regularly. Fourth’s Customer Success Manager (CSM) team can be contacted for costs and lead times.
This article is split into sections:
- Explanation of different types of budgets and wage targets that can be loaded
- The process that customers and Fourth follow
- How the data should be inserted into Excel spreadsheet templates
- Frequently recurring fields in the templates and how they relate to the HR & Payroll System
- Troubleshooting
Different Ways of Budgeting
To make sure that the correct budgets templates are used, it is necessary to determine whether locations are set to budget by Location or Section.
Section: This implies that budgets or sales entered are broken down via Revenue Streams. For example, Food & Beverage, Rooms etc.
Location : This implies that all revenue streams within that location will be counted together and not individually broken down.
To check this…
- Go to Rotas > Administration > Configure Location > select location > check under Organisation of Divisions
If budgeting by Section, the Configure Location screen will look like this:

Fig.2 - Configure Location in Rotas when budgeting by Location
Budgeting by Section Templates
Budgeting by Location Templates
- When budgeting by Location, there are two options for Wage Target % templates. There is a Global Setting – Use wage target for location in Rota. When this is set to Yes, a single Wage Target % can be loaded for any division and it will show for the location. It won’t be possible to drill down by division on this. If the setting is set to No, Wage Target % per divisions can be loaded
- The setting Use wage target for location in Rota is located at Rotas > Administration > Global Settings.
Process
- Customers will download template spreadsheets as required
- Customers complete the template spreadsheets and send them via email to their Fourth Customer Success Manager (CSM)
- Fourth check and upload the data
- Fourth send confirmation to customer of successful load
If using Advanced Scheduling or Labour Productivity, additional data will need to be uploaded. Please see WFM Labour Productivity - Uploading Sales Budgets and Wage Target Percentages for details on this.
Fourth will charge for 2 hours’ work per template loaded. Further charges may be incurred if the templates are amended or combined in any way, as this will lead to additional work needing to be carried out.
Fourth will check that mandatory fields are populated and the formatting is correct prior to upload. The accuracy of the data itself is the responsibility of the customer.
The Template Spreadsheets

Fig.3 – the three sheets in a template spreadsheet
- GUIDE – contains a table listing all field names, descriptions, and formatting rules
- EXAMPLE – contains a small amount of example data, to illustrate what the completed template will look like
- "Template Name" – where the actual data is to be inserted

Fig.4 – a GUIDE sheet

Fig.5 – an EXAMPLE sheet

Fig.6 – a blank template sheet, ready to be populated
Frequently Recurring Fields
“Accounting System Code”
- HR > Company Admin > Locations > location name > Accounting System Code

Fig.7 – An Accounting System Code against a specific location
- HR > Company Admin > Locations> Location Name (under 'Description')

Fig.8 – A Location Description
“Section”
- HR > Company Admin > Sections (under 'Description')

Fig.9 – A Section Description
“Division Name”
- HR > Company Admin > Divisions > Division Name (under 'Description')

Fig.10 – A Division Description
“Budget/Wage figures”
Weekly Value
- Rotas > Administration > Configure locations > Select Location > scroll down and select Edit Revenue Targets > Annual budget > select year > value under 'Revenue Expected'

Fig.11 – A Weekly Budget figure
Daily Value
- Rotas > Administration > Configure locations > select Location > Edit revenue targets > Annual budget > select year > select week > value under day of the week

Troubleshooting
To configure this on the portal against each location, follow these steps:
- Rotas > Administration > Configure Location > select a Location> scroll down and select Edit Revenue Targets (on the right side)
- Tick the boxes against:
- Is the budgeted revenue to come from an annual target set in advance?
- Is the budgeted revenue to be calculated by the system?
- Enter % figures in the revenue taken on fields for each day, so the Total Percentage shows as 100%
- save once complete

Fig.13 - Correct settings and daily split budget percentages entered when editing Revenue Targets
Fig.13 above shows an example of a Location with Daily split Budgets configured correctly (daily split figures in this example have been populated as an example split only, this will vary depending on the specific location).
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