How do I Import Sales Thresholds?

TimeForge’s sales thresholds are a powerful tool to allow you to budget and monitor your labor costs. Using the sales thresholds, you can set up a target budget based on labor costs, labor hours, or labor shifts. To easily import the sales threshold information, follow these steps.

Start with a CSV file

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Start by creating a CSV file with the necessary information, such as the sales category, position or department, the start date and end date, the threshold, and minimums and maximums.

Note: Each threshold should be on its own line.

Go to Import Data

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Navigate to the Import Data screen.

Choose Your CSV File

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Click on Browse and navigate to the CSV file, and then click on Upload Data.

Map the Fields and Import

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You can choose to import a number of fields in the thresholds. For example:

  • Sales Type / Sales Category – Enter the sales category, such as Gross Sales, or Total Skiers
  • Position Name – Enter the TimeForge Position Name (you can use positions or department thresholds)
  • Department Name – Enter the TimeForge Department Name (you can use positions or department thresholds)
  • Threshold Start Date – Enter the date the threshold begins
  • Threshold End Date – Enter the date the threshold should end
  • Threshold Min Value – Enter the minimum value for the threshold
  • Threshold Max Value – Enter the maximum value for the threshold

When you’re done, click on Import Data, and TimeForge will load your data, and show you any warnings or errors when it’s done.

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How Do I Import Sales in a CSV?

iSometimes, typing sales information into each day or hour of your week can be a tedious process. TimeForge includes a CSV importer to make bulk data entry much easier. Follow these steps to import your sales with a CSV file.

Navigate to the Sales Categories

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To import sales, first navigate to the Sale Categories list.

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Select the Import Sales for the sales category you would like to import.

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A pop-up will appear to allow you to import your sales data. Sales data should follow the format specified – and should be in a CSV (not Excel) format. The columns should be:

Date
Start Time
End Time
Amount
Department (if applicable)

Choose if the sales are Manager Projections or Actual Figures.

A few hints for using the software import:
1. You cannot currently import data on top of data that already exists. The import tool cannot be used for updating information at this time.
2. Make sure that your number formatting for the Amount column doesn’t include commas. For example, “1234″ is a valid number to import, but “1,234″ is not a valid number.
3. If you are importing data for the whole day, set the start time and end time to be your open and closing times for your location or business.
4. If you are using departments, make sure to the names match the TimeForge names exactly – otherwise, those sales will not be imported.

If using Departments, Set the Import Data

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If you are using departments within TimeForge, make sure check the sales import check box for the departments you want to import. If the import check box is not selected, your import will fail for those departments.

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How do I Copy a Previous Week’s Projections?

Manager projections help you prepare for the upcoming week or month. By forecasting your sales and comparing these “theoretical sales” to your actual sales, you can more accurately predict your labor needs and prepare accordingly. You may want to copy a previous week’s projections if there are no significant changes to your sales projections from week to week, or if last month’s projections for a particular week also apply to the current month.

Go to Manager Projections

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Navigate to the orange Sales tab and click on Manager Projections.

Pick a Week to Enter Projections

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On the Manager Projections page, choose the sales type, the department, and the date for which you would like to make a projection. This is the week you are copying to. Then click the orange Copy Last Week’s Manager Projections button.

Select a Previous Week to Copy

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Select the projection type and the week from which you are copying, then click on the Copy Week button.

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How do I enforce the labor to sales ratio?

Your labor to sales ratio provides you with a benchmark for how much profit your business is making. TimeForge can track your labor to sales ratio for convenient analysis. According to your settings and preferences, TimeForge can also TimeForge can alert you when your schedule costs exceed your schedule threshold (when a schedule is costing you more than you predicted).

Go to Sales list

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Navigate to the Sales tab and click on Sales Options.

Sales Options

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On the Sales Options page, view the question that says “Do you want to enforce the Sales Category ratios on the schedule?”
Click on the drop down menu to select Yes.
Remember to click the Save button!

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How do I enter sales thresholds?

You may want to enter sales thresholds so that you can better analyze the profitability of your business. Sales Categories offer the ability to monitor your business operations in a quantifiable way. By paying attention to the measurable aspects of your business, you can streamline your operations and prevent budgetary surprises from sneaking up on you, especially with labor costs and accurate scheduling practices. The way you decide to use Sales Categories is up to you, as there are many options to experiment with.

For example, Joe, a grocery store manager, might want to monitor the number of items processed per hour at his store’s registers. Like all managers, Joe does not want to have more employees on hand than are required for the amount of work to be done, so he wants to compare the number of items processed per hour to the number of cashiers working. Each cashier can process 100 items per hour. If the store is processing 1,000 items per hour, Joe needs 10 cashiers on hand to keep up with the amount of work to be done. But Joe only has 8 cashiers on hand! Should he call someone to come in to work? Well, if Joe has set his hourly Sales Threshold appropriately to require that his Number of Shifts be ten percent of his Item Count (1 employee is 10% of 1,000 items per hour), TimeForge will notify him that he is short-handed.

For example, by comparing Gross Sales to Labor Costs, you can have a benchmark to understand how well your business ran during a certain period of time. An optimal ratio of Gross Sales to Labor costs for your business might be 10, like Joe’s, or it might be 3, or 30, depending on the industry.

Go to the Sales list

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Navigate to the Sales tab and click on Sales Categories.

Select a Sales Type

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Click on the blue Edit button.

Enter Sales Ratio

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On the Sales Category Information page type in the sales ratio into the Desired Threshold box.
Remember to save.

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How do I view sales on Facebook?

TimeForge makes labor management simple. You can even access your sales through our Facebook application! All you need to do is set up the application inside of your Facebook account, and you are ready to access sales through Facebook!

Search for TimeForge

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On your Facebook account, search for “TimeForge Employee Scheduling” at the top of the page.

Go to Application

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On the TimeForge page, click on the Go to Application button.

Log in

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Enter your TimeForge log in information and click the Log in to TimeForge button.

My Company

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Click on the My Company tab.

View Sales

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Scroll down to the Sales Types section to view sales.

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How do I enter Actual Sales Values?

You may want to enter Actual Sales values to more accurately track sales figures for your business, which can help you predict future sales. Actual Sales figures can be analyzed and viewed in your TimeForge Reports. The ability to predict future sales enables you to build more profit-optimal schedules by estimating the amount of business you will encounter during a certain time period, reducing the likelihood of over staffing or under staffing.

Go to Sales list

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Navigate to the Sales tab and click on Actual Figures.

Actual Figures

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To view the Actual Figures chart, select the sales type, the department, and the date. Actual Figures do not show weeks in the future, only the past and present weeks.

Enter Values

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Insert the Actual Sales Values and remember to click the Finished button after completing work.

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How Do I Use Sales Analytics?

The Sales Module includes a powerful Sales Analytics tool, designed to easily visualize the differences in labor costs, user sales types (such as gross labor, customer covers, customer counts, or inventory items), and other relevant numerical information. Watching for trends in the numbers will allow management to be proactive in creating business decisions.

Analyze a Schedule

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Employee schedules can be analyzed and compared to Manager Projections, Actual Values, or System Generated Forecasts.

One way to access the Sales Analytics tool is by using the list of schedules, and clicking on Analyze. The Sales Analytics tool can also be accessed through the Sales tab directly.

Sales Analytics with Employee Schedules

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Follow the instructions on the Sales Analytics page, choose the desired Sales Type, and any other applicable options from the left-hand column.

The software will build a visual chart, allowing you to graphically compare Manager Projections, System Generated Forecasts, and the Actual numbers against employee work schedules.

Analytics – Labor Costs

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The above graph is a sample employee schedule from 10:00am – 5:00pm, and the Sales Analytics tool is displaying the cost of labor (in purple), as well as the Manager Projection (in blue) for the same time period. Schedules can be combined, or graphed separately, based on your requirements.

Tip: The labor costs purple line stay flat, while the blue Sales Type line (Gross Sales in this case) goes up and down. This may indicate that some staff should be sent home when the blue line goes down sharply, and staff members should be brought in when the line goes up sharply.

Analytics – Scheduled Shifts

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The same graph as above is displayed, but this graph compares the Sales Type with the Scheduled Shifts during the time period, instead of Labor Costs.

Tip: Scheduled Shifts are indicative of the number of unique shifts scheduled during the time period. Just like the Labor Costs, sharply increasing or decreasing lines may indicate a need to change the schedule.

Analytics – Labor Hours

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Similar to the Schedule Shifts comparison above, this graph compares the Sales Type to the Labor Hours during the time period.

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How Do I Enter Forecasts?

Using the Sales Module, labor schedules can be compared to Manager Projections, Actual Numbers, and System Generated Forecasts. After creating the necessary Sales Types, numeric values should be entered into the Manager Projections area. After the week (or day) is over, Actual Values from the Point of Sale system, Cash Register, Property Management System, or other revenue control system can be entered into the Actual Values area of the software.

Enter Manager Projections

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Manager Projections are typically the “gut feeling”, or estimates that you or managers create to project Sales Types. Projections can be entered by hour or quarter-hour, and daily and weekly summations are easily viewable.

Sales Forecasting is Extremely Easy

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As previously mentioned, Manager Projections can be entered by the hour, or by the quarter-hour. The hours shown will be dependent on any open / close hours that are currently defined for your location.

Sales Options

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A number of settings are available in the Sales Options, including:

- Allowing Supervisors to access the Sales Module
- Viewing Manager Projections and System Forecasts on the labor schedule
- Enforcing the labor ratios, which will disable the posting of schedules unless they meet the necessary labor ratio percentages

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How Do I Set Up Forecasting?

The Sales Module is a powerful and easy-to-use analytics tool to organize Manager Projections, Actual Numbers, and System Generated Forecasts. Sales numbers can be referenced and viewed on employee schedules, and analyzed using the Sale Analytics tool – a simple solution to ensure that complex schedule forecasts are kept in check.

Sales Module Tab

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The Sales Module can be easily accessed by clicking on the “Sales” tab.

Create Sales Types for Your Business

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Sales Types allow you to enter specific number sets to forecast and analyze as necessary. Sales Types can include:

- Gross Sales
- Net Sales
- Customer counts, plates, or covers
- Inventory Items, such as khaki pants sold, steaks to prepare, lobster sales, or booked hotel rooms
- Any other number that makes sense for your business …

You can create and maintain as many Sales Types as you would like – there are no limits.

To create your first Sales Type, Choose the “Sales Types” sub-tab from the “Sales” tab.

Sales Type Creation – Choose a Type

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While creating a Sales Type, enter a Description for the Sales Type. This should be an easily identified name such as Gross Sales, Inbound Calls, Customer Count, Covers, or Takeouts and Deliveries. Choose an appropriate Type for your Sales Type:

- Currency for numeric values, such as Gross Sales, Net Sales, or Tips.
- Inventory for values pertaining to inventory or stocking, such as specific stock levels or item level inventories.
- Other for other types of values.

Sales Type Creation – What to Compare To?

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The Sales Module can compare number values against Labor Hours, Labor Costs, or Scheduled Shifts, as needed for your business:

- Labor Costs are the total costs of the scheduled labor, and in the case of (2) employees for a (2) hour shift at $10 each, would be $40 in labor costs.
- Labor Hours are the total number of hours scheduled, and in the case of (2) employees for a (2) hour shift would be 4 labor hours.
- Scheduled Shifts are the number of unique shifts scheduled during the time frame, and in the case of (2) employees for a (2) hour shift would be 2 scheduled shifts.

Choose the “Comparison To” that is most appropriate to your business needs. You can change this later.

Sales Type Creation – Projection Level and Desired Ratio

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The Projection Level controls the granularity of the sales numbers. For some businesses, sales numbers will be input and calculated at the department level. However, most businesses will calculate sales numbers per location (the default). Projection Level’s cannot be changed once the Sales Type has been used.

The Desired Ratio is the ratio of the labor comparison to the projections, forecasts, and actual numbers.

Example: If the “Comparison To” is set to “Labor Cost”, and the Desired Ratio is set to “20%”, the Sales Module will notify you when the ratios go above 20%. Assuming the labor cost goes above 20% of the Sales Type, the software will warn you that the ratio is too high. The Sales Module can, optionally, enforce the labor ratios, so that costly schedules are not posted for staff members.

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We are one year into it now, well past being enamored with the newness. We are married to TimeForge. It's as essential to us now as any of our management tools today, and we very happy about that.- Steve @ Hermosa Cyclery
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I would highly recommend TimeForge to anyone making work schedules. ... What used to take 1-2 hours, now takes 15 minutes. The reports section is comprehensive and useful.- Lawrence Payne @ Mid Pacific Country Club
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