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.

Posted in Sales Tab / No Comments.

How Do I Define Menu Items for Sales Forecasting with Micros POS?

TimeForge can integrate with many different Point of Sale systems, including Micros RES 4.x. RES 4 is the point of sale system supplied with many of the Micros 3700 hardware, and is a very popular POS system for both restaurant and retail companies.

TimeForge integration with Micros involves installing the TimeForge Micros Bridge software on the primary computer system that also has the Sybase database that powers Micros RES 4.

The TimeForge Micros software will read and write to your Micros system as necessary, and can enforce your TimeForge schedules – stopping employees from clocking in too early or clocking out too late. You can forecast sales and inventory needs using TimeForge and your Micros sales data.

Define Menu Items for Sales Forecasting

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Access the Sales menu to set up Menu Items and Menu Item Groups for Sales Forecasting within TimeForge.

This will allow you to benchmark and schedule labor in comparison to your desired labor needs.

Choose up to 10 Menu Items from your Menu

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TimeForge allows up to 10 Menu Items from your Micros Menu to be chosen for Sales Forecasting.

Details for the sales of these 10 Menu Items are replicated from your Micros database to your TimeForge labor management system, and will allow you to accurately compare sales against schedules and actual attendance.

Use Menu Item Groups to Combine Sales from Multiple Menu Items

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Menu Item Groups allow you to easily and quickly combine sales from multiple menu items in your Micros menu into a single Sales Forecast.

For example, you may want to build schedules based on entrées, or drinks, or some other combination of menu items.

Create or Modify a Menu Item Group

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Enter a descriptive name, and choose the necessary menu items from your Micros database. Choose Save when you are finished.

TimeForge will automatically synchronize your sales data the next time it connects to the TimeForge server.

Posted in Micros POS / No Comments.

How Do I Define Menu Items for Sales Forecasting with Dinerware POS?

TimeForge can integrate with several Point of Sale systems, including Dinerware. Dinerware is a wonderful Point of Sale system, with dealers all over the world.

TimeForge integration with Dinerware involves installing the TimeForge Dinerware Bridge software on the Brain computer system.

While building schedules, it is often useful to forecast sales at your store, or to ensure that sales and labor have an acceptable ratio. TimeForge automatically pulls sales data from your Dinerware POS system, synchronizing this data to TimeForge, and allowing you to build fast and simple schedules.

You can forecast sales by gross sales, individual menu items, or groups of menu items (such as entrées or desserts).

Define Menu Items for Sales Forecasting

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Access the Sales menu to set up Menu Items and Menu Item Groups for Sales Forecasting within TimeForge.

This will allow you to benchmark and schedule labor in comparison to your desired labor needs.

Choose up to 10 Menu Items from your Menu

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TimeForge allows up to 10 Menu Items from your Dinerware Menu to be chosen for Sales Forecasting.

Details for the sales of these 10 Menu Items are replicated from your Dinerware database to your TimeForge labor management system, and will allow you to accurately compare sales against schedules and actual attendance.

Use Menu Item Groups to Combine Sales from Multiple Menu Items

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Menu Item Groups allow you to easily and quickly combine sales from multiple menu items in your Dinerware menu into a single Sales Forecast.

For example, you may want to build schedules based on entrées, or drinks, or some other combination of menu items.

Create or Modify a Menu Item Group

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Enter a descriptive name, and choose the necessary menu items from your Dinerware database. Choose Save when you are finished.

TimeForge will automatically synchronize your sales data the next time it connects to the TimeForge server.

Posted in Dinerware POS / No Comments.

What is the TimeForge Corporation level?

TimeForge is a sophisticated labor management and employee scheduling system, and works well for both independently owned and operated businesses, as well as chain concepts.

TimeForge has two separate operating “levels” depending on the desired usage within your organization.

The “location” level of TimeForge is used when examining the labor or employee schedules at a single location, store, or unit.

The “corporate” level of TimeForge is used when multiple locations are being used.

When operated by a business with more than one location / store / unit, some of the functionality of TimeForge is moved to the corporate level to ensure consistent labor reports and employee schedules among all of the business locations.

The TimeForge Corporation Level – Multiple Locations

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When operating with multiple locations inside of TimeForge, a drop-down box will appear in the top right hand corner. This drop-down box allows managers and supervisors to switch locations with a single click.

In addition to the drop-down box, a new link “Corporation Settings” is available to allow manipulation of Corporate level data.

TimeForge Corporation Today Screen

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At the corporation level, many of the menus are similar to the menus at the location level, including the ability to change position names, set request types and certifications, configure sales forecasting, and manage departments across all locations.

Additional capabilities include multi-location / multi-store reports, a corporate level dashboard (displayed above) with indicators for labor costs, posted schedules, and shift satisfaction among employees.

Posted in General TimeForge / No Comments.

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

Posted in Forecasting/ Sales Tab / 1 Comment

heartWhat some of our clients have to say ...

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
We really like the program so far. I know that it is geared towards restaurants, but we are a real estate company and we love it because it is inexpensive and it is so easy to use.- Nicole @ Exit Premier Realty
The Timeforge scheduling system has not only increased our efficiency tremendously; decreased the errors in what is normally an error prone environment; it has also saved us ten times what it costs us each month.- Michael @ Tiara Cafe
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
I've been really pleased with this latest version of TimeForge. I'm really getting familiar with this program and its become a great time saver! Keep up the good work!- Loren @ Fresh Produce
Before using TimeForge, creating a schedule took 2 hours. With TimeForge, it takes less than 10 minutes.- Gail @ Kerr Drug

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Phone: 1 866 684 7191
Fax: 1 866 684 7191
E-Mail: info@timeforge.com

 

About TimeForge

The best tools available for managing labor in the restaurant, retail, food-service, and hospitality industries. Includes time management, employee scheduling, and other labor management tools.

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