Labor Management. NOW Simple.

During economic booms, such as those witnessed during the last few years, many businesses focused on increasing sales while their operations lagged behind.   Operational aspects such as inventory control, portion sizing, reducing turnover, improving employee retention, and training are all import details of hospitality and retail businesses that can be swept under the rug in good times.

Jim Sullivan, the chief executive of Sullivision.com recently penned “In hard times, control costs instead of hiding your inefficiencies by just pumping up volume” at Nation’s Restaurant News.   Although his article is meant for restaurants, it is also applicable to retailers, hotels, and other similar businesses.   Jim covers a number of issues, including one aspect of running a business that is often forgotten in the day to day operations:

Remember, all money is not created equal: $100 in sales is $100 less taxes and expenses; $100 in savings is $100. Here are some fiscal fundamentals to review and execute with your team in both tough times and boom times.

Now is an excellent time to revisit your business’s operational procedures, making them be more efficient and cost conscience – immediately improving profit at your business.   A variety of tools, including TimeForge, are designed to improve cost controls at your business – producing schedules in minutes instead of not hours.

Can you build a schedule in less than 10 minutes?   How many thousands of dollars do you spend making schedules every year?   Did you know that TimeForge can minimize costs and increase profits through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, pizzeria, hotel, club, bar, or retail business. Sign up today for a free trial!

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• TimeForge Newsletter , November Edition (Part 2)
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Lubbock, TX , May 28, 2008 , Making a great work schedule week after week is often a painful managerial chore for businesses of all sizes. However, the increased store profits, lower turnover, and improved employee morale make employee scheduling software a worthwhile investment. Many operators in the restaurant, retail, and hospitality industries create labor schedules by hand using pen-and-paper methods that can consume up to seven hours a week in managerial time , an expense of more than $12,000 per year in manager time building and managing the labor schedule! Operators using spreadsheets still spend at least two hours a week scheduling labor.

Well-chosen software solutions can help operators control labor and increase profits, without incurring great expense. For example, TimeForge, a web-based labor scheduling product tightly controls employee labor costs and reduces turnover by providing a simple-to-use solution for scheduling employees. The TimeForge software program, available at http://www.TimeForge.com, ensures that managers spend more time “on the floor” and less time in the back office scheduling employees.

The most recent version, released on May 27, 2008 includes a number of improvements to the software and continues to build on TimeForge’s success as a quick, simple, and affordable scheduling solution for businesses of all sizes. According to Michael, the proprietor of Tiara Cafe in California, “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.”

TimeForge turns employee scheduling into an automated task that can be performed in a few minutes every week , improving store profits by thousands of dollars every year for the store. Some advantages of the new TimeForge include:

• TimeForge now includes the ability to track employee tips, which can be entered when an employee clocks out, or later by management!
• Schedules and templates can be organized into departments (similar to folders) to easily differentiate between “Front of House” and “Back of House” schedules.
• New attendance reports are available for supervisors and managers.
• Managers can easily see why an employee cannot be scheduled , regardless if the employee is already scheduled at another location or in a conflicting shift, or if the employee is unavailable.
• Locations / stores / units can be organized into a Corporate Hierarchy so that managers can monitor scheduling practices for groups of locations.
• Many other improvements!

Independent and chain operators alike can benefit from the many time saving and profit improving features of labor scheduling systems such as TimeForge. Get back on the floor today!

About TimeForge
TimeForge is the premier employee scheduling software, designed to provide fast ROI benefits to the business, and to meet the growing demands of the work force. TimeForge.com is affordable software that works with both independent and chain operations in retail, hospitality, and many other industries. For more information about TimeForge, and to sign up for a free trial, visit the website at http://www.TimeForge.com

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One of the newsletters that we receive at TimeForge is the excellent (weekly) Restaurant Report Newsletter. Two weeks ago, this question was posed in the newsletter:

“Inventory Control Programs – What would you recommend as the best inventory control programs that is easy to read, follow and upkeep with information. As well we are looking into a new computer system and program for the front of the house….what would you recommend. We are in Canada and service and maintenance of course is very important.”

Several years ago, we did a study of food-service industry inventory programs, and looked at the adoption and usage of inventory procedures in the marketplace. During this study, we also spoke with many of the “obvious” players in the industry – so we sent the poster a response to her question, which was published in this week’s Restaurant Report:

The interesting thing about inventory systems is that….few people use them. We did a study about 2 years ago of all of the major players, and how many people used their products. Less than 20% of the market uses inventory control (with a computer). That being said, there are some amazing programs out there that will help reduce food costs and/or track inventory.

Some of the main vendors include:

Eatec, MenuLink (part of Radiant), and Compeat are all “high end” systems. Expect to spend between $10k and $40k for your store to get started with one of their packages. Really designed for very large chains. These guys own about 3 – 4% of the hospitality inventory market.

iPro is (was) a one-man show, and is the “bargain bin” version of inventory software. I would stay away from this product, even if it’s only $99. They own about 1% of the market (mostly eBay purchases).

ChefTec is “the” independent inventory product in the US, and is based out of Colorado. Getting support isn’t always easy, but they are very knowledgeable about their product. About 20 employees (as of 2 years ago), and their product starts around $1k. About 2-3% of the market (on the high end).

Cost Guard is an excellent product, which was recently upgraded and a lot of new documentation was written for the product. The owner lives in New York, and runs a tight ship…but there are only about 4 employees at last count. Probably have about 1.3% of the total market. Given the opportunity, I would recommend Cost Guard over ChefTec.

Optimum Control is a Canadian company, and as of 2 years ago, had about 6 or 8 employees. They claimed to have 3,000 installed restaurants, or about .3% of the market. Pricing is around $1k.

If I was you, I would recommend that you give Optimum Control and Cost Guard a try, and see which one works better for you. I believe both of the products have online or downloadable demos.

Regarding the front-of-house…are you interested in a POS system, a reservation system, a scheduling solution, a marketing solution, a video surveillance system, bar and liquor control, or something else? There are all-in-one solutions (I don’t recommend them), and there are individual pieces to the puzzle.

Of course, if you need a labor management tool – please take a look at our software.

Hope that helps – good luck!

Anthony Presley
Founder
TimeForge.com: Restaurant Employee Scheduling Software
P: 866.684.7191

How long does it take to make your employee schedules? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee labor management at your business, bar, club, grocery, convenience store, or restaurant.

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• Simple Employee Scheduling – Version 1.8.5 (Part 3)
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The Financial Side of Labor Management

In the previous articles, we have had a look at tangible and measurable variables that contribute to operating costs. We discussed how inventory control, portion control, budgeting and other sound business management practices work together to keep food costs down to a reasonable percentage of gross sales.

We have also had a brief look at labor costs and their contribution to overhead expenses. Now it’s time to take a closer look at the financial side of labor management and how effective scheduling can keep labor costs under control without negatively affecting the customer’s experience.

One of the most important tasks that any manager faces is staff scheduling. Oddly enough, as important as this task is, few managers receive any formal training in personnel scheduling. It’s something they are simply expected to know how to do. Unfortunately, many restaurant managers do not understand how to effectively schedule staff , and this costs the restaurant money and contributes to the amount of frustration among the managers and employees.

How long does it take to make an employee schedule? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that labor costs could be as much as 30% of your expenses? TimeForge can help streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, bar, or club.

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• Off Topic: Inventory Managment for Restaurants
• Restaurant, Bar, and Club Profitability (Part 2 of 2)
• Restaurant Expense Overview (Part 3 of 5)
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Standard Operating Procedures, Employee Training, and Evaluations

Developing written Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) will address all front and back of the house operations. An effective SOP, coupled with a comprehensive employee training program, and an ongoing evaluation program, will show remarkable improvement in not only the environment within your restaurant, but also the profit that your business sees.

Properly trained employees not only contribute to a positive customer experience, they also contribute to cost control by adhering to portion/inventory control procedures, by following other cost containment procedures identified by management. While food costs may be one of the biggest expenses faced by restaurant owners and operators, they can be manageable with effective systems and procedures enforced in the restaurant.

Labor costs could be as much as 30% of your expenses; TimeForge can help streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling.

Related articles or pages

• TimeForge v2.4.5
• Restaurant Expense Overview (Part 3 of 5)
• Off Topic: Inventory Managment for Restaurants
• Restaurant Expense Overview (Part 4 of 5)
• Product Mix Relating to Inventory Costs

Factors Affecting Inventory Control

With today’s food costs running as high as 33% of gross sales in some markets, there is no margin for error when it comes to managing costs. An effective cost-control program must be multifaceted in order to close all of the profit-draining holes that exist both in the front and the back of the house. Any comprehensive cost control system must take into account several factors, including inventory and portion control, just-in-time ordering to avoid spoilage, vendor price comparison, accurate receiving procedures, waste, prep and pull procedures, compensation, and coupons control.

Of course, quantitative techniques, or “number crunching”, is a basic step in the process of reining in food costs and keeping them under control. The ability to create a budget and track all expenses against that budget provides an accurate snapshot of actual food costs and other overhead, but it does little to identify all of the factors that contribute directly or indirectly to those expenses. Likewise, knowing your average ticket and table turnover statistics provides a good foundation for sales and revenue forecasting. Use a budget in conjunction with measurements and ratios for an accurate idea of how to improve your restaurant’s profits.

Labor costs could be as much as 30% of your expenses; TimeForge can help streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling.

Related articles or pages

• Restaurant Expense Overview (Part 4 of 5)
• Off Topic: Inventory Managment for Restaurants
• In Hard Times, Retail and Restaurant Companies Should Control Costs
• Hospitality Labor Management (Part 1 of 4)
• TimeForge v2.4.5