We previously discussed that employee scheduling is hard, time consuming, and costly to a business. Where possible, businesses should use software tools to automate labor scheduling – saving time and money while improving profits makes a lot of sense! Once the employee schedule or the theoretical labor schedule, is complete, it is posted for all employees to see.
The time and attendance system is one crucial aspect of managing labor. This system tracks the “actual schedule” worked by staff members. Each employee should have their own “timecard”, although computer systems have improved these paper systems over the years. At a bare minimum, this can be a paper card which has the time and date the employee arrived and the time and date the employee left, printed or stamped on the card. At many businesses, the Point Of Sale (POS) system or Property Management System (PMS) has a built-in time and attendance system which may be sufficient. More sophisticated time and attendance systems are available from payroll vendors, Human Resource (HR) software vendors, and best-of-breed labor management providers like TimeForge.
As each day of the theoretical labor schedule progresses, the following cycle likely occurs:
It is important to pay payroll expenses from the time and attendance system, and not the theoretical labor schedule. If management pays the employee directly from the theoretical labor schedule and the employee arrived later than scheduled, then the business is paying too much to the employee – reducing profit. If the employee arrived earlier than the theoretical labor schedule suggested, the business will not lose any money by paying from the schedule - however, a number of regulations are violated by not paying the employee for actual time worked. Employees, in all industries, are notorious for arriving to work 15-minutes earlier than scheduled, or leaving 10-minutes later than scheduled, requiring that employers pay appropriately for worked time. To ensure compliance with regulations and to reduce the loss in profits, the correct way to pay employees is with the clock in / clock out times from the time and attendance system.
Is employee scheduling complex at your business? Are you making the best possible labor schedule? How much time is thrown away while making a schedule every year? Did you know that TimeForge can reduce turnover, improve retention and increase profits through employee scheduling at your business? Sign up today for a free trial!
Additional highlights from our four days in Houston at the Texas Restaurant Show included:
Steve Green of Pizza Magazine Quarterly and PMQ.com had the US Pizza Team showing off their skills at the show. Steve stopped by on Tuesday and took a look at TimeForge – it is a perfect labor solution for pizzerias without a Point of Sale solution, and TimeForge is a great add-on to help control labor costs for those pizza shops that already have an existing POS program.
Dave Hwang from DinePoint was in the area attending the show, and we spent some time with him discussing plans for his above store reporting software package. He has had great success with a number of Point of Sale resellers, vendors, and major regional and national restaurant brands adopting his product.
David (also known as David_L) from FoodService.com was showing off the Digital Dining Point of Sale product, along with some girls from Hooters. He regularly posts on the FoodService.com food forums, and it was great to finally meet him in person.
Dominos Pizza had a corporate meeting at the Texas Restaurant Association, and we met with many franchisees about using TimeForge at their pizza business. Most operators and owners were surprised at how simple TimeForge is to use compared to doing things the “old fashioned” way.
Join us in Dallas for next years Texas Restaurant Show - we have already reserved our booth!
How long does it take to make an employee schedule for your employees? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can minimize costs and increase profits through effective employee scheduling at your pizza, restaurant, hotel, bar, club, or retail business. Sign up today for a free trial!
We just got back from four full days in sunny Houston, TX. We exhibited at the 2008 Southwest Food Expo, hosted by the Texas Restaurant Association. TimeForge occupied booth 1546 right next to the franchise pavilion and we had a great time in Houston! Throughout the show we became friends with many of our neighbors, dined on wonderful food, and spoke to a number of restaurateurs, hotel and retail owners – most need help with employee scheduling.
We really enjoyed spending time with our neighbors from Del Mar College and Ctuit.
Next to us was the Franchise Pavilion, and it included reps from Boston’s Pizza Restaurants, Pollo Campero, Which Which, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Huddle House, and Franchise Times. It seemed to be a tough show for finding franchisees, but many of them kept the show very entertaining for us. If they (or their franchisees) need labor scheduling, they’ll know TimeForge can help!
Lance, Mike, and the rest of the Focus POS crew were on site, dressed down in their bright orange brand and ready to help restaurant owners find the right Point of Sale system. Of all of the Point of Sale vendors, Focus POS has one of the most full-featured labor scheduling systems. They understand that employee scheduling is hard - and try to make it easy for operators to build schedules. It was good to see them again.
Gary Peek, president of Intura stopped by and spoke with us about TimeForge and its applicability in international markets. I spent some time in the Intura booth on Tuesday learning about their mapping software and their ability to do sales analytics based on geographical sales locations. Very cool technology!
More TRA Expo highlights coming ….
How long does it take to make a labor schedule for your workforce? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can improve profits and minimize costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, hotel, bank, school, bar, club, or retail business.
Entitled A Look Into the Leading Chains of the Casual, Fast Casual, Quick Serve, and Family Restaurant Segments, Chain Store Guide (CSGIS) recently published an whitepaper describing Point of Sale (POS) systems currently being used by various national restaurant chains.
There is some interesting information in the whitepaper, which is an examination of the data that Chain Store Guide has been collecting for years, and makes available in some of their products. The paper looks at the average age of POS hardware and POS software in use at the top five restaurants for several segments of the hospitality industry, including:
According to their data:
You can read the full Chain Store Guide report here.
How long does it take you to make an employee work schedule? 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.
As recently reported on Nation’s Restaurant News, “(Sep. 27) Get in, set up an effective staff schedule and move on to the next task: that’s what most restaurateurs want out of their scheduling software. But knowing that doesn’t necessarily make their search for the right software any easier, as the schedulers available today run the gamut from elementary point-of-sale-system modules to high-end workforce management applications.
The trick, some operators indicate, is to find the right system or service for your operation without buying features that will go unused.”
NRN reviewed two products in their article:
TimeForge.com has all of the features of both of the reviewed products, with an easier to use interface, an integrated AutoScheduler, and better pricing! But then, I suppose we are biased.
You can read the full article at Nation’s Restaurant News. They require registration, but the registration is free.
How long does it take to make your labor schedules? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, bar, club, or business.
In foodservice, your business is primarily controlled by two large expenses: labor costs and food costs. Unfortunately, both expenses are variable in this industry and can be challenging to control.
Accuvia, a comprehensive information and technology resource company for the hospitality, foodservice, and retail services, recently reviewed a number of labor management systems in their weekly Newsletter. TimeForge was one of the top labor management companies chosen to be reviewed by Accuvia.
Some of the other companies and products mentioned in the article include:
The actual newsletter can be downloaded here.
Why are we posting direct links to some of our closest competitors? Because we believe our product is superior and we would like you to go check out the other packages to see how we stack up. You will quickly find out that TimeForge is faster, more affordable, and easier to use than any of our web-based competitors or point of sale applications.
When you’re done trying the competition, make sure to visit our Free Trial page, and sign up for our Free Trial.
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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As many of you know, we exhibited at the Western Food Expo in California two weeks ago. We had a great time! Our booth was strategically positioned by a Digital Dining Point Of Sale (POS) distributor / reseller and Red Wing Shoes. During the three days in Los Angeles, we spoke to more than 500 restaurant owners, managers, employees, and share holders. A few hotel / motel operators, bar owners, and food inspectors were also interested in the benefits of labor scheduling software. The response for the software was overwhelming, and we appreciated the amazing amount of feedback that many of the customers, and potential customers, provided.
Additionally, we did get to spend some quality time with representatives from Digital Dining, Squirrel Systems, Radiant (Aloha POS), Waiter Pad POS, Micros, and Intura. All of these vendors are interested in integrating the TimeForge employee scheduling and labor management software with their own software packages. Look for integration of our advanced employee scheduling system with your favorite POS system, coming soon!
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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We need your help … we are going to begin integration of TimeForge with Point of Sale systems in the next few months. We are hoping to start with the Point of Sale systems that you are using! If you have a few seconds, please send an email to info@timeforge.com to let us know which Point of Sale system you are using, the version of the software, and if you know who your reseller is, we’d love to be able to call them.
Thanks for your help!
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.
Point Of Sale System Scheduling Modules
Some Point of Sale (POS) providers offer scheduling capabilities. The issue with this solution is that the capabilities offered by these POS providers are simply an electronic adaptation of the pencil and paper method. These modules store employees’ names and usually provide a way to call up the previous week’s schedule and either print it out with the new dates or allow the manager to make scheduling changes prior to printing. They lack in-depth decision support tools and financial analysis capabilities. Without these essential capabilities, you might as well just use the paper and pencil method.
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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