Labour Scheduling: How to Match Staffing to Projected Sales

Why Most Schedules Are Wrong

Most independent restaurants build next week's schedule by copying this week's. That guarantees you repeat the same mistakes — and the same labour cost percentage — regardless of how sales actually move.

Start With a Sales Forecast

Before you write a single shift, forecast your sales by day and by daypart (lunch vs dinner). Factor in:

• Day of week (your historical average)
• Weather (rain and snow suppress patio and walk-in traffic)
• Special events and holidays
• Seasonality

Convert Sales to Labour Hours

A simple rule: for every $1,000 in projected sales, budget a target number of labour hours based on your target labour cost percentage. If your average wage is $18/hr and your target labour cost is 28%, then $1,000 of sales = ~15.5 hours of labour.

Foodie Run's forecasting engine projects daily sales using your history and local weather — then shows projected vs actual labour cost side by side.

Build the Schedule Last

Only once you have a sales forecast and a labour-hour budget should you assign names to shifts. This keeps the schedule accountable to the number that matters: labour as a % of sales.