Labor-Related Setup

Labor schedules rely heavily on settings established in both Enterprise Manager and Net-Chef. These settings can vary from one location to the next. Some settings are required for each location while others are optional.

Enterprise Manager Setup

Company: Week Ending Day

Corporate > Company

Users can control the order in which the days of the week appear in labor schedules by setting the “Week Ending Day” in the Company record in Enterprise Manager. That is, if the “Week Ending Day” is ‘Sunday’, then the week will start on Monday for scheduling purposes.

The Company “Week Ending Day” must also be consistent with the day of the end date of all Location Post periods for which users wish to create schedules, and with the day of all period end dates in the company Reporting Calendar that correspond to Location Post dates.

Financial Calendar: Post Calendar & Reporting Calendar

Corporate > Financial Calendar

The application lists week ending dates available for labor schedules based on the post dates set up in the Post Calendar for the current location, but only displays post dates that have the same weekday as the Company “Week Ending Day” and that have a corresponding record in the Reporting Calendar (i.e. a period with the End Date equal to the location post date).

Note: Users should not set up post periods with more than 7 days, because the application will only allow users to create labor schedules for a 7-day post period.

Locations: Labor Preferences

Corporate > Locations | Labor tab

The settings on the Labor tab allow corporate users to determine how labor schedules and labor schedule outputs will be handled at the selected location. The settings on this tab are inherited from the same tab in the Preferences screen.

Dayparts

General > Dayparts

The Daypart screen allows a user to divide the business day into segments such as "Breakfast", "Lunch", and "Dinner". The labor schedule organizes all of the 15-minute increments of the day (e.g. 08:00 to 8:15) by Daypart, placing each 15-minute increment in the Daypart in which it begins.

Stations

Labor > Stations

The Stations screen allows corporate users to create and maintain a list of work stations that can be used at all locations. Creating a list of stations will facilitate more robust labor scheduling by allowing managers to schedule employees to work at specific stations within a location.

Positions

Labor > Positions

The Positions screen allows users to define the different jobs for employees and associate them with General Ledger accounts, in order to classify the labor costs. One or more positions must then be assigned to each employee record in Net-Chef.

Labor Rules

Labor > Labor Rules

The Labor Rules setup screens allow users to create a list of labor rules by "City", "Country", "State/Province", & "Union," which are applied when scheduling employees and processing labor hours. Most of the labor rules are defined at the State level. This includes rules for Minimum Wages, Overtime Pay, Break & Meal Periods, Minimum Paid & Split Shifts, Reporting Pay requirements, and Minor Laws.

Net-Chef Setup

Employee Records

The Create Employee and Employee Maintenance screens allows managers to enter/edit each employee’s personal information, designate employees to work in a variety of positions and at alternate locations, and allows managers to enter employee availability for scheduling purposes.

Weekly Budgets (optional)

The View/Edit Budget Data screen allows managers to prepare budgets for each post period at each location. Budgeted labor values are used in the labor schedules; managers can compare the total scheduled labor cost to the total budgeted labor cost to help keep labor costs under control.

Sales Forecasts (optional)

The Manage Sales Forecasts screen allows managers to create sales forecasts for each week throughout the year. The labor schedules display forecasted sales values for each day of the week, to help managers anticipate labor needs based on expected sales volume.

Stations

The Stations screen allows location managers to see stations created at Corporate for all locations and to add new stations for the current location.

Positions

The Positions screen allows managers to link stations to positions and assign employees to positions based on priority.

Recommended Order Setup

If the "Display check count data" preference is selected in the Recommended Order Setup screen, the Sales Forecasts screen will allow users to enter forecasted check counts along with forecasted sales and guest counts.

Note: For more information on optional labor-related setup, see "Ideal & Earned Hours" for details about how Ideal Hours are configured & utilized.