Financial summary and roster budgeting

This article explains RosterElf's budgeting system for planning your roster by hours, labour cost or even labour percentage. This comprehensive article allows you to get the most out of budgeting with RosterElf.

Introduction to RosterElf Budgeting Tools

Before getting stuck into things, here is an overview of the budgeting tools you can use and the data behind the numbers.

The Financial Summary
	The Revenue Forecast allows you to add your estimated revenue for the period. You can set forecasts in the Daily, Weekly, and Monthly views. Suppose you set your forecasts Monthly and switch the roster to a weekly or daily view. In that case, the revenue forecast will adjust proportionally to the period, as will setting it weekly and switching to the daily view. If you set your forecasts for a shorter period and want to switch to a longer roster period, it will add up the separate forecasts. So, avoiding any gaps in your forecast periods is important if you set them more frequently than your roster view. Revenue forecasts are fixed to the period and will not adjust based on roster filters.
	Rostered Hours are the total hours for the shifts that are currently visible on the roster.  The hours will be updated for any changes to the roster. Including changing the period in view, any filters applied to the roster and any changes to the shifts in view.
	Estimated Labour Cost is the total cost of the shifts currently visible on the roster. It considers the pay rules and overtime for each shift based on your pay templates and each staff's payroll settings. The cost will be updated for any changes to the roster. Including changing the period in view, any filters applied to the roster and any changes to the shifts in view.
	Average Rate is the Estimated Labour Cost divided by the Rostered Hours of the shifts currently visible on the roster. The rate will be updated for any changes to the roster. Including changing the period in view, any filters applied to the roster and any changes to the shifts in view.
	Labour Percentage will only show if a Revenue Forecast has been set for the period. It is the percentage of your Revenue Forecast spent on Estimated Labour Costs for the shifts currently visible on the roster. The rate will be updated for any changes to the roster. Including changing the period in view, any filters applied to the roster and any changes to the shifts in view.
The Roster Metrics
	Roster Metrics are on the left side of each row of the roster, which are the sum of hours and labour costs for the shifts within the row of data. The row could be a staff, site or position, depending on the view of the roster you are using at the time.  The data will be updated for any changes to the roster. Including changing the period in view, any filters applied to the roster and any changes to the shifts in view.
Shift Metrics
	The shift metrics require the minimum of a site, a position, the shift length and a staff member for it to calculate. The shift metrics include: Shift Length - the paid hours for the shift. Break Length - the allocated minutes for the unpaid break as set in the custom break for the specific shift or the standard unpaid breaks in the roster settings. Shift Cost - The cost of the paid hours is based on the assigned pay template's pay rules. Pay Template - the assigned pay template based on the settings on the staff card for either the site or the position that the shift is for. Weekly Hours - the sum of hours for the staff member assigned to the shift. Weekly Cost - the sum of the shift costs for the staff member for the week. The fields will update as any changes to the shift are made.

Setting Up Staff

To calculate the cost of a shift, you first need to create pay templates and assign those pay templates to staff.

First, check your pay templates have pay rates on the Settings > Payroll page.

Ensure Staff Members are assigned the correct Pay Templates on the Staff tab by selecting the staff member and clicking the Payroll tab.

Settings up your Roster and Revenue Forecast

1. Select the Roster tab from the top of your screen.

2. Add your revenue forecast to the roster screen. 

3. As you add shifts to the roster, RosterElf will calculate labour costs for the shifts.

4. In the Financial Summary, you will see the total hours, the estimated cost, the average pay rate, and the labour percentage. Each item also compares the data to the previous period to assist you in further improving the targets that are most important to your business.

5. You can toggle between the different roster periods to drill down to a specific day or expand to a week or month. However, before expanding further than the period you set your revenue forecast for, ensure you have assigned revenue forecasts to cover the greater period. 

Different Ways to Drill Down on the Data

NOTE: The Financial Summary and Roster Metrics are calculated based on the shifts currently visible in the roster period. This allows for very powerful data analysis, but it is important to understand the impacts of filters and how to read the data.

Here are a few fictional scenarios to help give you an idea of what you can do:

Bob works for my company - RosterElf Enterprises Pty Ltd
He works across various positions - Bar and Manager
He also works across various sites - RosterElf Cafe and RosterElf by the Water

I have a team of 100 staff across the company that may work across different positions and sites.

If I wanted to know the total number of hours or labour cost for Bob compared to other staff for the week - I would switch the roster view to By Staff, make sure I am on the weekly view and turn off any filters. Then run my eyes down the Roster Metrics to see the comparisons. I can also sort the roster by Cost or Hours to see the shifts in that order.

•  I could then filter the same information by site to see the cost and hours assigned to each staff for that site
• I could change the roster period to zoom in or out of the number days in the period

If I wanted to see the labour cost or hours for each venue - I would set my roster view to By Site, apply the relevant roster period and sort the roster by hours or cost and look through the Roster Metrics.

• I could then switch to different roster periods to see the numbers over time

If I wanted to see how many hours I roster or how much I spend on each position - I would switch the roster to By Position view and look at the Roster Metrics and sort the roster by hours or cost.

• I could filter to a specific site(s) to see how 'position heavy' each site is, or
• I could filter to a specific staff, if I wanted to drill down to see how many shifts that staff member has across each position, and
• I could filter by site and staff to get very specific on the data.

These are just some general examples, but I'm sure once you start using the budgeting tools, you will see a lot of great uses across the system.