The Labor Clock: You Can't Fix Last Week's Labor. The Clock Only Turns One Way.

Food is ordered, rent is signed — labor is the one big cost you can still change while it's happening. But only if you see it BEFORE it happens. The sample week averages a passing 25.2% and still leaks $14,716 a year: three slow days staffed like busy ones ($10,816), and quiet overtime on the two reliable people nobody watches ($3,900). The average never showed any of it.

How it works

• The Week Board — next week's forecast per day, scheduled hours against it, and the labor % with an OVER flag while there's still time to fix it. The over-target column prices every habit-scheduled day, weekly and yearly
• The Leaks — the habit schedule and the overtime creep, priced; plus the 8pm send-home decision with real numbers on both sides ($33 saved vs a $39 table — the forecast makes this call, not the mood)
• The Rituals — fifteen minutes on Thursday writing the schedule from the forecast, five on Monday asking whether the forecast missed or the schedule did, the number posted where the crew sees it (the volunteer early-out beats the awkward send-home every time), and overtime handled where it's created: in the schedule

Built for

Restaurants · cafés · bars · retail · salons — every business where the schedule IS the profit margin.

What you get

One .xlsx file, four tabs, instant download. Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, LibreOffice. No macros, no subscription. Copy the board per week; the old boards become next year's forecasts.