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Manage your Labour Model rules

Naomi Beemsigne
Updated

Available for the following plans:Standard, Premium, Platinum, Unlimited  
Available for the following User Access levels: Admin, Owner, Work Site Manager

The Labour Model feature allows managers to create structured staffing rules that automatically scale headcount with sales demand.

By linking specific positions (such as chefs or sous chefs) to Point of Sale (POS) metrics, you can establish consistent staffing patterns, control labour costs, and prevent service gaps across your venues. 

This process will work without connecting a POS if you manually add sales data into the system or via CSV import.

This article shows you how to manage the following:

Helpful Hint

In most scenarios, you will want to select forecasted metrics to drive your labour rules. However, you may want to use actual metrics in specific situations, such as:

  • When a work site is newly created with little history and does not have baseline forecasted metrics yet.
  • When you want to validate rules retrospectively to see how a new rule would have performed against past sales to test your thresholds.

View all configured labour rules for your work sites

Access the labour model dashboard
  1. Click the Time icon on the left-hand navigation menu.
  2. Click the Labour Model option under Schedule Management.
  3. Use the work site selector in the page header to filter and view configured active labour rules for your specific venue or location.

Helpful Hint

If no rules have been created yet for the selected work site, an empty state displays with an option to create a rule to start defining your demand-based staffing needs.

Create a labour rule with linear scaling coverage

Helpful Hint

Use Linear coverage when thinking in incremental rates (e.g., starting with 2 chefs minimum and adding 2 more chefs for every $500 in food sales). Linear mode works best when headcount scales continuously alongside sales revenue.

Set up a linear scaling staffing rule
  1. Navigate to the Labour Model page and verify your work site selection in the header.
  2. Click the Add rule button.
  3. Enter a clear title for the rule in the Rule name field.
  4. Select the Linear coverage type.
  5. Open the Metric dropdown menu and select the sales metric driving the rule (e.g., food sales or coffee and tea categories synced from your POS).
  6. Open the Positions dropdown menu and select one or multiple active roles to govern (e.g., Chef, Sous Chef).
  7. Configure the linear parameters:
    • Minimum: Set the baseline minimum staff required regardless of initial sales.
    • For every: Define the dollar step amount (e.g., $500).
    • Add: Specify the number of additional staff members to schedule per step.
  8. (Optional) Enter a Maximum staff value to establish an absolute cap on recommended headcount for these positions.
  9. Click the Save button.

Important

You must enter a step amount to save a linear rule; otherwise, a validation error occurs. Furthermore, the maximum staff cap cannot be less than the minimum baseline staff count.

Create a labour rule with range demand scaling coverage

Helpful Hint

Use Range coverage when thinking in discrete operational tiers (e.g., low, medium, peak demand). Range scaling works best when staffing changes step-by-step at distinct revenue thresholds (such as 1 sous chef for $0–$250, 3 sous chefs for $250–$500, and 6 sous chefs above $800).

Set up a range-based staffing rule
  1. Navigate to the Labour Model page and confirm the selected work site.
  2. Click the Add rule button.
  3. Enter a rule name and select the Range coverage type option.
  4. Select your driving metric and assign the target employee positions.
  5. Enter revenue range tiers and assign the target staff count for each tier.
  6. Click Add step to create additional custom range tiers.
  7. Ensure the final step row is set as an open-ended "and above" upper bound to cover maximum peak volume.
  8. Click Save to store the rule.

Important

A range rule requires a minimum of two step rows. The option to remove a row is disabled when only two rows remain. All range thresholds must be completed before saving.

Select a work site and configure point of sale metrics

Manage venue selections and point of sale metrics
  1. Click the work site selector in the top menu to view your active locations.
  2. Select a venue to display its POS integration choices.
  3. Review metrics mapped directly from your integrated POS provider:
    • Square integrations: Displays gross sales and net sales along with their forecasted variants.
    • Lightspeed integrations: Displays gross sales, net sales, and active category breakdowns (e.g., Food, Coffee & Tea), alongside forecasted variants.
  4. Identify data types via suffix labels: actual data is indicated by (Actual) while predicted demand uses (Forecasted).

Edit an existing labour rule to update staffing logic

Modify an active labour rule
  1. Navigate to Labour Model and locate your target rule.
  2. Click the Edit icon on the rule card.
  3. Adjust the rule name, coverage strategy, POS metric, positions, or threshold limits.
  4. Click Save to submit your updates.

Helpful Hint

Positions can only be assigned to one active rule per work site at a time. Assigned positions will appear greyed out in the selection list. Removing a position from a saved rule frees it up immediately for assignment to other rules within that work site.

Delete an outdated labour rule from your work site

Remove a labour rule permanently
  1. Locate the target rule on the Labour Model dashboard.
  2. Click the Delete icon on the rule card.
  3. Click the confirmation prompt to permanently remove the rule.

Helpful Hint

Deleting a rule instantly unlinks its positions, making them available for assignment in new or existing rules for that work site.

Further information

Understand rule status and archiving behaviours

Labour rules automatically respond to status updates made across your organization's work sites and positions:

  • Archived work sites: Archiving a work site automatically disables all tied labour rules and surfaces a warning on the dashboard.
  • Archived positions: If all positions assigned to a rule are archived, the rule is disabled and displays a warning status.
  • Partially archived positions: If only some assigned positions are archived, the rule remains active for the remaining active roles.
  • Restoring rules: Re-enable a disabled rule at any time by editing the rule, assigning active work sites or active positions, and saving.

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