Using the TimeForge Sales feature, employee schedules can be compared to Manager Projections, Actual Numbers, and System Generated Forecasts. After creating the necessary Sales Category, numeric values should be entered into the Manager Projections area. Once the week (or day) is over, Actual Values from the Point of Sale system, Cash Register, Property Management System, or other revenue control system can be entered into the "Actual Values" area of the software.
You can project sales quickly and easily, just follow these steps.
Go to the Manager Projections page under the Sales tab
Open up the Sales tab and select Manager Projections from the menu.
Familiarize yourself with the Manager Projections table
Manager Projections can be used to forecast sales for the week (or day). Manager Projections are typically the "gut feeling," or estimates that you or managers create to project certain Sales Categories. Projections can be entered by hour or quarter-hour, and daily and weekly summations are easily viewable.
You can also copy a previous weeks projections by using the copy previous date link on the top left, as indicated below. Note that our Sales Category for this example is Gross Sales.
In the image above, there are no sales fields for 12am, 1am, 2am, or 3am because the "open" hours for this particular location are set to 4am to 8pm. The hours shown will always be dependent on any open / close hours that are currently defined for your location.
Start projecting sales - it's easy!
Enter or update your projections by the hour or quarter-hour. To enter quarter-hour projections, simply click the + plus sign next to a particular hour to expand it.
Any changes you make will be immediately saved, and changes to individual values will immediately update the totals per column.
At the bottom of the page, you can see a graphical representation of your total weekly sales based on the Sales Category you chose.
Configure your Sales Options
If you are the owner of your business' TimeForge account or have the correct permissions, a number of settings are available to you under Sales Options, including:
- Allowing Supervisors to access the Sales module in TimeForge
- Viewing Manager Projections and System Forecasts on the labor schedule
- Enforcing the labor ratios, which will disable the posting of schedules unless they meet the necessary labor ratio percentages
To configure these settings, select the Sales Options page from the left side menu.
Make your selections based on how your business works and how you'd like TimeForge to work for you.
Don't forget to click Save if you make any changes to your Sales Options.