Sales and labor
Sales
The sales report answers what came in. Read it with three distinctions in mind:
- Gross vs net. Gross is before discounts and refunds; net is after. A promotion-heavy week moves them apart.
- Sales vs payments. Sales is what was ordered; payments is what was collected. They differ when checks are open, when a payment is part-settled, or when a refund lands on a different day from the sale.
- Sales categories. Every item counts toward a sales category. If a category looks empty, the usual cause is items that were never assigned one.
Labor
The labor report answers what it cost to be open. It draws on clock-in data, so it is only as accurate as the time clock.
- Labor as a percentage of sales is the number most operators watch.
- Scheduled vs actual shows where shifts ran long.
- Overtime is flagged where your configuration defines it.
Compare the same daypart, not the same clock hour
Comparing 6pm–9pm Friday against 6pm–9pm Tuesday says something. Comparing whole days across a week with a holiday in it mostly measures the holiday.
When labor looks wrong
- Did everyone clock out? An open shift keeps accruing. This is the most common cause of an alarming labor percentage.
- Were breaks recorded? Unrecorded breaks inflate paid hours.
- Is the period right? Same time-zone rule as everywhere else — see Reports overview.