Labour Forecasting & Optimisation

Introduction

Labour is one of the largest costs in a restaurant, and it is hard to control if you set staffing by habit. Forecasting software takes past sales, and sometimes weather, events and holidays, and predicts how busy each day and hour will be. It then works out how many people you need and can build a schedule to match. The aim is enough staff on a busy Friday and fewer standing idle on a quiet Tuesday. Some products do only the forecast, some turn it into a rota, and some sit inside a wider back-office suite with inventory, accounts and reporting.

Who needs it

Businesses with enough sales history to spot patterns and enough staff that a poor rota is expensive: multi-site restaurants, quick-service chains and franchise groups. A single small cafe is unlikely to gain much. It becomes worth considering when managers set staffing by feel and headcount varies widely against sales from one site to the next.

Written 30 September 2026