The One Number That Should Exist Before You Write the Schedule
By now, the pattern should be clear.
Labor percentages don’t tell you what to schedule.
Industry averages don’t fit your operation.
Gut feel leads to cushion—and cushion costs cash.
You’re not short on effort.
You’re short on a clear target.
And that matters, because every week you’re making one of the most expensive decisions in the business—how many hours to put on the schedule—without a number that actually tells you what “right” looks like.
So what should exist before you write next week’s schedule?
The Number You’ve Never Been Given
Here’s what should exist before you schedule a single shift:
Projected Sales × Your Multiplier = Target Labor Hours
That’s it.
One number—your multiplier—that converts any sales forecast into the number of labor hours your operation actually needs.
If you’re projecting $4,000 in sales for Tuesday, and your multiplier is 0.0135:
$4,000 × 0.0135 = 54 hours
That’s your target.
Not a percentage to review after payroll.
Not a feeling.
Not a hope.
A number you can schedule toward before the week starts.
This is the missing piece behind everything I’ve written so far:
Why labor percentage doesn’t help you plan (Post 1)
Why “good” labor numbers still don’t turn into cash (Post 2)
And why overstaffing hides in places that feel fixed and reasonable (Post 3)
Why You’ve Never Been Given This Number
You’ve probably taken labor management courses.
Read articles.
Listened to podcasts.
Maybe even hired a consultant.
They all say the same things:
Track your labor percentage
Watch SPLH
Forecast sales
Control costs
All of that sounds right.
But none of it gives you the number.
Why?
Because the number is specific to your operation.
Your menu complexity.
Your service style.
Your ticket times.
Your kitchen layout.
Your prep requirements.
A fast-casual restaurant with a tight menu needs different labor per dollar of sales than a full-service restaurant with a large menu and table service. A lunch-heavy concept behaves differently than a dinner-only one.
Industry averages can’t capture that.
Generic advice can’t either.
So most training teaches you how to think about labor—but never gives you a number you can actually use when it’s time to build the schedule.
What the Multiplier Actually Represents
The multiplier isn’t magic. It’s not a trick. It’s just math—derived from your own data.
Every restaurant has a relationship between sales and labor. As sales go up, labor generally goes up too—but the ratio depends entirely on how your operation works.
The multiplier captures that relationship. It reflects:
Production labor
How long it takes to produce your food, given your menu and prep requirementsService labor
How much labor each transaction requires, given your service styleYour operational flow
How tickets move, how stations are staffed, how work actually gets done
When the multiplier is derived from your own numbers, it fits.
It isn’t borrowed.
It isn’t theoretical.
It’s calibrated.
What Changes When You Have It
Once you have a multiplier, Sunday afternoon looks different.
Instead of guessing, you calculate.
Instead of copying last week’s schedule, you build toward a target.
Instead of hoping the numbers work out, you know before you post.
The conversations change too.
It’s no longer:
“I think we’re overstaffed on Tuesdays.”
It becomes:
“The formula says 48 hours, and we’re scheduling 56. Where are those 8 hours?”
That’s a different kind of discussion—one that leads to answers instead of opinions.
The Gap You Can Finally See
Here’s the uncomfortable part.
Once you have a multiplier, you can see the gap.
You can compare what the formula says you need to what you’re actually scheduling—day by day, daypart by daypart.
For most operators, the gap is real.
Not dramatic.
Just consistent.
A few extra hours here.
A little cushion there.
Every week.
That’s the cash that’s been quietly walking out the door. Not because you were careless—but because you never had the number.
The Bottom Line
The number should exist before you write the schedule.
For most operators, it doesn’t.
That’s not a failure of discipline or effort. It’s a gap in the tools you’ve been given.
The fix is to derive your multiplier—the one number that converts projected sales into target labor hours, calibrated to your specific operation.
Once you have it, you stop guessing.
And the cash that was quietly leaking out?
It starts staying where it belongs.
Kwan Howard helps independent restaurant operators stop leaking cash — and make better weekly decisions about labor, scheduling, and operations.
Download the free guide:
Before the Schedule: The Cash Cost of Guessing
