Department-Based Budgeting

Updated April 19, 2025 00:51

You can now use Department Based Budgeting to allow you to control how your sales divide and projections are calculated for each Department, allowing you to more accurately project your labor when creating schedules.

If supported with your POS, you will be able to customize the following in each department's budget:

Sales Categories

A sales category is a classification used within a Point of Sale (POS) system to group similar types of sales transactions. In the context of 7shifts and its integration with supported POS systems, sales categories help in organizing sales data for reporting and analysis. They can include various types of sales such as food, beverages, or specific promotions.

For accounts using Tip Pooling, they also determine how tips are pooled and distributed among employees, as they allow managers to set rules for tip contributions based on the type of sale. For example, a restaurant might have different sales categories for dine-in meals, takeout orders, and alcoholic beverages, each potentially contributing differently to the tip pool.

Revenue Center

A revenue center refers to a specific area or department within your business that generates sales. Examples include a "Bar," "Dining Room," "Takeout," or "Retail." Revenue centers can be used in conjunction with sales categories to provide more granular sales reporting and tip distribution. For instance, you might have a "Bar" revenue center with sales categories like "Beer," "Wine," and "Cocktails".

SKIP AHEAD TO:

Enabling Department Based Budgeting
Where you will see Department Based Budgeting in your account

Prerequisites

⚠️ This feature may require an upgrade from your existing plan.

⚠️ Department Based Budgeting is only available when an Actual Sales integration is enabled with the following POS systems: Aloha, Brink,Dinerware, Heartland, Lightspeed (L and K series), Micros 3700, Micros Simphony , Positouch, Squirrel, and Toast.

Enabling Department Based Budgeting

Follow these steps to set up Department Based Budgeting:

In the left navigation bar, head to Apps & Integrations > My Integrations.
Click on Settings next to a Location.
Under the Sales tab, toggle Department Based Budgeting:
Assign your sales categories:

Sales category mapping and assignment within 7shifts is supported for select POS integrations. If you do not see options for sales categories within your integration settings, this feature may not be available for your POS system.
Under the Assign Sales Categories tab, use the drop-down menu to toggle between departments.
- You must assign at least 1 category and center to each department.
- You can assign the same category or revenue center to more than 1 Department.
Assign as many Revenue Centres and individual Sales Categories as you'd like. The Revenue Centres and Sales Categories that you see will depend on how your specific POS is set up.
Click Save to complete these changes.

You're all set! Your Location is now set up with Department Based Budgeting. You can go back to update these categories anytime by going to Apps & Integrations > My Integrations > your POS > Settings > Assign Sales Categories.

Where you will see Department Based Budgeting in your account

Once Department Based Budgeting has been added to your account, you will see this reflected in 4 places:

Directly within the Labor Budget Tool on the schedule.
- Head to the Schedule tab at the top of the page and choose the department you would like to view data for.
- Scroll to the Budget Tool at bottom of the schedule, then click the '3 dots' to expand.
- The Actual Sales and Sales Projections you see here will be based on the categories you selected for that individual Department.
On the Dashboard within the Sales vs Labor tool.
- Head to the Dashboard tab at the top of the page.
- Select 'Sales vs Labor', filter by your Location, then the specific Department.
- The Actual Sales and Sales Projections you see here will be based on the categories you selected for that Department.
On the mobile Dashboard within the Sales vs Labor tool.
- Head to the Dashboard page by clicking on the 7shifts icon at the bottom of your screen.
- Select the filter icon and set your Location, and Department.
- The Actual Sales and Sales Projections you see here will be based on the categories you selected for that Department.
In the Actuals Report on the Reports page.
- Click on the 'Reports' tab at the top of your screen.
- Select the 'Actuals' report tab.
- Select your date range and filter by Department.