Actual Revenue Tracking
Budget percentages on the rota are based on forecast revenue - your estimate of how much the venue will take that week. Once a day or week has passed, you can record the actual takings (ex VAT) so that wage percentages reflect reality rather than estimates.
This gives you a true picture of labour cost efficiency: not "we planned to spend 32% of what we hoped to earn", but "we actually spent 34% of what we actually earned".
Why It Matters
A forecast-only system has a blind spot. If your forecast was optimistic, your actual labour percentage is worse than the rota suggests. If the week was stronger than expected, your real percentage is better.
Example:
| Forecast | Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly revenue | £8,000 | £6,500 |
| Labour cost | £2,400 | £2,400 |
| Wage % | 30% | 36.9% |
The rota showed 30% - on target. But the venue only took £6,500, so the real wage percentage was 36.9%. Without actual revenue tracking, this gap goes unnoticed until the P&L arrives weeks later.
Entering Actual Revenue
There are two ways to record actual takings.
From the Rota Builder
Open any past or current week's rota. In the Budget Tracker bar at the top, you will see an Enter Actuals button (or Edit Actuals if you have already entered values for that week).
Click it to open the Actual Revenue modal.
From the Dashboard
The StaffBrik Dashboard shows a Revenue Actuals Needed card when past weeks have missing actuals. This is designed for operators who manage multiple locations - you can quickly see which sites and weeks still need actual revenue entered, and fill them in without navigating to each rota individually.
Each row shows the location name, week, number of missing days, and an Enter button that opens the entry modal directly.
The dashboard widget checks the last four weeks by default. Make it a habit to enter actuals at the start of each week for the previous week. This keeps your labour cost data current and your budget forecasts more accurate over time.
Daily vs Weekly Entry
The Actual Revenue modal offers two entry modes, matching how forecasts are set:
Daily Mode
Enter actual takings for each day of the week individually. This is the recommended approach because it gives you per-day wage percentages in the Daily Breakdown Bar.
Example:
| Day | Actual revenue | Labour cost | Wage % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | £800 | £310 | 38.8% |
| Tuesday | £850 | £310 | 36.5% |
| Wednesday | £1,100 | £380 | 34.5% |
| Thursday | £1,200 | £420 | 35.0% |
| Friday | £1,800 | £490 | 27.2% |
| Saturday | £2,200 | £560 | 25.5% |
| Sunday | £650 | £210 | 32.3% |
This reveals that Monday and Tuesday had poor labour efficiency (close to 40%), while Friday and Saturday were well below target - valuable insight for future scheduling.
Weekly Mode
Enter a single total for the whole week. The system splits it evenly across all seven days. Use this if you only have a weekly total from your till system or accountant.
Daily mode is strongly recommended for venues with uneven trading patterns (which is most hospitality businesses). A weekly total masks important day-level information.
What You See After Entering Actuals
Once actual revenue is recorded, the rota view updates in two places:
Budget Tracker
The bottom row of the Budget Tracker shows both percentages:
- Primary (bold): "X% of actual revenue" - your real wage percentage based on what the venue actually took.
- Secondary (lighter): "Forecast: Y%" - the original estimate for comparison.
This dual display lets you see at a glance whether your forecast was accurate and whether your actual labour efficiency met your target.
Daily Breakdown Bar
Each day in the breakdown bar shows a wage percentage. When actual revenue has been entered for a day, the percentage switches from forecast-based to actual-based and is marked with a small A indicator.
- Days with actual revenue: percentage based on real takings, marked with A.
- Days without actuals: percentage based on forecast (the existing behaviour).
Hover over any day's percentage to see the full detail - "Actual: 34.5% of £1,100 revenue" or "Forecast: 35% of £1,000 forecast".
Future Days Are Locked
You can only enter actual revenue for days that have already passed. The current day and all future days are greyed out in the entry modal - you cannot record takings for a day that has not happened yet.
For the current week, this means you can enter actuals for days already completed while leaving the rest for later.
Copy from Forecast
If your actual takings were close to the forecast, you can click Copy Forecast in the modal to pre-fill all fields with your forecast values, then adjust only the days that differed. This saves time when forecasts are reasonably accurate.
Multi-Location Support
Actual revenue is tracked per location, per week - matching how rotas and budgets are structured.
The Revenue Actuals Needed widget on the dashboard shows all locations with missing actuals, so a multi-site operator can work through them in one session rather than navigating to each site's rota individually.
| Location | Week | Missing days | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Street Cafe | w/c 10 Mar | 7 days | Enter |
| Station Road Restaurant | w/c 10 Mar | 3 days | Enter |
| High Street Cafe | w/c 3 Mar | 2 days | Enter |
For multi-location operators, set a weekly routine: every Monday morning, open the StaffBrik dashboard and enter last week's actuals for all sites. This takes a few minutes and ensures your labour cost data is always up to date.
Automatic Sync from Your POS
If your venue has a POS system connected to Brikly, actual revenue can be automatically synced from your daily sales data. This runs overnight and fills in any days where you have not already entered a figure manually.
How It Works
- Each night, Brikly checks your POS daily sales summaries for locations linked to a rota.
- For any past day where the actual revenue column is still empty, it pulls the net revenue figure and populates it automatically.
- The weekly total is recalculated from all available daily values.
Days that were auto-synced from POS are marked in the Actual Revenue modal so you can see at a glance which figures came from your till system and which you entered by hand.
Manual Entries Always Take Priority
The sync never overwrites a value you have entered manually. If you type in a figure for Tuesday, that figure stays - even if the POS data for Tuesday arrives later. This means you are always in control of the numbers used for your wage percentage.
If you do enter a manual value for a day that was previously synced from POS, the system updates the figure and notes that it is now a manual entry.
When POS Sync Is Not Available
If your venue does not have a POS integration, or if your POS is not yet connected, actual revenue entry is fully manual. You can enter figures from your till reports, accounting system, or any other source.
Even with POS sync enabled, it is worth reviewing the auto-populated figures periodically. POS revenue may include items you want to exclude from your labour cost calculation (e.g., gift card activations, deposits). If the synced figure does not match what you consider "real" revenue for that day, simply overwrite it - your manual entry takes priority.