Staff is one of a restaurant’s biggest costs, and sales are not spread evenly across the day. Analysing sales by time slot lets you put each person where they are needed and adapt what you offer to each moment.
What to measure
- Average sales per hour, split by day of the week.
- Checks per hour, which show the real workload at the till and on the floor.
- Average check by time slot, to see which moments bring in more per guest.
How to read the heat map
A grid of days by hours, coloured by sales, shows peaks and troughs at a glance. The useful part is not the Saturday peak everyone knows about, but the less obvious patterns: a Tuesday afternoon that has picked up, an early hour that no longer justifies opening with the full team.
Decisions it supports
- Matching shifts to the real workload, hour by hour.
- Planning kitchen production to reduce waste.
- Running promotions in quiet hours rather than in the busiest ones.
- Setting each outlet’s opening and closing times with data.
Be careful with averages
An average can hide differences between outlets or seasons. Filter by outlet and compare equivalent periods (for example, the same month last year) before moving a shift.
In Keymets
The time slots report in Keymets F&B shows average sales by hour, shift and day of the week for each outlet, and the outlet detail report lets you drill down to any specific date. See also how to compare outlets in a restaurant group.