Future forecasting made easy with goRoster –The Old Vicarage and Bootleg BBQ

Campbell Parker is one of the brains behind two of Christchurch’s must-eat restaurants.

Opening in March 2015, Bootleg BBQ is an inner-city destination providing the city’s meat and craft beer lovers with a real taste of American cuisine. The Old Vicarage, which Campbell has owned for the past 10 years, is an iconic restaurant on the outskirts of Christchurch.

Campbell says he relies heavily on goRoster as a budgeting and staff management tool for both venues. “goRoster is so engrained in the businesses, it’s become part of our daily routine.”

Seeing into the future

One of the benefits of goRoster is the ability to add estimated takings and compare them against staff cost levels.

Campbell uses goRoster as a budget modelling tool to help him get his costings right for upcoming weeks. Once the head chef and restaurant manager have completed the week’s rosters, Campbell can compare this against his previously entered forecasted budget.

“Everyone can then see how the numbers are doing. If we’re over or under our targets, it gives us time to rethink and readjust things. goRoster allows us to be really proactive.”

Smooth sailing

goRoster is pivotal in helping Campbell keep track of how both businesses are performing. He says the first job of his administrator every morning is to adjust the hours worked by staff and add the actual sales takings into the roster.

“So each morning, I know exactly how we went the previous day. It makes it easy to keep track of how we’re travelling and to react accordingly.”

Campbell says that goRoster also makes it simple to get an overview of the labour efficiency for both businesses instantly. “All I need is one login and one password and I can see it all there in front of me. It’s great!”

Managing staff made easy

goRoster has also simplified the way Bootleg BBQ and The Old Vicarage manage staff.

Previously, one timesheet was used for each employee for a week, which created a lot of paperwork to manage at the end of a week. With goRoster, there are only seven timesheets – one for each day of the week – allowing managers to sign off start and finish times for each employee on one piece of paper.

“It saves a lot of time shuffling through screeds of paper to see who did and didn’t work on a particular day. With goRoster we can grab a day’s timesheet and instantly see who worked and what the cost of that day was.”