Cut costs with AI-powered labor planning

Optimized shifts. Happier teams.

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Lower your labor costs by 2% or more

Only 33% of operators are extremely confident in their ability to stay within labor budgets each week.

Smarter schedules start with AI. Crunchtime uses predictive insights to align labor with demand—reducing costs, improving coverage, and keeping every shift on track. Gone are the days of guesswork, unnecessary overtime and overstaffed shifts. Your managers can always schedule with confidence and focus on running profitable shifts with happy customers.

See how it's done

AI-driven recommendations tell your managers exactly who to schedule

Every manager becomes a scheduling expert with predictive AI. No more guesswork or copying last week's schedule — the system recommends the right balance of employees to deliver great guest experiences during peak periods while keeping labor costs in check during slower times. As sales fluctuate, the Crunchtime dashboard highlights variances in real time, enabling managers to quickly adjust schedules and stay on budget.

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Get real-time data on your labor costs

33% of operators rank unpredictable demand fluctuations as the top challenge for reducing labor costs. Make smarter decisions on the go with real-time visibility into your labor data. Proactively monitor and manage employee hours, labor expenses, productivity and more. With a clear understanding of your key labor metrics, you can quickly identify and address any issues that may impact your bottom line.

real time sales cost data on labor variances with Crunchtime

Stay proactive with real-time labor alerts

Only 31% of operators are extremely confident in their scheduling system’s ability to balance staff efficiency within the labor budget. Our intelligent system automatically checks your schedules for potential issues like overtime violations or missed break requirements. During the shift, managers get real-time alerts on the mobile app for upcoming actions like meal breaks or overtime that can lead to inflated costs if not managed properly.

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Stay compliant and avoid penalty pay

Our innovative scheduling software complies with the constantly changing labor laws across different jurisdictions, even Fair Workweek. When creating schedules, compliance guard rails will alert you if your proposed schedule requires additional pay, or violates a regulation. With automated compliance every manager will be empowered to confidently create schedules in every jurisdiction.

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Learn how top brands like Five Guys, Jersey Mike’s, and sweetgreen use Crunchtime to achieve ops excellence.

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"With Crunchtime, we can see hours scheduled vs. our actual sales, and any variance between our forecasted sales and labor. Our store managers use this data to determine if they’re falling short of sales goals or if they need to adjust staffing levels."

George Anthony
Crunchtime Administrator
Five Guys

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What metrics should I track to monitor my labor costs? Actual-to-Earned hours is a helpful metric that indicates how long your employees should have worked during a shift based on the actual sales during their shift. By analyzing your restaurant’s earned hours versus the actual hours worked, you can see how well your managers are making adjustments and help them plan schedules and react better in the future. For convenience, Crunchtime provides these metrics directly on your dashboard, keeping your managers consistently informed about their labor costs.

What is my labor cost percentage? Labor typically accounts for one-third or more of your cost of sales, so it is important for restaurants to understand if they are spending too much in this area. Labor cost percentage is a useful metric that calculates the percentage of your revenue that pays for labor.

Labor Cost Percentage = (Labor / Sales) x 100

How can my restaurant managers control labor costs during shifts?

We understand that restaurant management can often be unpredictable and shifts don’t always go as planned. The best way to navigate this unpredictability is by providing your managers with access to real time data on sales, labor costs, variances, and more. Crunchtime’s easy-to-use mobile app informs your managers to help them make smarter decisions right from the store floor about when to send people home based on current sales and to avoid unnecessary overtime pay.

How can Crunchtime help us prevent costly labor law violations?

Labor law violations can result in significant unplanned costs for restaurants. To help restaurants maintain compliance, Crunchtime’s labor rules accommodate all federal, state, and city laws, including Fair Work Week, predictive scheduling, minor laws, and more.

When managers are creating schedules, Crunchtime will promptly alert the user if any labor law has been violated or if costs like overtime will be incurred. Crunchtime also provides managers with real-time alerts, like when it is time to send a minor employee home.