Coverage Targets
A coverage target turns the demand forecast into a concrete staffing goal: how many people you should have on the floor in each 30-minute interval of the day. It combines the forecast's demand shape with your staffing rules, so the busy periods get more heads and the quiet ones fewer — without exceeding the limits you set.
Coverage is a read-only planning aid. It suggests a target and shows how your current roster compares; it never changes shifts on its own.
Staffing rules (per location)
Set these in Settings → Staffing levels, one row per location:
| Setting | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Min staff | The fewest people that must be scheduled in any open interval — a service-level floor. |
| Max staff | The most people to schedule in any interval — a cost ceiling. |
| Daily hours cap (optional) | A cap on total paid hours distributed across the day, regardless of demand. |
| Cost target % (optional) | A labour-cost target as a share of forecast revenue — see Labour-Cost Ratio. |
Not sure where to start? Click Suggest from history to pre-fill min and max staff from the location's published shifts over the last 12 weeks, then adjust and Save. Each location shows whether it is Configured or Not configured.
The minimum-staff floor always wins over cost limits: service level comes first, and any resulting overrun is shown honestly rather than hidden.
How the target curve is built
- Start from the forecast's demand shape (expected visitors per interval).
- Distribute the day's labour-hour budget across the intervals in proportion to demand — peaks get more, troughs get fewer.
- Apply the min/max staff clamp to every interval.
The result is a per-interval target head count for the open hours of the day.
Reading the coverage overlay
On the roster day view, the coverage overlay shows, per interval:
- the target head count (from the forecast), and
- the scheduled head count (from your current draft/published shifts),
so you can see at a glance where you are under-staffed (a gap to fill) or over-staffed (heads you could move). Hover an interval to see its target, scheduled count, and gap.
Below the chart, a daily summary shows the Allocated labour (suggested hours after limits), the Hours cap if one is set, the hours Allocated across intervals, and any Unmet hours that the limits prevented from being covered. When a cost target is set, the staff-cost ratios appear here too.
When staffing is not configured
If a location has no min/max staffing set, the overlay still shows the demand-shaped suggestion but marks the location as not yet configured, with a link to the staffing settings. If there is no forecast for the date, the overlay shows an explicit no-forecast state instead of a zero curve.
Access
Coverage targets are visible to Supervisor, Manager, and Company Admin roles. Editing staffing rules requires Manager or Company Admin.
Next steps
- Have the system draft shifts that hit these targets: AI Roster Drafting.
- Keep labour cost within a target share of sales: Labour-Cost Ratio.