Time studies and labor recipes make up just part of the DLS system. Gathered data is combined with POS reporting that daily determines what items are being sold at the restaurant and when they are being sold. DLS automatically determines the best labor setup based on POS reports and time studies and can track special events like holidays, marketing promotions, and weather that might affect business. Workload forecasting is broken down into 15-minute intervals, and managers can look back to sales reporting from the previous weeks or years, in order to make better judgments about staffing.

Deterministics also provides ongoing labor recipe updates. If a chain introduces a new menu item or promotion, the software can incorporate those factors into the time study and forecasting features so that the work schedule keeps up with changing conditions.

Furthermore, all of the reports, scheduling forecasts, and other DLS tools are available online. The restaurant, the corporate office, and the POS are all plugged into the software.

But everything is not fixed. Restaurant managers have the ability to tweak and edit the schedule forecast as they see fit. “We feel strongly that the general manager needs to own the forecast,” Malmo says. “Although it is an automatic forecast, the manager can look at it and adjust it; we also have a tool that allows the manager to control everything.”

The main goal, Malmo says, is to provide a structure that makes sense to the manager so that the manager can get behind it and make it useful, as opposed to setting up another expectation that the manager has to meet. The system allows separate locations to manage their labor needs on an individual basis.

Restaurant managers can comb over the schedule with several features. They can use the program to assign specific employees to specific shifts. Detailed graphs show how many staff members are scheduled throughout the day in relation to what the workload forecast predicts is needed.

Aside from the labor forecasting and scheduling tools, DLS also features a menu and recipe analysis tool that allows managers to look at the demand for menu items and the work needed to produce and serve them. Items that are unpopular or take up too much labor can be quickly identified and adjusted if necessary.

T.G.I. Friday’s, which tested DLS prior to the product’s launch, is a satisfied user. According to a recent press release, T.G.I. Friday’s vice president of strategic operations has seen the software’s value in “hard ROI” and “soft savings.”

But what type of initial investment is involved? The setup fee averages $375 per unit. Casual-dining chains tend to have various configurations of tables, bars, and other factors that can make set-up more labor intensive and expensive. Quick-serve establishments tend to be more standardized—less work, less associated costs. Regardless of the initial set-up costs, $100 to $150 covers all reporting and processing work.