Getting Started with Insights+ (Early Access)

In this article you can find out, how to get started with Insights+.

Insights+ is Shiftbase’s new labour cost management suite, designed to help you control labour expenses, improve scheduling efficiency, and optimise profitability.

With target setting, you can establish clear labour cost and productivity benchmarks, enabling real-time insights into your scheduling decisions.

Contents

⚡ Why use target setting?

🔑 Getting started: What you need

⚙️ How to set targets in Shiftbase

📅 Where targets appear in the Schedule

📊 Turn targets into action

📣 Next steps

Insights+ is free for all Premium and Enterprise Plan users during Early Access. Right now, you can use it as much as you like to track labour costs, optimise scheduling, and improve profitability.

⚡ Why use target setting?

• Eliminate guesswork – Know exactly how much labour costs are sustainable for your business.
• Optimise staffing decisions – Prevent over- and understaffing by aligning shifts with financial targets.
• Track profitability in real time – See live comparisons between scheduled labour costs and forecasted turnover.

🔑 Getting started: What you need

For accurate target Setting, make sure your account has:

• Hourly wages set for all employee contracts (added manually or imported via an employee integration).
• Forecasted turnover entered into the schedule for each day.

Once these are configured, you can start setting labour cost targets at the department level.

⚙️ How to set targets in Shiftbase

Navigate to Settings > Organisation > Insights+ target setting to configure your yearly targets for each department. In your organisation settings, you can open target settings by clicking on the target icon per department.

• Productivity target ($/€/£ per scheduled hour)

  • Formula: Turnover forecast ÷ Scheduled hours

    • Indicators:

      • ✅ Above target (green)

      • ⚠️ 0-3% Below target (yellow)

      • ❌ >3% Below target (red)

• Labour cost % target

  • Formula: (Total salary ÷ Turnover forecast) × 100

    • Indicators:

      • ❌ Below target (red)

      • ⚠️ Up to 2% Above target (yellow)

      • ✅ >2% Above target (green)

• Average hourly wage target ($/€/£ per hour)

  • Formula: Total salary ÷ Scheduled hours

    • Indicators:

      • ❌ Below target (red)

      • ⚠️ Up to 10% Above target (yellow)

      • ✅ >10% Above target (green)

📅 Where targets appear in the schedule

Once targets are set, your new insights are available directly in the schedule view. Simply select Show targets under the filter button. From there, you’ll see:

🔹 New schedule metrics

• Maximum Deployable Hours (Turnover forecast ÷ Productivity target)
• Productivity (€ per scheduled hour)
• Labour Cost % (Total salary ÷ Turnover forecast × 100)
• Average Hourly Wage (€ per hour)

📌 Totals column enhancements

• • Always visible even when filters are disabled.
  • Available in Employee/Team + Week/Month view (not available in Day or compact month view).
  • Shows actual yearly targets based on your settings.

🔐 Permissions & restrictions

• • Only users with schedule creation or editing permissions can view and access target-related data in the schedule.
  • Manage account permissions are required to modify target settings in the organization settings.
  • In the final week of the year, overlapping targets will follow ISOWeek standards.
  • Target-related data will include surcharges and Cost of Company (COC)

📊 Turn targets into action

With your labour cost targets set, here’s how to use them to drive smarter scheduling and higher profits.

1. Optimise schedules in real time

   • Check labour cost % vs. target as you plan shifts.
   • If over target (red): Reduce overtime, rebalance shifts, or adjust staffing levels.
   • If under target (green): Ensure you’re not understaffed, protecting service quality.

2. Justify decisions with data

   • Show finance teams how schedules impact costs.
   • Help managers align staffing with profitability goals.
   • Provide leadership with clear, measurable insights on efficiency.

3. (Coming soon) track & adjust performance trends in Insights+

   • Weekly & monthly check-ins: Spot patterns and refine staffing for peak vs. slow periods.
   • Year-end view: Use real data to fine-tune next year’s labour budgets.

📣 Next steps

🚀 Try it now: Go to Settings > Organisation > Insights+ Target Setting and set up your targets!

💡 Need help? Reach out to our support team with any questions or feedback.

📢 Got feedback? We’d love to hear from you. Our product team is actively working on Insights+ and would love to have a chat with you. Find a time here.

🔜 What’s next? More Insights+ features are coming soon.