What's covered in this guide?:
Overview
Cost Reports help you track labour costs from different perspectives, location, team, employee, date, and wage categories.
They are designed to make it easy to compare Scheduled vs. Actual (Timesheet) vs. Budgeted costs and identify overspending.
Access Cost Reports
To access cost reports:
In the main navigation, go to Reports.
Select ‘Costs’ from the list, and the available reports will drop down.
Choose the specific cost report type you want to run.
Configure Cost Reports
Each cost report has its own set of configuration options. Common options across reports include:
Columns to display
Rows to display (Costs by Employee only)
Date range
Teams worked in
Team Groups (if applicable)
Default Payroll team (if applicable)
Classification tags (if applicable)
Allowances (Costs by Employee only)
Positions (if applicable)
Employment status (if applicable)
Include on-costs (if applicable)
Show charts
Compare to previous
Once you have chosen your configuration, click Generate.
Report Types
1. Costs by Location & Team
What it shows: Scheduled Cost, Timesheet Cost, and variance, grouped by location and team.
Use it for: Comparing costs across multiple sites or teams, spotting budget overruns.
2. Costs by Date
What it shows: Daily Scheduled vs. Timesheet Cost and differences.
Use it for: Pinpointing when overspending began, analyzing daily cost trends.
3. Costs by Team Group
What it shows: Cost variances grouped by team group.
Use it for: Managing department budgets and comparing group efficiency.
4. Costs by Employee
What it shows: Rostered vs. worked costs for each employee.
Use it for: Identifying high-cost employees, understanding individual cost drivers.
5. Costs by Wage Rate
What it shows: Breakdown of costs by wage rates.
Use it for: Wage analysis, optimizing pay levels.
6. Costs by Shift Tag
What it shows: Scheduled vs. actual costs grouped by shift tags.
Use it for: Reviewing cost impacts of specific shift types (e.g., nights, weekends).
7. Costs by Activity Code
What it shows: Labour costs broken down by activity code.
Use it for: Tracking costs against specific activities or cost centres.
8. Live Cost Report
What it shows: Real-time cost data by location and team for the current day.
Use it for: Monitoring labour costs as shifts are happening.
9. Real Wage Cost Report
What it shows: Actual wage costs based on interpreted pay rules.
Use it for: Reviewing true labour costs after award interpretation.
10. Overtime Report
What it shows: Overtime costs by employee.
Use it for: Identifying overtime spend and high-overtime individuals.
11. Forecast & Budget vs Actual
What it shows: Forecast and budgeted costs compared against actual results.
Use it for: End-of-period budget reviews and forecasting accuracy.
Budget Columns in Cost Reports
Some cost reports now include Budgeted Hours and Budgeted SPLH (Sales per Labour Hour):
Budgeted Hours:
Displays planned hours vs. scheduled and worked, including difference (%) to track under/over-staffing.
Available in the Date, Employee, and Location/Team reports.
Budgeted Sales per Labour Hour:
Compares actual and scheduled sales per labour hour against budget.
Useful for evaluating labour efficiency vs. sales.
Note: Refer to this guide to see how to report on Labour Budgets.
Fixed Salary Costs
For organisations with the Fixed Salary Cost setting enabled, salaried employee costs are distributed evenly across days and included alongside hourly wages and on-costs, enabling an apples-to-apples analysis of workforce costs across employment types.
For example, if a salaried employee's daily allocation is $100:
Days with no timesheet or rostered cost get a $100 fixed salary entry.
Days already showing hourly wage costs retain their original value — no duplication.
On-costs apply to the $100 daily rate when the organisation has on-costs enabled.
Quick Tips
Use filters (date range, teams, locations) to narrow your analysis.
Always check both variance columns — Scheduled vs. Actual and Budget vs. Actual.
Export reports as CSV or PDF for further analysis or sharing.
Make sure to toggle “Include on-costs” on or off, depending on what you want to view.