Restaurant Group Reporting: Complete Guide for 2026

Running multiple restaurant locations means juggling multiple sets of data. Labor costs from your downtown spot, overtime alerts from your suburban location, payroll summaries scattered across different systems—it adds up to a lot of time spent piecing things together instead of actually managing your business.

Restaurant group reporting pulls all that information into one view, so you can compare performance across locations without the spreadsheet chaos. This guide covers the reports that matter most, how to analyze labor variance, and how to use 7shifts to track compliance and payroll across your entire group.

What is restaurant group reporting?

Restaurant group reporting brings labor, payroll, and performance data from multiple locations into one view. Instead of logging into each location’s system separately or waiting for managers to email spreadsheets, you see everything in a single dashboard.

For operators running two to five full-service restaurants, this means comparing labor costs, tracking compliance, and spotting problems across your entire group without the manual work. 7shifts provides multi-location reporting tools that pull data from scheduling, time tracking, and payroll into one place, so you’re not piecing together information from different sources.

Here’s what restaurant group reporting typically covers:

• Labor costs by location: What you’re spending on wages at each restaurant, broken down by department or role
• Scheduled vs actual hours: How your planned schedule compares to what employees actually worked
• Compliance tracking: Overtime alerts, break monitoring, and minor labor law requirements across all sites
• Tip and payroll data: Tip pooling summaries and payroll information without switching between systems

Why multi-location reporting matters for restaurant groups

Running multiple locations without consolidated reporting is like managing with blinders on. You’re piecing together data from different sources, hoping nothing slips through the cracks. Something always does.

Visibility across every location in real time

When you’re operating two, three, or five restaurants, you can’t be everywhere at once. Consolidated reporting lets you see what’s happening at all your locations from one screen.

No more logging into separate systems. No more waiting for your Tuesday manager meeting to find out Saturday’s labor ran over budget. You see it as it happens.

Faster decisions with consolidated data

Having all your data in one place speeds up decision-making. You can spot a location overspending on labor mid-week and adjust before payroll runs, rather than discovering the problem after the money’s already out the door.

If your downtown location is trending over labor budget by Wednesday, you know to tighten the weekend schedule there, not across all locations.

Fewer labor cost surprises

That “payroll shock” moment, when you see the final numbers and wonder how they got so high, usually comes from overtime you didn’t see coming. Multi-location reporting shows you who’s approaching overtime before they hit it, across all your restaurants.

If an employee works at two of your locations, you can catch them heading toward 40 hours before they cross the threshold.

Essential reports for restaurant groups

Not all reports carry equal weight. Here are the ones that matter most when you’re managing multiple locations.

Report Type	What It Shows	When to Use It
Labor cost report	Total wages by location, department, or employee	Weekly during schedule building
Scheduled vs actual hours	Variance between planned and worked hours	After each pay period
Overtime and compliance	Who’s approaching or exceeded overtime thresholds	Daily or in real time
Payroll and tip distribution	Wages, tips, and deductions by employee	Before payroll processing
Employee attendance and engagement	Attendance patterns, no-shows, shift pickups	Monthly or during reviews
Sales to labor	Labor spend relative to sales revenue	Weekly with sales data

Labor cost reports

A labor cost report breaks down what you’re spending on wages by location, department, or individual employee. This is your baseline for understanding where your money goes.

Most restaurant groups target labor costs between 25% and 35% of revenue, though this varies by concept. Fine dining typically runs higher; quick service often runs lower.

Download: Free labor cost calculator template

Scheduled vs actual hours reports

This report compares what you planned against what actually happened. It reveals whether managers are sticking to the labor budget or if employees are clocking in early, staying late, or picking up unplanned shifts.

A consistent gap between scheduled and actual hours usually points to a process problem, not a people problem.

Overtime and compliance reports

Overtime tracking helps you avoid surprise costs. Federal rules require 1.5x pay after 40 hours per week, but some states have daily overtime requirements too. Check your state department of labor for specific rules.

Compliance reports can also flag potential break violations or issues with minor labor laws. Requirements vary significantly by location.

Payroll and tip distribution reports

For restaurant groups with complex tip pooling, where servers tip out runners and runners tip out kitchen, payroll reports consolidate everything in one place. You see wages, tips, and deductions by employee across all locations.

This is especially useful before processing payroll. Catching an error before checks go out is far easier than fixing it after.

Employee attendance and engagement reports

Attendance data reveals patterns: which employees consistently call out, who picks up extra shifts, and where no-shows cluster. Over time, this helps you identify reliability issues and your most dependable team members.

Sales to labor reports

Comparing labor costs against sales tells you whether you’re staffed appropriately for the volume you’re doing. If one location’s labor percentage is higher than another on similar revenue, that’s worth investigating.

This report requires POS integration to pull sales data alongside labor costs.

Related watch: What should your restaurant labor cost be?

How to compare scheduled vs actual labor costs

Analyzing labor variance isn’t complicated, but it does require a consistent process.

1. Pull your projected labor report

Start with your published schedule. This shows total scheduled hours and estimated labor cost by location or department. It’s your baseline, what you planned to spend.

2. Run your actual hours report

Next, pull your time clock data. This shows what employees actually worked versus what was scheduled. The difference between the two numbers is your variance.

3. Identify variance by location or department

Look for patterns. Is one location consistently over budget? Is back-of-house running higher than front-of-house?

Common causes of labor variance include:

• Early clock-ins: Employees arriving before their scheduled start time
• Shift extensions: Shifts running longer than scheduled without manager approval
• Unscheduled overtime: Employees picking up extra shifts that push them past threshold
• No-shows covered by overtime: Callouts filled by employees already near their weekly limit

Once you identify the pattern, you can address the root cause, whether that’s tightening clock-in rules, adjusting schedules, or having a conversation with a specific manager.

How to track labor compliance across locations

Compliance gets complicated when you’re running multiple locations, especially if they’re in different states or municipalities. Labor laws vary significantly by location, so what’s legal in one city might violate rules in another.

Overtime alerts and tracking

Overtime tracking in a multi-location environment means watching employees who work at more than one of your restaurants. Someone might work 25 hours at your downtown location and 20 at your suburban spot. That’s 45 hours total, and five of them are overtime.

Real-time alerts help you catch this before it happens, not after.

Break compliance monitoring

Some states require meal and rest breaks at specific intervals. Break compliance reports flag when employees may have missed required breaks, giving you a chance to address the issue before it becomes a violation.

Requirements vary by state. Check your local regulations to understand what applies to your locations.

Minor labor law reporting

If you employ anyone under 18, you’re dealing with additional restrictions on hours, scheduling, and job duties. The rules vary by state and sometimes by age.

Tracking reports help you stay compliant without memorizing every rule. Verify your local requirements with your state department of labor.

How to access and customize reports in 7shifts

Here’s how to get the most out of the reporting features in 7shifts.

1. Open the reports dashboard

The reports dashboard is your central hub. From here, you can access labor reports, compliance data, payroll summaries, and more in one place.

2. Select your report type

Choose from labor, compliance, payroll, or other report categories depending on what you’re looking for. Each category contains multiple specific reports.

3. Filter by location or date range

Narrow down your view to specific locations, departments, or time periods. This is especially useful when comparing performance across restaurants or investigating a specific week’s numbers.

4. Pin your most-used reports

If you check the same reports daily or weekly, pin them for quick access. This saves time and keeps your most important data front and center.

 

 

Doing this manually, pulling data from multiple systems and building spreadsheets, can eat up hours every week. Tools like 7shifts consolidate everything in one dashboard, so you spend less time gathering data and more time acting on it. Start a free trial to see how it works for your restaurant group.

How to check paychecks on 7shifts

Employees and managers can view paycheck information directly within 7shifts, which cuts down on questions and disputes.

• For employees: Open the 7shifts mobile app, navigate to the “My Pay” or “Paychecks” section, and view pay stubs for each pay period
• For managers: Access payroll reports through the dashboard to review team paycheck summaries before processing

Paycheck access requires your restaurant to use 7shifts Payroll or have payroll data integrated with the platform.

Get started with 7shifts reporting for your restaurant group

Running multiple locations without consolidated reporting means you’re always playing catch-up. With all your labor, compliance, and payroll data in one place, you can spot problems early and make faster decisions.

Start a free trial to see how 7shifts reporting works for your restaurant group.

FAQs about restaurant group reporting

Can I export 7shifts reports to send to my accountant?

Yes, 7shifts allows you to export reports in common formats like CSV or PDF, making it easy to share labor and payroll data with your accountant or bookkeeper.

What POS systems integrate with 7shifts for sales reporting?

7shifts integrates with many popular POS systems, including Toast, Square, Clover, and others. Check the 7shifts integrations page for the full list of supported systems.

How often do labor reports update in 7shifts?

Labor reports in 7shifts update in real time as employees clock in and out (if they’re on 7punches), so you’re always seeing current data rather than waiting for end-of-day summaries. Otherwise, the update frequency depends on your specific POS integration settings.

Can I schedule automated report emails in 7shifts?

Yes, you can set up scheduled reports to be emailed automatically at regular intervals, so you receive key data without logging in each time.