Emma's Problem: Too Many Venues, No Real Profitability Data

Emma runs a hospitality group with 5 cafés across Auckland. 60+ staff total.

Every second week, she gets spreadsheets from each café manager showing hours worked. She manually combines them into a master payroll spreadsheet. She enters staff names and hours into iPayroll (her payroll system). It takes 6-8 hours.

But here's the real problem: She has no idea which venues are actually profitable.

Her general manager says the Newmarket café is the "cash cow." Her accountant says the Takapuna café generates the most revenue. But without linking time costs to venue revenue, she's flying blind:

Is Newmarket actually profitable? Or does it just look good because it's busy?
The Takapuna café has high turnover — is that because wages are too high, or because service speed is slow?
The new Ponsonby venue started 8 months ago. Is it breaking even yet? She doesn't know.

The result: She's overstaffed at some venues, understaffed at others. She can't make strategic hiring decisions.

Why Hospitality Time Tracking Is Different

Hospitality is unique because:

1. Multi-Site Operations

You manage staff across multiple locations (venues, events, pop-ups). Each venue has different:

Revenue levels
Peak times (lunch rush, dinner service)
Staffing models (some venues are mostly part-time)
Payroll requirements (some use Smartly, others iPayroll)

2. High Labour Cost Percentage

Labour is typically 30-40% of revenue in hospitality. A small shift-scheduling error or slow payroll process compounds fast.

3. Variable Payroll Systems

Unlike construction (most use Xero Payroll), hospitality groups use different payroll systems:

Smartly (popular in NZ)
iPayroll (also popular, especially for multi-site)
Xero Payroll (some use this)
Spreadsheets (legacy operations)

Without integration, you end up with manual re-entry into multiple systems.

4. Profit Is Hidden

You know:

Total revenue: $500K/month
Total payroll: $180K/month

But you don't know:

Venue-by-venue profit margins
Which shifts are unprofitable
Where to cut costs without hurting service

How Clockie Fixes This for Hospitality

1. One Time Tracking System for All Venues

Instead of:

5 café managers with 5 different time tracking apps
5 spreadsheets to combine manually
Manual entry into iPayroll

You have:

One Clockie app across all venues
Centralized time tracking dashboard
One-click push to iPayroll (or Smartly)

2. Venue-Level Profitability Reporting

Clockie tracks:

Venue: Where they clocked in
Shift time: When they worked
Role: Server, barista, manager, kitchen
Hourly cost: Wage × hours
Labour hours by service: Lunch shift (10 people × 4 hours = 40 labour hours)

You can then compare:

Labour cost per venue: Does Ponsonby cost more to staff per customer?
Hourly productivity: Newmarket had 300 customers on shift, 40 labour hours = $7.50 labour cost per customer
Shift efficiency: Wednesday lunch shift typically has 8 staff but only serves 150 customers. Can we cut to 6 staff without impact?

3. Integration with Your Payroll System

Smartly: Clockie syncs clock-in data → auto-imports to Smartly employee timesheets

iPayroll: Similar integration — verified hours flow directly to payroll, no re-entry

Xero Payroll: Direct push to Xero Payroll (unique feature)

Choose your system. Clockie integrates with 9 NZ payroll systems:

Xero Payroll
Crystal Payroll
MYOB
iPayroll
Smartly
PaySauce
PayHero
Employment Hero
Thankyou Payroll

Real-World Example: Emma's Breakthrough

Emma switched to Clockie + iPayroll integration last month.

Before:

6-8 hours/week on payroll admin
No venue-level profitability data
Manual hours entry (errors every month)
One café running "close to margin"

After (4 weeks in):

Payroll admin dropped to 30 minutes/week (one-click push)
Venue profitability visible in the dashboard
Zero manual re-entry errors
Identified that Ponsonby café was 12% overstaffed during off-peak hours

The shift: Emma cut 2 part-time shifts at Ponsonby without hurting service quality. Annual savings: $8,000. She reinvested that into a marketing push at the slower Takapuna venue.

How to Get Started: Hospitality Setup in Clockie

Step 1: Add All Venues

Go to Settings > Locations
Add:

Venue name
Address
Manager name
(Optional) Budget/revenue target for the month

Step 2: Add Staff to Venues

Assign staff to venues. Staff can be assigned to multiple locations (e.g., a manager floats between Newmarket and Takapuna).

Step 3: Set Up Job Codes (Optional)

Create "roles" or "job codes":

Barista ($22/hour)
Server ($20/hour)
Manager ($35/hour)
Kitchen ($21/hour)

When staff clock in, they select their role. Cost is automatically calculated.

Step 4: Connect to iPayroll (or Smartly)

Go to Integrations > iPayroll
Authorize connection.

Clockie now syncs clocked hours to iPayroll automatically.

Step 5: Review Profitability

Go to Reports > Venue Profitability
See:

Labour cost by venue (this week, this month, this year)
Labour cost per shift
Variance from budget

Common Hospitality Scenarios

Scenario 1: Multi-Venue Café Chain

Setup: 5 locations, 60 staff, Smartly

Each venue manager has Clockie on their tablet
Staff clock in on kiosk mode (simple button taps)
Venue manager reviews clock-ins daily
Once per week, Clockie syncs to Smartly (verified hours, no errors)
CEO reviews profitability dashboard (labour cost per venue, per shift)

Scenario 2: Restaurant Group with Seasonal Staff

Setup: 3 restaurants, 40+ staff, iPayroll

High turnover (hospitality is seasonal)
New staff enroll their face (optional face verification to prevent buddy punching)
Staff clock in on personal devices (works on unreliable café WiFi, syncs when online)
Payroll manager gets verified hours pushed to iPayroll
No spreadsheets, no errors, no buddy punching

Scenario 3: Event/Venue Operator

Setup: Multiple one-off events, varying staff pools, iPayroll

Each event is a "location" in Clockie
Staff clock in at the event
Wages vary by event (some pay $25/hour, others $30/hour)
iPayroll is updated with event-specific wage rates
Profitability by event is tracked

The Bottom Line

Hospitality is fast-paced and unpredictable. You need time tracking that:

✅ Works across multiple venues
✅ Integrates with your payroll system (not forces you to change systems)
✅ Shows venue-level profitability
✅ Handles variable payroll rates
✅ Prevents buddy punching
✅ Is simple for staff (they don't overthink it)

Clockie does all of that.

And unlike Deputy (which forces you to pay for rostering even if you don't need it), Clockie is just time tracking + job costing + payroll integration. Nothing extra.

Try Clockie Free

See venue profitability in real-time. Integrate with Smartly, iPayroll, or Xero Payroll in minutes.

Start free trial →

No credit card. Multi-venue setup included.

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Time Tracking for Cafés & Hospitality: See Which Venues Are Profitable