Retail Store Ops - live preview

Good morning, Sara

Riverside branch - 11 tasks today, 3 stock checks and yesterday's cash-up was short.

Tasks today114 already done

Stock checks due31 is high value

Cash variance-$42.10yesterday, unexplained

Sales vs plan104%week to date

Needs doing

3 open

Yesterday's cash-up is $42.10 shortUnexplained - needs a manager note before today closesVariance

High-value stock check - electronics bayWeekly count, due before 12:00Due

Promotion signage change - autumn rangeSent by head office, due todayTask

Tasks

What head office sent, what recurs daily, and who actually did it.

Today

Task	Source	Due	Assigned	Evidence	Status
Promotion signage - autumn range	Head office	Today	Sara Duarte	Photo required	Open
Fridge temperature log, morning	Recurring	09:00	Sara Duarte	Reading	Done
Fridge temperature log, evening	Recurring	17:00	Unassigned	Reading	Open
Electronics bay stock check	Recurring	12:00	Marta Kowalski	Count	Open
Waste log and disposal	Recurring	Close	Unassigned	Photo required	Open
Safety walk	Recurring	Open	Sara Duarte	Checklist	Done

A task requiring photo evidence cannot be marked done without it.

Stock checks

Counted blind, with variance that gets explained rather than absorbed.

Recent checks

Check	Area	Lines	Variance	Value	Counter	Status
SC-4412	Electronics bay	42	-	-	Marta Kowalski	Due
SC-4408	Spirits	38	-3	-$96.00	Sara Duarte	Approval needed
SC-4402	Chilled	112	-1	-$4.20	Sara Duarte	Posted
SC-4396	Ambient A	204	0	$0.00	Marta Kowalski	Posted
SC-4388	Electronics bay	42	-2	-$418.00	Marta Kowalski	Posted

High-value areas are counted weekly, everything else on a rolling schedule.

Cash-up

Counted, declared and reconciled to the till. Variance needs a reason, not a shrug.

Last 5 days

Date	Expected	Counted	Variance	Reason	Status
31 Aug	$4,182.60	$4,140.50	-$42.10	Not given	Unexplained
30 Aug	$3,918.20	$3,918.20	$0.00	-	Balanced
29 Aug	$5,204.10	$5,206.10	+$2.00	Rounding	Explained
28 Aug	$3,640.80	$3,628.80	-$12.00	Refund not rung through	Explained
27 Aug	$4,012.40	$4,012.40	$0.00	-	Balanced

A variance above threshold cannot be closed without a reason and a manager sign-off.

Branch sales

Against plan and against last year, by branch and by day part.

Sales, week to date$28,412104% of plan

Transactions1,842up 6% on last year

Average basket$15.42down $0.40

Branches, week to date

Branch	Sales	Plan	Index	Basket	Shrinkage	Trend
Riverside	$28,412	$27,300	104%	$15.42	0.9%	Ahead
Northgate	$21,180	$22,400	95%	$14.10	1.8%	Behind
Kelso Street	$34,900	$32,000	109%	$17.80	0.6%	Ahead
Ashby Road	$16,240	$18,900	86%	$12.90	2.4%	Behind

Ashby Road is behind plan and running the highest shrinkage - those are usually the same problem.

Labour

Hours scheduled against sales, so cover matches trade rather than habit.

This week, Riverside

Day	Scheduled hrs	Actual hrs	Sales	Sales per hour	Cover
Monday	42	42	$3,918	$93	Right
Tuesday	38	40	$3,640	$91	Right
Wednesday	38	38	$4,012	$106	Tight
Thursday	44	41	$5,204	$127	Under
Friday	52	52	$4,182	$80	Over
Saturday	64	-	-	-	Planned

Thursday was under-covered and Friday over-covered - the same hours, moved, would have served both.

Branches and templates

Which tasks recur where, and what evidence each one needs.

Task templates

Task	Applies to	Frequency	Evidence	Escalates	Status
Fridge temperature log	Food branches	Twice daily	Reading	Same day	Active
Safety walk	All branches	Daily, on open	Checklist	Same day	Active
Cash-up	All branches	Daily, on close	Count and reason	Immediate	Active
High-value stock check	All branches	Weekly	Blind count	Next day	Active
Waste log	Food branches	Daily, on close	Photo	Weekly	Active
Promotion changeover	All branches	Ad hoc	Photo	Next day	Active

A template change reaches every branch on the next cycle, without reprinting anything.

Audit log

Every variance, override and template change. Retained for seven years.

Events

When	Actor	Action	Target	Source
01 Sep 08:10	System	Flagged unexplained cash variance	Riverside, 31 Aug	scheduler
31 Aug 21:40	Sara Duarte	Completed cash-up, variance -$42.10	Riverside	tablet
31 Aug 12:20	Marta Kowalski	Submitted stock check, variance -3	SC-4408	tablet
30 Aug 09:00	Lena Brandt	Pushed promotion task to 4 branches	Autumn range	web
28 Aug 21:30	Marta Kowalski	Approved cash variance with reason	Riverside	tablet

Northgate

One store: its sales, its stock and its Saturday.

TradingUnderstaffed SaturdaySTO-0042 · Northgate · 1,840 sq ft · manager Rosa Iglesias

Northgate

Best sales per hour in the estate and the worst conversion. Saturday afternoon is rostered to the same headcount as Tuesday morning and turns away roughly forty customers a week.

Sales this week$84,200up 6% on last year

Conversion18.4%estate average is 24%

Sales per labour hour$142best in the estate

Stock accuracy94.2%target is 98%

The Saturday problem

Footfall, Saturday 12–171,240 · 34% of the weekPeak

Staff on shift3 · same as Tuesday morningUnchanged

Conversion in that window11.2% · 21.4% the rest of the weekHalf

Queue abandonment38 customers · observedLost

One five-hour window carries a third of the footfall and half the conversion rate. Two more people on it is roughly $6,000 a week of sales against $340 of wages.

Stock

Lines out of stock42 · 3.1% of rangeAbove target

Lines overstocked118 · slow sellersCash tied up

Last full count14 weeks agoOverdue

Shrinkage1.4% · estate average 0.9%High

Fourteen weeks since a full count on the branch with the highest shrinkage. Those two facts are usually the same fact.

People

Rostered hours this week188 · budget 192Under

Absence11 hours · 2 people

Overtime0 hours

Training overdue4 of 11 staff · till and safeguardingOverdue

The branch is under budget on hours and losing sales for want of them. Being under budget is not the same as being right.

Roster, week of 7 September

Who is on, when, and against what demand.

Hours rostered188budget is 192

Peak cover3 staffagainst 34% of footfall

Wage cost$3,1963.8% of sales

Shifts unfilled2both Saturday

This week

2 unfilled

Day	Window	Footfall	Staff	Ratio	Verdict
Saturday	12:00–17:00	1,240	3	413	Understaffed
Saturday	09:00–12:00	420	3	140	Right
Friday	16:00–20:00	680	4	170	Right
Tuesday	09:00–13:00	210	3	70	Overstaffed
Wednesday	09:00–13:00	190	3	63	Overstaffed

Customers per staff member per window. The last two rows are where the hours for the first row already exist, inside the same budget.

Moving six hours from two quiet mornings to Saturday afternoon costs nothing and is worth about $6,000 of sales. It needs somebody to look at the two windows side by side, which no rostering screen usually does.

Stock request

What the branch needs, and what it is waiting on.

Submitted42 lines out of stockREQ-8841 · Northgate · raised by Rosa Iglesias · 5 September

Request

132 units

Line	Product	Sold last week	On hand	Requested	Status
1	Insulated flask, 500ml	42	0	60	Out of stock 4 days
2	Walking sock, wool, M	38	2	48	Out tomorrow
3	Head torch, rechargeable	18	4	24	Low
4	Waterproof, adult M	11	31	0	Overstocked
5	Trekking pole, pair	9	28	0	Overstocked

The bottom two lines are the money that would have paid for the top two. They sit in the same request because separating them is how a branch ends up with both.

Where the stock is

Insulated flask184 units at Selby · 12 sold last weekTransfer

Walking sock0 in the estate · on order6 days

Head torch42 at Harrowgate · 4 sold last weekTransfer

Two of three are somewhere in the estate selling slowly. A transfer is same-day and free; a purchase order is six days and cash.

Overstock

Waterproofs31 units · 3 weeks of cover at this rateReturn

Trekking poles28 units · 3 weeks of coverReturn

Value tied up$2,840

Returning these funds the flasks. Nothing on a normal replenishment screen puts those two decisions in front of the same person.

Promotions

What is on, what it sold, and what it gave away.

Live promotions6across 42 stores

Uplift on promoted lines+184%against baseline

Margin given$62,400this period

Net margin effect−$8,200after uplift

This period

−$8,200 net

Promotion	Lines	Uplift	Margin given	Net effect	Verdict
Two for one, socks	12	+284%	$18,400	+$6,200	Worked
20% off waterproofs	34	+96%	$21,600	−$4,100	Lost money
Flask bundle	8	+212%	$8,200	+$4,800	Worked
Half price poles	6	+142%	$9,400	−$6,800	Lost money
Loyalty double points	All	+18%	$4,800	−$8,300	Lost money

Three of five lost money after the uplift is counted. The uplift column alone would call every one of them a success.

The two that worked were on lines with room in the margin. The three that did not were on lines already thin, discounted because they were slow, which is the same reasoning that made them slow.

Estate comparison

Every store on the same measures, ranked honestly.

Stores42across 4 regions

Above plan2457%

Conversion spread11–31%a threefold gap

Stock accuracy spread89–99%ten points

Top and bottom

42 stores

Store	Sales	Conversion	Sales per hour	Stock accuracy	Note
Cavell	$62,400	31.2%	$118	98.9%	Best conversion
Northgate	$84,200	18.4%	$142	94.2%	Best per hour, worst conversion
Selby	$71,800	26.1%	$121	97.4%	Balanced
Harrowgate	$58,200	24.8%	$104	96.1%	Under plan on sales
Ostervall	$41,600	11.4%	$88	89.2%	Bottom on everything

Northgate leads on the measure most estates rank by and is second from bottom on the one that says how many customers left empty handed.

Sales per labour hour rewards understaffing. Shown next to conversion it stops doing that, which is the only reason both columns are here.

Reports: activity

Volume and throughput, by owner and by category.

Sales this week$2.42macross 42 stores

Opened this month42against, closed

Median age-target is,

Owned by nobody2oldest is 3 weeks

Volume over time

12 weeks

Sales per week across the estate. Every peak is a Saturday, and the roster is the same on every one of them.

By category

This quarter

Clothing$842k

Footwear$612k

Equipment$486k

Accessories$284k

Nutrition$196k

By store manager

This quarter

Store manager	Open	Closed	Median days	Overdue
Cavell	-	$62,400	31.2	2
Selby	-	$71,800	26.1	3
Harrowgate	-	$58,200	24.8	4
Northgate	-	$84,200	18.4	6
Ostervall	-	$41,600	11.4	9

The fourth column is conversion, not sales. The store at the top of the sales table is fourth here, and the gap between the two is roughly forty customers a week walking out.

Reports: performance

Against target, with the gap named.

Against target24%estate conversion

Best store managerCavell31.2% conversion

WorstOstervall11.4%, bottom on every measure

Trend-1.2 ptson last quarter

Against target by category

100 is the target

Cavell31.2

Selby26.1

Harrowgate24.8

Northgate18.4

Ostervall11.4

Conversion tracks staff-per-customer at peak almost exactly. It does not track store size, range, or region, all of which get blamed first.

What moved

Rule-derived

Conversion down 1.2 pointsPeak-hour cover has not changed as footfall grewDown

Sales per labour hour up 4%Which is the same fact stated approvinglyWatch

Three promotions lost money netAll three were on already-thin linesDown

Threshold rules over the figures above, not a model. Each line names the number it came from so you can disagree with it.

Reports: exceptions

What breached, what is late and what nobody owns.

Breached6stores below plan

At risk42inside 48 hours

Unassigned2no owner at all

Reopened2closed then raised again

Exceptions

6 open

Store	Problem	Cost	Since	Fixable now
Northgate	Saturday peak understaffed	$6,000 a week	March	Yes, move 6 hours
Ostervall	Stock accuracy 89.2%	Unknown	January	Yes, full count
Northgate	No full count in 14 weeks	1.4% shrinkage	June	Yes, schedule one
Estate	Poles promotion below margin	$6,800	This period	Yes, end it
Harrowgate	42 lines out of stock	$4,200 a week	2 weeks	Yes, transfer

Every row on this list can be fixed this week without spending anything. That is unusual and it is why they are grouped rather than spread across five screens.

The largest single number here is six hours of roster moved from two quiet mornings to one busy afternoon, inside the existing budget. It has been visible since March.

People

Who has an account, and what they own.

People

188 accounts

Name	Role	Region	Last active	Status
Teodora Marin	Administrator	Head office	9 minutes ago	Active
Rosa Iglesias	Store manager	Northgate	25 minutes ago	Active
Bjorn Halvorsen	Area manager	North	1 hour ago	Active
Livia Constantin	Store manager	Cavell	2 hours ago	Active
Mikkel Sorensen	Sales assistant	Northgate	40 minutes ago	Active
Aisling Ronan	Merchandising	Head office	3 hours ago	Active

Deactivating somebody prompts you to reassign what they own rather than doing it silently, because an unowned record is how a register rots.

Roles

What each role is scoped to and what it may approve.

Roles

5 roles

Role	Type	People	Scope	Can approve to	Status
Administrator	Built in	2	Everything	No limit	Active
Area manager	Built in	4	Own region	Roster and markdown	Active
Store manager	Built in	42	Own store	$500 markdown	Active
Sales assistant	Built in	128	Own store, tasks and till	-	Active
Merchandising	Custom	12	Range and promotions	Sets promotions	Active

A role carries a scope and an approval ceiling. Both are enforced on the server; hiding a button is not access control.

Recent changes

Store manager markdown ceiling set at $500Teodora Marin · 4 JuneLogged

Merchandising given promotion margin visibilityTeodora Marin · 12 MarchLogged

Role changes sit in the same audit log as record changes, because both change what somebody can do.

Why custom roles exist

A store manager can move their own roster inside the hours budget
Only an area manager can exceed the hours budget, which keeps wage cost owned
A sales assistant can complete a task and cannot create one
Only merchandising sets a promotion, and they see its net margin effect

Permissions

Every capability against every role, as enforced.

What each role can do

10 capabilities

Capability	Administrator	Area manager	Store manager	Assistant	Merchandising
View own store	Yes	Region	Own	Own	Yes
Compare the estate	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Move the roster	Yes	Yes	In budget	No	No
Exceed the hours budget	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Request stock	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Transfer between stores	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Mark down to $500	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Set a promotion	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Complete a task	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
See store profitability	Yes	Region	Own	No	No

Enforced per query rather than by hiding controls. A scoped "yes" means the row exists but is limited, which is why some actions need a second person.

A store manager can move hours around inside the budget without asking. Only an area manager can spend more of them, which is the line between running a store and owning a wage bill.

Notifications

What the system sends, to whom, and when.

What is sent

Line out of stock with stock elsewhereTo the store manager, dailyOn

Peak window understaffedTo the store and area manager, ThursdayOn

Promotion net margin negativeTo merchandising, weeklyOn

No full stock count in 12 weeksTo the area managerOn

Cash-up variance over $50To the store manager, same dayOn

Every message names the record it is about, so a reply lands somewhere.

Quiet hours

No routine notifications20:00 to 07:00, local to the personOn

Urgent overridesA store unable to openOn

Weekly digestMonday 08:00On

A notification that waits until morning is one that did not work, so the override is explicit rather than a setting nobody finds.

Notification rules are yours to set. What is here is a starting point drawn from how the queue actually behaves.

Integrations

Connected systems and their sync history.

Connected

4 connected

Till systemSales, baskets and cash-upConnected

Footfall countersEntries by hour, per storeConnected

Stock systemOn hand, on order and in transitConnected

RosteringShifts, absence and wage costConnected

LoyaltyMembers, points and redemptionNot connected

What breaks without them

Without footfall there is no conversion figure, only sales, which is the measure that rewards understaffing
Without the stock system a request cannot see the 184 flasks sitting at Selby
Without rostering the wage cost per window is a guess
Tills keep working; every comparison on these screens stops meaning anything

Sync history

Last 24 hours

When	Source	Records	Result
Continuous	Till system	42 stores	Live
Hourly	Footfall counters	42 stores	2 offline
06:00 today	Stock system	18,400 lines	Current
06:00 today	Rostering	188 people	2 shifts unfilled

A sync that half-succeeded is listed as such rather than as a failure, because the records that did land still changed something.

Import and export

Bulk load and extract, with per-row validation.

Import

WhatIf a row already exists

Validated before anything is written. A file with one bad row imports the rest and tells you which line failed and why.

Export

WhatFormat

RangeEverythingThis yearFiltered view

Recent imports and exports

Last 30 days

When	What	Rows	Result	By
6 Sep 06:00	Import	18,400	Complete	Aisling Ronan
1 Sep 18:00	Export	42	Complete	Teodora Marin
29 Aug 07:20	Import	188	Complete	Teodora Marin

Every import is kept with its source file, so a bad load can be traced rather than argued about.