Setting Budget

Budget is your yardstick. Once you've entered targets, they show up automatically as reference lines and bars throughout Analytics++, so you see instantly whether you're ahead of or behind plan – without opening a spreadsheet.

Where do I find it?

Analytics → Finance → the Set Budget button (top right of the Budget vs Actual chart). The same modal opens from the Labor Cost page when you click the budget button there.

Two budget types tracked

Revenue budget is set in absolute SEK, while labor cost budget is a percentage – the share of revenue that can go to payroll. That's how the restaurant industry traditionally steers labor cost (30% is typical for full service, 25% for lunch/fast casual, 22–25% for bars).

Setting a revenue budget – step by step

1. Go to Analytics → Finance
2. Scroll to the "Budget vs Actual" chart at the bottom
3. Click "Set budget" (amber button)
4. The "Monthly Budget [year]" modal opens with 12 input fields
5. Enter your target per month in SEK (e.g. January: 650,000, February: 580,000)
6. Click Save
7. The chart updates immediately – gold bars show actual, gray dashed bars show budget

Setting labor budget (percent)

1. Go to Analytics → Labor Cost
2. Click the budget percent on the "Share of Sales" KPI card (or the button next to the "Labor Cost % per day" chart)
3. Enter budget as a percent (e.g. 30)
4. Save

You'll now see a red dashed reference line on the daily chart. Gold bars under the line = under budget (good). Red bars above = over budget (address it).

Where budget shows in reports

• Finance → Budget vs Actual bar chart (months), KPI card above the chart shows cumulative variance
• Labor Cost → Dashed reference line on the percent chart + KPI warning if over budget
• Overview → Trend arrows show variance from budget per period
• Period Comparison → Automatic budget-variance calculation when comparing two periods
• AI Boss → Answers questions like "Are we on track with budget?" or "How far below budget is labor cost today?"

Weekly or category budget?

Vendion currently supports monthly budgets by default. If you want to break it down further:

• Per week: Divide the monthly budget by the number of weeks (simple estimate). A proper weekly-budget table is planned for Q4 2026.
• Per category: Not directly input today. You can export the Finance category table to CSV and set your own targets in Excel. Category budget per month is on the roadmap for Q3 2026.
• Per weekday: Use the heatmap to see historical patterns and base estimates on them.

Tips for realistic targets

1. Open Period Comparison and compare prior year vs this year so far
2. Take average monthly growth (e.g. +8%) and apply it to last year's months
3. Adjust for seasonality (July peak, January low) – use the historical pattern from the heatmap
4. Consider one-off events: did you close for renovation for three weeks in April last year? Account for it.
5. Include a buffer of 5–10% for unexpected dips (weather, illness, regulars traveling)
6. Ask AI Boss: "Suggest a revenue budget for next year based on the trend"

Budget vs actual – what counts as a meaningful variance?

Updating the budget mid-year

If conditions change (new competitor, rent increase, bigger campaign) you can go in any time and adjust remaining months. Historical months stay untouched – you only change the forward path. This is called rolling forecast and is standard practice in modern restaurants.

Permissions and traceability

All users with admin access can edit the budget. Changes are logged in the audit log with a timestamp so you can trace who changed what and when.

Related articles: Finance Overview, Labor Cost, Period Comparison, Understanding Margin Calculations, AI Boss for Analytics.