The Saturday Night Shift Audit.
Nine checks across bar velocity, labour, and cover pacing — the exact things Nightly's Shift Intelligence tracks automatically, every night. Run it manually once tonight and see what it catches.
Most shift reviews happen the morning after — when the covers you lost, the labour you overspent, and the bar you underpoured are already sunk cost. This audit runs during the shift, at the moments where you can still do something about it. Work through it tonight with a stopwatch and your POS open.
Bar Velocity
Are drinks actually moving the way they should
Pull your first-hour bar sales and compare to your last 4 same-night averages.
More than 15% off pace by hour 2 — that's a staffing or menu problem, not bad luck.
Time your slowest well-drink from order to hand-off during peak.
Over 90 seconds — you're bleeding covers who leave before ordering a second round.
Check your top 3 sellers' pour cost against last month's numbers.
A jump of 2+ points — usually over-pouring, not price creep.
Labour Spike Thresholds
Catch the overspend while you can still cut it
Calculate tonight's labour % against covers at the 90-minute mark.
Already tracking above your target — cut or hold now.
Count heads actually on the floor against your rostered plan.
2+ over on a Tuesday-level night — that's next week's schedule, fixed tonight.
Flag anyone clocked in but not selling.
Redeploy before doors open, not after the rush starts.
Cover Pacing
Is the room filling the way tonight needs it to
Track door count at 15-minute intervals through the first hour, against your last 4 same-night-of-week openings.
20%+ lag by hour 1 — needs a same-night adjustment, not a Monday postmortem.
Note your walk-away count — people who checked the line and left.
More than 5% of total covers — that's a queue-management leak.
Watch table/section turn time against your target during peak.
One seating running 20+ minutes over can cost 2–3 covers you won't get back tonight.
Nightly runs this for you. Automatically. Every shift.
You just did nine manual checks with a stopwatch and a calculator. Nightly's Shift Intelligence pulls all of it in real time and pushes you the flag the moment a number crosses the line — not after last call.
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