Labor is the largest controllable cost in a pet care facility, and it's the easiest one to let drift — an extra shift here, overtime there, a slow daycare day fully staffed for a crowd that never came. The problem is that hours and dollars live in scheduling and payroll while revenue lives in the booking system, so almost no owner sees labor cost against the revenue it produced. This dashboard puts them on the same screen, by role and by location.
What this dashboard answers
The efficiency page shows hours worked, labor cost, revenue per labor hour and labor cost ratio, ranks revenue per labor hour by role — Kennel Tech, Groomer, Front Desk, Bather, Manager — ranks labor cost ratio by location, and trends labor cost against attributed revenue over time. The coverage page surfaces schedule adherence rate and shifts worked, compares scheduled against worked hours by role, ranks adherence by location, and shows labor cost by role so you see where the payroll dollars actually go.
The metrics that matter
Labor cost ratio is the discipline number — labor as a share of revenue, the line owners watch to protect margin. Revenue per labor hour is the productivity number, and reading the two together separates a role that's expensive from a role that's expensive and unproductive. Schedule adherence is the operational signal underneath both: consistent overtime (above 100%) inflates cost, while chronic understaffing (below 100%) caps the revenue you could have captured — and both hide inside a labor cost ratio that looks fine on average.
Why the data is trapped
Hours scheduled and worked sit in the scheduling tool or a timeclock; wage rates sit in payroll; revenue sits in Gingr, PetExec, DaySmart Pet or Kennel Connection. No single system holds all three, so revenue per labor hour and labor cost ratio can't be computed without joining sources — and schedule adherence requires comparing scheduled against worked hours, which the schedule alone never does after the fact. Bringing scheduling, payroll and revenue together by role and location is the work this report removes.
How to read it
Read labor cost ratio by location first to find the site bleeding margin, then read revenue per labor hour by role to understand why — a high-cost role with low revenue per hour is the place to look. Use schedule adherence to diagnose it: a site running consistent overtime needs scheduling discipline, one running understaffed may be leaving revenue on the table. The sample uses entirely synthetic data, so there are no real staff or payroll records in what you see here.
Metrics it tracks
| Metric | What it means |
|---|---|
| Hours Worked | Total hours worked across all staff shifts in the period. |
| Labor Cost | Total wages across all shifts (hours worked times rate). |
| Revenue per Labor Hour | Revenue attributed ÷ hours worked — revenue produced per hour of staff time. |
| Labor Cost Ratio | Labor cost ÷ revenue attributed — labor as a share of revenue. |
| Schedule Adherence Rate | Hours worked ÷ hours scheduled — over 100% means overtime, under means understaffing. |
| Shifts Worked | Count of shifts in the period. |
Used by: Owners, operators, and shift managers
Frequently asked questions
What is a good labor cost ratio for a pet care facility?
Labor cost ratio is labor cost divided by the revenue that labor produced. Pet care is labor-intensive, so it runs higher than many retail businesses, but the value isn't a single benchmark — it's tracking the ratio by location and role to spot the site or role that drifts above the others and is quietly eroding margin.
Why measure revenue per labor hour alongside labor cost ratio?
Labor cost ratio tells you what labor costs as a share of revenue; revenue per labor hour tells you how productive each hour is. Reading them together separates a role that's simply expensive from one that's expensive and unproductive — and shows where adding or trimming hours would actually move the result.
What does schedule adherence rate reveal?
Schedule adherence is hours worked divided by hours scheduled. Above 100% means overtime is inflating cost; below 100% means understaffing is capping the revenue you could have captured. Either can hide inside an average-looking labor cost ratio, so adherence is the operational signal that explains the dollars.
Build this report on your own data
Clone this Pet care facilities template — describe it and we’ll generate sample data so you can try it free, or upload your own export. You get a fully modeled, branded Power BI project that opens in Power BI Desktop.
Use this as a template →