--- name: daily-pulse description: >- Generate a daily business snapshot — sales, labor cost, COGS, covers, and P&L flash report — so the owner knows exactly where the business stands every morning. Flags anomalies before they become problems. metadata: author: cosmicstack-labs version: 1.0.0 category: shop-restaurant tags: - daily-reporting - p-and-l - sales-tracking - kpi-dashboard - financials - restaurant-metrics - business-intelligence --- # Daily Pulse ## Core Principles The difference between a thriving shop and a failing one is often simply **knowing the numbers daily.** Most small business owners fly blind until the monthly P&L arrives 3 weeks after month-end — too late to fix anything. The Daily Pulse skill compresses the P&L cycle to 24 hours, giving the owner a crystal-clear morning snapshot of yesterday's performance. ### The Five Daily Numbers That Matter 1. **Total Sales** — Yesterday's revenue vs. target vs. same day last year 2. **Covers / Transactions** — How many customers (for restaurants) or transactions (for retail) 3. **Average Check / Ticket** — Revenue ÷ covers. Trending up or down? 4. **Labor Cost %** — Total labor ÷ sales. Warning if > budget. 5. **COGS %** — Cost of goods sold ÷ sales (restaurants) or COGS as % of sales (retail) --- ## Skill Workflow ### Step 1 — Connect Data Sources Typical data sources (ask user which they use): - **POS System:** Square, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed, Shopify - **Payroll System:** Gusto, ADP, or manual hours - **Inventory System:** Current stock counts, received orders - **Bank Account:** For actual COGS (invoiced amounts) **If no system integration is available:** > "No problem. I can build your daily report from a simple template. Each evening, answer 5 quick questions and I'll generate your pulse report. Let me set that up." ### Step 2 — Build the Daily Flash Report Generate a structured daily summary: ``` 📊 DAILY PULSE — Tuesday, March 11, 2025 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💰 SALES Yesterday: $3,840 Target: $4,000 (96% of target) Same Day Last Week: $3,620 (+6.1% vs. last week) Same Day Last Year: $3,150 (+21.9% vs. last year) 👥 CUSTOMERS Covers/Transactions: 172 Avg Check: $22.33 (vs. $21.05 last week — +6.1%) Peak Hour: 7:00-8:00pm (38 covers) 👷 LABOR Hours Scheduled: 84 hrs Hours Worked: 82 hrs Labor Cost: $1,476 Labor %: 38.4% (Budget: 35%) ⚠️ ABOVE TARGET Overtime Used: 2 hrs ($54) 🥩 COGS (estimates) Today's COGS: $1,152 (30% of sales) MTD COGS %: 30.5% (Target: 28-32%) ✅ ON TRACK 📈 MTD PERFORMANCE Month-to-Date Sales: $42,560 MTD Target: $44,000 (96.7% of target) MTD Labor %: 36.2% (Target: 35%) ⚠️ Slightly over MTD COGS %: 30.5% ✅ On target Projected Monthly: $127,680 (if current pace holds) ``` ### Step 3 — Flag Anomalies & Alerts Compare each metric against thresholds and flag variances: | Alert Level | Condition | Example | |-------------|-----------|---------| | 🔴 **Critical** | Sales < 80% target OR Labor % > 45% | "Sales dropped 30% vs last Tuesday — check for nearby event or competitor opening" | | 🟠 **Warning** | Sales 80-90% target OR Labor % 40-45% OR COGS > 35% | "Labor % at 38.4%. You're $94 over budget for the day" | | 🟢 **Good** | All metrics within target range | "Solid day. Avg check ticked up — menu engineering is working" | | ⭐ **Notable** | Any metric significantly positive | "Saturday smashed target by 24% — best day this quarter. Well done!" | **Generate specific, actionable alerts:** > ⚠️ **Labor Alert:** Labor % at 38.4% vs. 35% target. You scheduled 84 hours but used 2 hours overtime. Consider splitting the close shift earlier to reduce OT. > 📉 **Sales Alert:** Tuesday sales were 96% of target — close but missing pattern. Wednesdays have averaged 92% of target for 3 weeks. Consider a Wednesday special to lift midweek traffic. ### Step 4 — Rolling Week & Month Trends Provide trend context: ``` 📈 7-DAY TREND Sales: ↑↑ (up 8% vs prior 7 days) Covers: ↑ (up 3%) Avg Check: ↑↑ (up 5% — menu price increase flowing through) Labor %: → (flat at 36.5%) COGS %: ↓ (down 1.5% — portion control improving) 📊 MONTH-TO-DATE vs. BUDGET Total Sales: $42,560 / $44,000 (97%) Total Labor: $15,407 / $15,400 (~100%) Total COGS: $12,981 / $13,200 (98%) Net Margin: 21.3% (estimated) vs. 22% target ``` ### Step 5 — Action Recommendations Close the report with 1-3 action items for the day: > **Today's action items:** > 1. 🔴 Review Friday's overtime. Two employees exceeded 40 hrs — consider midweek day off for them. > 2. 🟠 Wednesday lunch covers have dropped for 3 weeks. Test a $9.99 lunch special. > 3. 🟢 Keep doing what you're doing with the new menu pricing — avg check is up 5%. ### Step 6 — Schedule Daily Delivery > "I can deliver this report to you every morning by 8am. Would you like it as a summary here, or shall I send it to your email/phone? Also, I can include a simple 5-question evening prompt so you can log the data if your systems don't auto-connect." --- ## Trigger Phrases | Phrase | What Happens | |--------|-------------| | "How did we do yesterday?" | Generates the daily pulse report | | "Give me today's numbers" | Same — daily summary snapshot | | "Run the daily report" | Full flash report with all KPIs | | "Any red flags?" | Shows only alerts and anomalies | | "How's my month looking?" | MTD performance vs. budget projection | | "Compare this week to last week" | 7-day trend analysis | | "What should I focus on today?" | Action item recommendations based on data | --- ## Key Instructions Summary 1. **Collect data:** Sales, covers, labor hours, inventory usage from POS/payroll/user input 2. **Build report:** Structured flash report with all key metrics, comparisons, and percentages 3. **Flag anomalies:** Red/orange/green alerts with specific commentary 4. **Show trends:** 7-day rolling and MTD context 5. **Recommend actions:** 1-3 concrete action items for the day ahead 6. **Schedule:** Offer daily automated delivery at a set time --- ## Common Mistakes 1. **Looking at sales in isolation.** Revenue of $5k sounds great — but if labor was $2k and COGS was $2k, you made nothing. Always look at the margin stack. 2. **Comparing to arbitrary targets.** "We did $4k yesterday — is that good?" Compare to budget, same day last week, and same day last year. 3. **Ignoring trends for single-day spikes.** One bad Monday doesn't mean doom. One bad month does. Watch rolling averages. 4. **Not acting on the data.** A daily report is useless if it doesn't change behavior. Every alert should have a recommended action. 5. **Overcomplicating it.** 5 key metrics, reviewed daily, beats 50 metrics reviewed monthly. Start simple. --- *"What gets measured gets managed. What gets measured daily gets improved daily."*