daily-pulse

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."