For most breweries, payroll is the single largest operating expense. Yet payroll planning is often handled at a high level: take last year’s number, make a few adjustments, and plug a total into the budget.
A better approach is to build the payroll plan from the ground up.
That’s the purpose of the Payroll Planning Template. It gives you a simple way to map out your payroll for the upcoming year, employee by employee and department by department.
Use the template to lay out:
- Who is currently on the roster
- Current wages and salaries
- Planned raises or compensation changes
- Bonus and incentive plans
- Budgeted new hires and expected start dates
- The total payroll investment by department and for the company
The result is more than a payroll budget. It becomes a detailed operating plan for one of the biggest investments your brewery makes each year: your people.
And that makes the template useful for all departments.
Leadership can see how staffing decisions affect the overall financial plan. Department managers can understand the resources they have available and when new hires are expected. And throughout the year, you can compare what is actually happening against what you planned.
Instead of simply telling a manager, “Here’s your payroll budget,” you can show them the assumptions behind the number and the plan they are responsible for executing.
Watch the explainer video below then download the Payroll Planning Template and use it to map out your staffing, compensation, and payroll plan for the year ahead.
