Purpose

Express Planner streamlines the target-setting process by automating calculations, helping users avoid time-consuming manual work. It enables users to set monthly targets up to 24 months in advance, based on room forecasts, history and predefined business rules.

The system generates targets for:

• Ancillary revenue across all profit centres
• Labor productivity and hours across all cost centres

These outputs are designed to be coherent and aligned, minimizing the need for manual review and allowing for only minor adjustments when necessary.

When the P&L Planning module is activated, Express Planner’s outputs serve as the basis for the budgeting and forecasting process. Additionally, labor hours can be categorized into in-house and outsourced staffing, supporting detailed labor cost planning. 

Key capabilities

The Express planner offers several powerful capabilities:

• Room forecast as baseline: Forecasts ancillary and labor forecasts based on the Live room revenue forecast. For extended periods, historical data can be used as an alternative baseline.
• Room revenue baseline flexibility: Allows different data sources to be applied across different timeframes—for example, using Live forecast for initial months and prior year actuals for later periods—supporting mixed planning scenarios.
• Automated ancillary revenue forecasting: Generates forecasts for each profit center based on historical ratios between room revenue and ancillary revenue, with options to apply growth rates and seasonal patterns.
• Labor hours forecasting: Calculates staffing requirements using historical productivity and cost driver data, adjusted for expected efficiency changes or fixed staffing needs.
• Productivity adjustments: Enables future productivity to be increased or decreased to reflect anticipated changes in operational performance.
• Fixed hours support: Allows departments with stable staffing to apply fixed daily hours rather than productivity-based forecasting, improving forecast accuracy.
• Customizable settings: Departments can be excluded, overridden, or set with specific revenue or labor drivers. This helps tailor the forecast to unique departmental characteristics.
• Visual planning timeline: Displays a clear timeline showing data sources and forecast periods across all components—room revenue, ancillary, and labor hours—so planners can verify the setup before running a plan.
• Long-range planning: Supports rolling forecasts up to 24 months, reducing manual work and enabling proactive, data-aligned decision-making.

User roles and responsibilities

Express planner is primarily used by General Managers and Financial Controllers to support planning alignment across all departments. They use the tool to:

• Oversee forecast results, ensure alignment with business goals, and review targets.
• Configure planning settings—such as data sources, ambition levels, and assumptions—and for setting monthly revenue and labor targets across all profit centers and departments.
• Review and adjust department-level forecasts as needed.

Common use cases

• Monthly forecast updates: A General Manager runs the Express planner each month to ensure ancillary revenue and labor targets reflect the latest room forecast, keeping plans aligned and up to date.
• Budget planning: A General Manager uses the Express planner to generate initial targets for ancillary revenue and labor, providing a solid starting point for the annual P&L budget in PMI.

Cross-references

• How to run Express planner
• How to configure Express planner settings
• Express Planner Calculation Explanation with Examples

Related features and modules

• Budget and forecast
• P&L Planning
• Staffing module
• Live forecast
• Cockpit