Unit 5 • Lesson 50.8h
Schedule-to-Pay: Building the Weekly Labor Engine
Students extend the Lesson04 roster into a living schedule so Sarah can plan labor, monitor overtime risk, and flow clean numbers into the Payday Simulator.
What You'll Learn
- ▶Design a normalized Employee Roster with availability, roles, and hourly rates that feeds the rest of the workbook
- ▶Draft a visual weekly schedule for a medium restaurant or grocery team using dropdowns and conditional formatting
- ▶Convert scheduled shifts into total hours, overtime flags, and gross pay using SUMIFS and overtime logic
- ▶Explain how accurate scheduling protects payroll promises, prevents overtime surprises, and keeps cash predictable
Key Concepts
Structured tables and named ranges shared across sheets
Data validation lists and conditional formatting for schedule accuracy
SUMIFS and pivot-style summaries to total hours by person or department
+1 more concepts
Lesson Phases
This lesson follows a structured 6-phase learning model designed for authentic project-based learning.
Hook
Stress‑test fragile vs robust payroll models to protect investor trust
Introduction
Professional‑grade automation patterns, constraints, and gotchas for payroll
Guided Practice
Implement mapping, overtime, and validation checks step‑by‑step
Independent Practice
Apply automation to advanced dataset with edge cases
Assessment
Mastery check: technical accuracy and business judgment
Closing
Synthesize automation wins and preview dashboard integration
How You'll Learn
Excel build with textbook guidance, interactive checks, and data storytelling