01
Start from the work log
Use the WMS events that already describe receipts, picks, packs, returns, and shipments. The model starts with the work the warehouse actually completed.
← Use cases
Fulfilment operations
Warehouse Labour & Cost-to-Serve
Find the shift, process area, or customer where warehouse labour cost has already outrun billable work.
Source systems
WMS
Time clock
Shift plan
Customer rates
Billing rules
Beetl answer
Warehouse margin by shift
Problem signals
Warehouse cost-to-serve is easiest to discuss after the fact, which is why it is hard to manage. A fulfilment operator may bill one customer by inbound pallet, another by pick line, and another by a mixture of packing, returns, and special handling. The cost side is less tidy. It depends on where people actually spent the shift.
The useful moment is usually in the middle of the day. A 50-person shift can begin with ten people on inbound, twenty on picking, and twenty on packing. By 11:00, two trucks have arrived together and order volume has dropped. Packing now has more people than work. Inbound has the opposite problem. The warehouse is spending labour on activity the customer rate covers poorly, while the clean financial explanation will only appear later, during billing.
Beetl's role in this case is to make that imbalance visible while the warehouse can still do something about it. The WMS activity, the time-clock, the shift plan, and the customer rate card are enough to answer a practical question: which part of today's shift is losing margin, and who can still be moved?
1
The invoice explains margin after the shift has been paid for.
2
The staffing plan was sensible at 08:00 and wrong by 11:00.
3
Billing rates live with finance while the work happens in the WMS.
Beetl workflow
The first useful version is deliberately modest: enough WMS activity, labour presence, shift-plan, and rate-card data to explain where today's labour cost is out of line with the work being billed.
02
Attach labour and rates
Join time-clock presence, process-area assignment, shift plan, and customer activity rates so each process area has both a cost side and a revenue side.
03
Compare the day as it unfolds
Show when one area is consuming labour faster than billable work, and which people can still be moved without waiting for month-end reconciliation.
Expected outputs
The floor lead needs the 11:00 answer: inbound is late, packing has spare people, and the current rate card falls short for the work.
- A process-area view of labour cost against billable work.
- A shift-plan comparison that shows where people are misallocated.
- A plain explanation of where today's warehouse margin is going.
Find today's warehouse margin leak
Use a review call to map the WMS, time-clock, shift-plan, and rate-card data you already have, then identify the first cost-to-serve question Beetl should answer.
Book a warehouse review