Halfway by Heyday - Custom Finance Ops + BI Dashboards

01 / Overview

From daily operations to owner-ready business insight.

Halfway by Heyday needed a clearer way to understand daily cafe performance beyond basic sales totals. The business needed staff shift accountability, receipt and submeter proof capture, POS sales parsing, product-level COGS analysis, and owner-facing decision briefs.

I designed a Finance Ops + Business Analyst System that combines n8n automation, Google Drive proof storage, Google Sheets logs, Hermes-assisted finance analysis, Utak POS import logic, and custom-made owner dashboards to turn daily cafe operations into actionable business insights.

02 / Problem

The business needed more than raw sales totals.

The operational mess was not one missing spreadsheet. It was the gap between staff reporting, owner review, POS exports, recipe costing, and daily decision-making.

Staff reports were scattered

Sales needed to be reconciled across cash and GCash

Cash expenses needed proof

Submeter readings needed photo proof

Owner needed daily visibility

POS data needed to become more than raw sales

Recipe costing needed to connect with actual quantity sold

The business needed to know if it was above break-even and safe targets

03 / Solution

One flagship system with staff, finance, POS, costing, and analyst layers.

The system is built in layers: staff-side capture, proof storage, clean finance logs, review queues, owner daily close, POS import, product COGS mapping, and Hermes-assisted business analysis.

Staff submits n8n form
-> sales/cash/submeter checks are calculated
-> proof photos are uploaded to Google Drive
-> clean rows are saved to Google Sheets
-> issues are routed to a Review Queue
-> owner gets a notification
-> POS export is imported
-> POS item quantities are mapped to recipe COGS
-> custom dashboards show owner-ready KPIs and exceptions
-> Hermes generates daily analyst reports and decision briefs

Staff Shift Log through n8n

Google Drive proof archive

Google Sheets Clean Log + Review Queue

Owner Daily Close through Hermes chat

Utak POS Import Protocol

Product COGS mapping

Custom-made owner dashboard

Daily Analyst Report

Owner Decision Brief

04 / System Architecture

A clean path from staff input to daily business brief.

n8n Form Trigger

JavaScript Code Node

Google Drive

Google Sheets

Notification

Hermes Finance Knowledge Base

Utak POS Import

Product Costing Database

Custom Owner Dashboards

Daily Analyst Report

05 / Staff Shift Log Automation

The active workflow captures the daily finance trail.

The staff shift log workflow is tested and active. It captures the end-of-shift money log, validates expected cash, handles binary proof uploads, saves clean records, and routes exceptions without exposing the production form link.

Staff shift money log form

POS gross sales, cash sales, GCash sales

Starting cash, expected cash, cash counted

Cash-only expense logging

Receipt upload

Opening and closing submeter readings

Submeter photo uploads

Automatic Drive folder organization

Google Sheets Clean Log

Review Queue for issues

Owner notification

06 / Business Analyst Layer

The automation does not stop at data capture.

Hermes uses the structured logs, POS exports, and product costing data to generate daily business analysis. This turns operational records into decision support for the owner.

Owner Overview Dashboard

Daily Performance Dashboard

7-Day Trend Dashboard

Cashflow + Bills Dashboard

Menu Performance Dashboard

Staff Exceptions Dashboard

Daily Business Snapshot

Owner Decision Brief

Weekly Business Review

Monthly P&L Estimate

Cashflow Forecast

Product Profitability Ranking

Staff Log Exception Report

07 / Custom-Made Dashboards

A dashboard layer built around the cafe’s actual operating rules.

I extended the finance ops system into custom-made finance and business intelligence dashboards. This is not a generic reporting template. The dashboard is built around Halfway’s actual decision rules: adjusted direct COGS, daily break-even, safe target, dream target, cashflow checks, staff exceptions, product mapping confidence, and menu performance.

Phase 1 is a privacy-safe static prototype using mock data, so it can be shown in a portfolio without exposing staff records, bank details, Google Drive IDs, POS exports, or private credentials.

Static prototypeMock dataMobile optimizedPortfolio safe

Public dashboard prototype

Owner Overview

Today’s Sales

₱6,288

Adjusted Direct COGS

₱906.51

Adjusted Gross Margin

85.58%

Estimated Operating Result

+₱1,584.49

Actual COGS Break-even

₱4,436.60

Safe Target

Hit

Dream Target

Missed

Mapping Confidence

High

Owner Overview

Daily Performance

7-Day Trend

Cashflow + Bills

Menu Performance

Staff Exceptions

Imports / Data Manager

Settings

08 / Prototype Proof

The case study links to a separate public prototype page.

To make the project verifiable without exposing the internal owner surface, I added a separate public prototype page. It uses mock data, but the calculations, dashboard structure, and mobile layouts are built as functioning Next.js views rather than static screenshots.

Open public prototype

Owner Overview

KPI cards, owner brief, targets, cash balances, and 7-day preview

Daily Performance

Sales, transactions, payment mix, adjusted COGS, margin, and operating result

7-Day Trend

Target hit counts, best/worst days, margin trend, and operating result trend

Cashflow + Bills

Cash on hand, GCash, BPI, upcoming bills, payroll estimate, and deposit recommendation

Menu Performance

Product revenue, gross profit, margin, sales share, classification, and action guidance

Imports / Data Manager

Utak POS import shell, imported days, product mapping status, and unmatched placeholders

09 / Costing Logic

Recipe COGS stays separate from operating costs.

Recipe / Direct COGS = ingredients, syrups, bases, packaging/add-ons per item

Daily Direct COGS = quantity sold x recipe COGS

Gross Profit = sales - daily direct COGS

Operating Profit Estimate = sales - direct COGS - daily fixed cost - expenses

Fully Loaded Cost = recipe COGS + allocated labor/utilities/overhead

Labor, utilities, rent, and overhead are handled in operating P&L and fully loaded cost analysis

Daily Direct COGS = Σ(quantity sold per POS item x direct recipe COGS per mapped menu item)

10 / Utak POS Import + Product Mapping

Raw POS exports become a clean profitability layer.

Utak POS exports are parsed by transaction, item rows, payment method, discounts, categories, and hourly sales. POS item names are matched to canonical recipe costing notes so daily quantity sold can be connected to direct COGS.

The logic uses Transaction ID to group orders, uses Total only once per transaction, uses Discounted Price for actual item revenue, parses split payments, avoids relying on incomplete Utak Total Cost fields, resolves aliases, and flags truly unmatched items only after mapping search.

Mock POS item mapping table for cafe product costing

11 / Example Daily Analyst Report

Approved sample daily close readout.

Sales

₱6,288

Items Sold

Transactions

Average Ticket

₱232.89

Recipe COGS

₱767.35

Adjusted Direct COGS

₱906.51

Adjusted Gross Profit

₱5,381.49

Adjusted Gross Margin

85.58%

Operating Result

+₱1,584.49

Break-even

Hit

Safe Target

Hit

Dream Target

Missed

Mapping Confidence

High

Sample date: May 4, 2026. This is a one-day demo report, not a claim of monthly profitability. Adjusted Direct COGS includes recipe COGS, packaging, and wastage allowance.

Mock daily analyst report for Halfway by Heyday

Business read: the day passed break-even and the safe target. Signature, Coffee Based, and Matcha products carried the day. The strongest sales window was 4 PM, making it a key period for staffing, upsells, and promos.

12 / Business Impact

Practical operating leverage without fake ROI claims.

The system created a consistent shift-level audit trail for cafe finance operations, connected POS sales to product-level profitability, and gave the owner a repeatable daily close and custom dashboard structure.

Built a proof-backed audit trail

Reduced scattered reporting

Improved cash accountability

Created consistent daily close structure

Connected POS sales to product-level profitability

Helped identify break-even and target performance

Prepared the business for weekly and monthly review rhythms

Turned raw cafe data into owner decisions

Extended the workflow into custom-made finance and BI dashboards

13 / My Role

Automation, operations analysis, and AI systems design.

Role: Automation Designer, Business Operations Analyst, n8n Builder, Workflow Debugger, AI Systems Designer.

I mapped the cafe finance workflow, designed the staff reporting system, built and debugged the n8n automation, structured Google Drive and Google Sheets outputs, defined costing layers, created the POS import protocol, and designed the Hermes business analyst reporting system and custom-made owner dashboards.

14 / Tools Used

A lightweight stack for small business automation and BI.

n8n

Google Drive

Google Sheets

JavaScript Code Node

Utak POS exports

Hermes

Obsidian

Next.js

TypeScript

Tailwind CSS

shadcn/ui

Recharts

ChatGPT / Codex-assisted debugging

15 / Visuals

Real workflow evidence plus privacy-safe generated mockups.

n8n workflow canvas

Live workflow screenshot with private records hidden.

Daily Analyst Report mockup

Generated portfolio visual using approved sample data.

POS mapping table mockup

Sample mapping from POS item names to costing records.

Owner Decision Brief mockup

Hermes-assisted business readout with private chat data removed.

Built as an operations systems designer case study.

This flagship case study demonstrates AI automation specialist work, n8n automation, business operations automation, finance workflow automation, Google Sheets automation, Google Drive automation, POS data analysis, small business automation, cafe operations automation, custom-made dashboards, a business analyst system, cash tracking workflow, and operations systems design.

Built as an operations systems designer case study.