Restaurant Scheduling Software: 6 Best to Use in 2024
10 min. read
Updated on
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial team Read more
Key notes
- If you own a business and want to manage your staff properly, you definitely need the best restaurant employee scheduling software.
- We provide you with tools that provide automated scheduling functions to speed up this task.
- Some of the apps allow you to combine employee timesheets, schedules and overtime rates.
Research studies have repeatedly shown that a common cause of failure in restaurant businesses is a failure to properly handle their most important asset: human talent.
Too often, businesses that lack the tools to properly manage their workforce end up incurring massive losses because of staff-scheduling inefficiencies like improper clocking and unplanned overtime.
Now, rather than spend as much as 8 hours chopping and changing the restaurant staff schedule, managers can automate the cumbersome process by investing in a good restaurant employee scheduling software.
These programs are packed full of great features:
- They save up to 75% of manager’s time by automating employee scheduling.
- The software drastically reduces scheduling errors saving on labor costs.
- They streamline staff communication helping to avoid conflict.
- Most integrate with POS systems for accurate payroll processing.
What to look for in a restaurant employee scheduling app?
These software have a profound impact and can greatly boost profitability. But you need to sift through a bevy of options as you chase an ideal solution.
Here are some questions to ponder before deciding:
- How many restaurant employees do you need to schedule?
- How many shifts is the software supposed to cover?
- Are the shifts uniform or irregular?
- Can the suggested solution share data with other restaurant software like the POS?
- Is the software easier to use for your staff?
Answering these questions will put you in a prime position to land a magnificent scheduling system.
There is a host of amazing employee scheduling automating software. Here are some formidable choices.
What is the best employee scheduling app for restaurants?
BarSight – Best app for employee scheduling
BarSight is certainly one of the best employee scheduling software but actually, it doesn’t only keep the restaurant schedule but a lot more.
The tool is a whole restaurant management system that integrates with your POS system and offers automatic labor cost forecasting, and daily sales estimates among other data.
For instance, create schedule templates for any routine and special events so you don’t waste time doing that every week.
It also provides employee scheduling to check if their hours are programmed correctly and the system works flawlessly.
That’s because all employee availability requests can be approved by your managers and they will show up on the schedule as you’re building it.
The payroll data can be downloaded into an excel spreadsheet instantly and sent to your accountant or imported into your payroll software.
And the app is also available for the mobiles of your staff where they can even request shift swaps to be approved by the manager.
You can also check out our BarSight review and read detailed information on its best features and on how to use it.
Take a look at BarSight’s key features:
- Quick and simple employee schedule creation
- POS integration
- Export payroll and employee reports instantly
- Cloud-based app, accessible from any platform or device
- Check employee availability without leaving your office
BarSight Restaurant Systems
Get the best employee management tool with schedule templates, mobile access, and more!7shifts – Great web-based scheduling solution
7shifts is absolutely easy to use for managers and staff because it comes with a straightforward scheduling mechanism.
Indeed, you simply drag and drop the staff details to build a schedule. Plus, managers can use the auto-scheduling feature to speed up scheduling.
So, why does it work so well? Well, 7shifts relies on its custom shift templates to quickly generate a schedule as soon as it confirms staff availability.
Even more, staff members are alerted of their shifts immediately after the schedule is published or changes are made.
If you’ve been struggling to rein in your labor costs, then you should get 7shifts. It turns out that the tool monitors your spending in real-time to help stop overspending.
The program also seeks to help restaurant owners comply with local labor laws. For instance, staff members won’t miss their minimum scheduled breaks, so you won’t be paying penalties.
You can even approve or refuse staff requests for time-off on the go from the free 7shifts app.
7shifts comes with a free plan, as well as several paid options. You can try out the free plan and see how it works for you. The paid ones can also be tried for free for 14 days, with all features available.
Let’s review some of its key features:
- Drag-and-drop functionality
- Labor law compliance
- Custom shift templates
- Labor costs monitoring and reporting
- Time clocking and logbooks
7 shifts
Create shift templates and help employees stay productive with real-time alerts.SageHR – Best choice for employee management
Sage HR is yet another suitable tool for employee management. It comes with complex features that help you with shift scheduling, expenses, leave management, and more.
The software comes with the Timesheets feature which is used to record the time employees spend working. This module comes with its own sub-features, all well-integrated within an intuitive UI.
Employees can submit their timesheets for approval, and the requests go directly to the people who have permission to manage and regulate such issues. You can also easily generate reports that show the total hours worked, overtime hours, and more.
Another feature that works hand-in-hand with the Timesheets is the Shift scheduling feature.
It allows you to easily add, edit, move and copy shifts. You can create separate shifts for different teams or different company locations and get an overview of all of them via the UI.
Moreover, employees can use this feature to show you their preferred working hours and also to inform you about their availability. All these and more are done hassle-free with drag-and-drop.
Sage HR is a paid service with custom plans based on the number of your employees and also your preferred feature set. It comes with a 14-day free trial.
Other key features of Sage HR include:
- Fast, digital time off management
- Employee database
- HR analytics
- Expenses management feature with automatic expense recordinga and detailed reports
- Integrates popular employee apps like G-Suite, Slack, Active Directory & any custom-built app
- Onboarding feature witha workflow builder, automate task assigning & reporting
- Mobile app for Android and iOS
Sage HR
Schedule efficiently and manage employee-related tasks with the all-inclusive Sage HR.Findmyshift – Great third-party app integration
Findmyshift is one of the scheduling software that gives you real freedom when it comes to employee shifts.
You see, everything is available from their interactive website meaning you can make and monitor schedules any time and from anywhere.
It integrates with loads of platforms to track employee vacations, send emails and automated shift reminders to employees, and set alarms for upcoming shifts.
Now sample this: It can pay the staff different hourly rates, deduct unpaid breaks, and combine employee timesheets, schedules, and overtime rates to arrive at accurate payroll costs.
Subscription is charged per employee added and it allows you to add unlimited staff. And as a welcome, you don’t pay a dime for the first month!
Employees have also praised its simplicity and functionality. You see, unlike some of the competitors, they can request, cancel, and swap shifts with colleagues using the FindMyShift website on the go.
The website is encrypted so your restaurant’s data remains protected not to mention the system runs automated backups in case you erase some schedules.
You will benefit from the following best features:
- Send emails and automated shift reminders to employees
- Pay the staff different hourly rates, and deduct unpaid breaks
- Web-based solution
- Very simple and effective interface
- Great third-party platform integration
Planday – Very efficient employee scheduling tool
Planday also makes a compelling case to be considered among the elites and you feel it could actually be a step-up on some of the other entrants in this exclusive list.
Created to make staff scheduling simple and fun for both owners and workers, PlanDay allows you to save your favorite schedule as a template.
You can then customize it to fit the needs of each week or to schedule shifts well in advance.
The software prioritizes efficiency over aesthetics so essentials like the dashboard are plain but very detailed.
Depending on your needs, you can view a snapshot of the work week or month, the hours each employee will work, and how much it will cost your business.
Its wonderful collection of communication tools allows managers to pass the right message to every worker (or groups of employees) to ensure teamwork.
Employees clock in quickly through the app (Apple and Android) as soon as the shift begins while you get a bird’s-eye view of the happenings from the focused reports.
Overall, PlanDay could prove a masterstroke for both employees and management in your growing business.
Take a look at its best features:
- Save your favorite schedule as a template
- App clock in for employees
- View a snapshot of the work week or month
- Built-in communication features
- Clean UI design
HotSchedules – Great for managing day to day operations
HotSchedules is one of the most advanced scheduling software for restaurants and the hospitality industry at large.
Its impressive suite of clocking, communication, and tracking technologies includes features to help man employees across locations and a powerful native mobile app.
Thus, HotSchedules would be great if you’re searching for a product that not only monitors staff but also helps manage day-to-day operations.
Some of its excellent abilities include enforcing punctuality to reduce time-theft, a straightforward payroll aggregation, meal and breaks enforcement, multiple payroll exports, and more.
These features will save you money and help satisfy the requirements of employee regulations across all your locations.
Incidences of shortages and overages will be long gone as will annoying last-minute calls to the managers.
Employees are also fully catered for and can check schedules, request time off, and pick-up or drop shifts, from their phones.
Ultimately, HotSchedules will do more than just enabling owners and supervisors to schedule employees.
This is also a paid service, with the price depending on the number of employees. In contrast with the other software discussed above, HotSchedules doesn’t come with a free trial.
Take a look at some of its most important features:
- Payroll aggregation
- Pick-up or drop shifts
- Time management
- Web-based app for employees
- Simple and effective reporting
Using the best restaurant employee scheduling software solves many of the headaches that managers and owners face with manual and spreadsheet scheduling methods.
The fruits will be a smooth-running business, better management/employee relationships, and compliance with local labor laws.
Such benefits outweigh the meager investment in the software by far but you need to pick the right one for your business.
If you’re just starting, you might be interested in our best marketing tools & software for startups to promote your business.
If you’ve tried other tools that you believe are relevant to our list, don’t hesitate to let us know about them in the comments section below.
