Find the best Restaurant Scheduling Software

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TimeClock Plus

TimeClock Plus is a cloud-based workforce management solution designed to make the day-to-day of your organization more efficient. TimeClock Plus also offers dynamic scheduling and job costing features that can be configured to an...Read more about TimeClock Plus

4.4 (194 reviews)

137 recommendations

When I Work

When I Work is a cloud-based employee scheduling solution that helps organizations track time and attendance, create and edit employee schedules, add new jobs to the calendar, review timesheets and fill shifts. When I Work le...Read more about When I Work

4.5 (1077 reviews)

28 recommendations

TeamBridge

Zira is a cloud-based employee scheduling and performance management system designed to automate complex team processes. Zira tools include a web-based manager and admin application that is ideal for creating and publishing schedu...Read more about TeamBridge

4.9 (13 reviews)

27 recommendations

Prospr At Work

Prospr is a mobile and desktop app employees choose to connect with their teams, engage at work, and manage their schedules. Built by operators, for frontline teams, Prospr offers team communication, scheduling, sub-management, ...Read more about Prospr At Work

4.7 (17 reviews)

4 recommendations

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Deputy

Deputy is a cloud-based human resource management (HRM) solution that provides employee management and scheduling functionalities. Deputy's rostering application can calculate overtime and provide capabilities to schedule staff. I...Read more about Deputy

4.6 (713 reviews)

2 recommendations

Visual Planning

Visual Planning is a hybrid resource management and scheduling platform that helps businesses to manage their assets and day-to-day operations. The solution can be deployed on-premise or hosted in the cloud. Visual Planning o...Read more about Visual Planning

4.6 (38 reviews)

2 recommendations

Merinio

Merinio is an advanced staff scheduling and workforce management software that helps medium and large businesses in the security, healthcare, staffing agencies, and shift worker industries to control operational costs and ensure c...Read more about Merinio

4.4 (57 reviews)

1 recommendations

NetSuite

With an integrated system that includes ERP, financials, commerce, inventory management, HR, PSA, supply chain management, CRM and more – NetSuite enables fast-growing businesses across all industries to work more effectively by a...Read more about NetSuite

7shifts

7shifts is an all-in-one restaurant team management platform that helps operators: 1) Make more profitable decisions. You'll get the insights you need to make the best team and operating decisions every day. Hit your labor targe...Read more about 7shifts

Homebase

Homebase is a cloud-based time tracking and scheduling solution that helps human resources personnel organize and manage employee schedules, timesheets and payroll. It caters to businesses in industries such as food service, retai...Read more about Homebase

Built for Teams

With functionality for employee recordkeeping, PTO tracking, recruiting, and more, Built for Teams offers a web-based HR platform that is ideal for small to mid-sized companies in the U.S. Along with detailed digital records ...Read more about Built for Teams

Timetastic

Timetastic is the multi award winning app for vacation tracking and keeping track of PTO. 5 stars - Capterra - EASE OF USE 5 stars - Capterra - VALUE FOR MONEY "You can finally get rid of those messy spreadsheets. No more forget...Read more about Timetastic

Calamari

Calamari is a cloud-based human resources solution that offers two modules: leave management and clock in/out services. The software is suitable for small to midsize businesses in any industry and offers Android and iOS mobile app...Read more about Calamari

HotSchedules

HotSchedules is the hospitality industry’s most widely adopted intelligent scheduling software. Managers can cut their scheduling time down to 45 minutes or less with the intuitive drag and drop interface while maintaining federal...Read more about HotSchedules

Jolt

Jolt is a comprehensive digital operations platform that is available on smartphones and tablets. Jolt helps restaurants, retail, hospitality, and other businesses create accountability, enhance food safety compliance, and boost ...Read more about Jolt

Employment Hero

Employment Hero is a cloud-based human resource management (HRM) system for small and medium businesses on the up. The solution helps manage the entire employee lifecycle, with modules for recruitment, onboarding, payroll, time an...Read more about Employment Hero

TrackSmart Attendance

TrackSmart is a cloud-based time and attendance management solution for small and mid-size businesses. It can be used in industries such as healthcare, restaurant, retail, office and warehouse. TrackSmart Attendance helps use...Read more about TrackSmart Attendance

Bizimply

Bizimply is a cloud-based employee scheduling software designed for small and midsize retail and hospitality business including hotels, restaurants, bar and cafes. Along with scheduling, it also handles employee attendance, shifts...Read more about Bizimply

Tanda

Tanda caters to multiple industries including hospitality, education, manufacturing, medical, pharmacy, retail and warehousing. Primary features include employee onboarding, rostering, time clock attendance, leave management and p...Read more about Tanda

TimeWellScheduled

TimeWellScheduled is a cloud-based time and attendance tracking solution built for organizations of various sizes. With this tool, managers can use a scheduling feature to create, edit, and track scheduling based on organizational...Read more about TimeWellScheduled

Buyers Guide

Last Updated: November 07, 2023

What Is Restaurant Scheduling Software?

Restaurant scheduling software is a tool that allows restaurant owners/managers to create and manage work schedules of waiters, chefs, and other restaurant employees. The software also helps track employee availability and requests for time off.

Manually creating schedules for all the employees in your restaurant can sometimes lead to major errors. Such errors can result in high employee turnover, which impacts overall productivity. Poor scheduling can cause confusion among managers and reduce employee morale. Low employee retention and job dissatisfaction will ultimately lower your restaurant’s profitability.

When managing a restaurant, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your cooks and waitstaff are going to show up for their shifts. That’s why you should consider dedicated restaurant scheduling software: It can help you better manage and automate tedious scheduling tasks, while ensuring staff know where they need to be and when.

In this Buyer’s Guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know to choose the right restaurant scheduling software for your business, including:

What Is Restaurant Scheduling Software?

Benefits of Restaurant Scheduling Software

Common Functionality of Restaurant Scheduling Software

How Is Restaurant Scheduling Software Priced?

Key Considerations for Restaurant Scheduling Software

Benefits of Restaurant Scheduling Software

Still doing scheduling with paper or spreadsheets? As we found in a recent report, dedicated scheduling software offers a number of benefits over manual methods, including:

Increased automation. Tools, such as reusable templates and “copy and paste” scheduling, can make many tedious aspects of shift schedule management disappear. Employee-facing capabilities, such as automated shift reminders and shift swapping, can also transfer some of the burden to your workers.

Improved communication. With real-time scheduling, workers and managers can stay up to date if a schedule changes or someone is unable to come in. Text or email notifications can also be enabled so that everyone is in the know, even when away from a computer.

More accurate scheduling. Keeping track of changing worker availability, preferences and certifications manually can lead to errors. With software, all these factors are tracked automatically—that is, potential shift-scheduling conflicts are identified ahead of time.

Controlled labor costs. Integrating your scheduling platform with your payroll system allows you to accurately compensate employees for the hours they worked, saving you money.

Remotely track time and attendance. Mobile access is increasingly a key feature offered by scheduling software, helping restaurant managers and owners to track the time spent by employees at work. They can also monitor time reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Common Functionality of Restaurant Scheduling Software

There are a number of common capabilities found in restaurant scheduling applications that are mentioned in the below diagram:

Time clock integration

Keeps track of clock-ins and clock-outs through a wall clock or an online web portal. This data can also be used by the finance team to calculate labor costs and pay them accordingly.

Reporting

Generates reports about labor budgets, hours worked and more. Detailed reports about paid time-offs, sick leaves or other leaves requested by employees can be downloaded by restaurant managers. These reports help them to plan staff scheduling and allocating.

POS integration

Integrates the scheduling system with your point-of-sale software to forecast sales and labor requirements.

Optimal schedule creation

With all the important factors, such as employee availability, leave details and business requirement, being tracked, optimal schedules can be created to avoid any conflicts. The software also tries to keep the labor cost within the budget and ensures that a few senior employees are always present in the restaurant.

Availability and certification tracking

Shows you when your workers are available, and which ones have proper certification for things such as ServSafe.

Mobile access

Allows users to view and modify schedules and availability from their mobile device. Some systems offer native mobile apps for the best experience.

Scheduling notifications and reminders

An automatic notification is sent to the employees to inform them about their shift timings. It can also offer them the flexibility to swap their shifts with another colleague in case of an emergency. Shift reminders are sent on mobile devices to ensure that people are available on time.

How Is Restaurant Scheduling Software Priced?

Restaurant scheduling software is usually priced under one of two models: subscription-based or a perpetual license.

Subscription-based

A monthly or annual fee to use the software that is typically based on the number of employees who need to access it.

Perpetual license

A one-time fee paid up front to use the software indefinitely.

Most restaurant scheduling software platforms are cloud-based and typically sold under a subscription model. However, there are some on-premise solutions, sold under a perpetual license, which offer more customizations and greater data control.

The subscription-based model generally enables users to upgrade or add features when their business starts to flourish. It is mostly prefered by SMBs as it doesn’t require a huge investment. Your business needs, size and budget will determine what’s best for you.

Key Considerations for Restaurant Scheduling Software

Here are a few other things to keep in mind when you’re evaluating restaurant scheduling software for your business:

Scalability. The solution should be scalable to meet the growing needs of your business. It should also offer advanced features that users can use once they are well versed with the basic functionality of the software. These advanced features may be provided at an additional cost.

Easy-to-use interface. The solution should require minimal training and should be easy to navigate for anyone across the organization. Managers should be able to set schedules for various shifts and employees can view their reporting timings with minimum effort. This will lead to a higher adoption rate that defines the success of any scheduling software.

Forecast capabilities. A few solutions offer sales and labor forecast capabilities that enable managers to predict the number of employees required on a particular day and time. This reduces the requirement for on-call personnel and helps managers prepare smarter schedules.

Enhanced transparency. The transparent scheduling solution allows all the employees to view the schedules of their colleagues and interchange shifts with them in case of a personal emergency. Employees can also pick their own shifts, which helps in improving the staff’s efficiency and their satisfaction with work.