Our Top Picks for Restaurant Scheduling Apps in 2019
Most restaurateurs and restaurant managers would agree that creating the schedule can be one of the most arduous and frustrating tasks on their to-do list. It’s incredibly difficult to manage the availability of all of your employees and time-off requests while making sure everyone has at least some time off.
There is good news though! Thanks to the advent of scheduling apps for restaurants, this doesn’t have to be as difficult as you’re making it. Here are our top picks for scheduling apps in 2019.
This tool is our top pick and we love using it! Bizimply allows you to create schedules for your entire business, even if it has multiple locations, in minutes. Once you have the perfect schedule ready, simply click and an email goes out to every employee a copy of the schedule. Your employees can also use the employee app to check when and where they are working.
Bizimply’s scheduling takes into account employee details such as maximum daily and weekly hours to ensure you schedule the right amount of hours to your team. You can even share staff between locations or schedules so you and your team know where everyone is working. This cuts down on logistical and communication headaches for you and your team.
Bizimply is perfect for hospitality businesses with hourly paid workforces. It helps business owners by allowing them to combine sales targets and target hours to ensure you create the perfect schedule every time.
With built-in HR tools, you can keep track of and automate the training process for each of your employees. The HR section also gives you a place to store important employee documents and log any issues that arise. You can easily outline follow up actions or mark them as resolved.
Bizimply calculates how many paid vacation hours each employee has accrued and is entitled to take so you don’t have to track this yourself. It also allows you to survey your employees so you can monitor engagement and morale.
One of our favorite things about Bizimply is how it cuts down on time spent on payroll. Bizimply records shift start and finish times along with employee breaks to the exact minute and when you approve the time cards, you can easily export them to your payroll tool. By using employee timecard information, you can see predicted costs for your business. Identify trends and see which shifts are resulting in the highest costs.
Bizimply has a free trial and offers different packages to suit the needs of different businesses. They provide a free demo to take you through the tool and answer any questions you have about how it would work for your business.
7shifts is an online employee scheduling software system designed specifically for shift workers operating in the restaurant industry and the issues restaurateurs face. According to 7shifts, users spend 80% less time on staff, reduce their labor costs up to 3%, and improve their staff retention.
This tool allows you to schedule, manage time-off requests view availability all in the same place. No more scraps of paper or notebooks filled with which days each person needs off. The mobile app allows employees to check their upcoming shifts and change their availability and time-off request.
When a worker is unable to make it to their assigned shift, the mobile app allows them to offer shifts to other workers who can then bid on that shift. Reassigning that shift takes a single click and you know everyone is on the same page because the app makes it very clear who is working what shift.
Have an employee whose availability is changing? They can easily make a note in 7shift and managers can view and approve this. Workers can even request time off for managers to view and approve all within an easy to use mobile app.
Some of the more advanced features include a labor budgeting tool, POS integrations, and advanced reporting. 7shifts offers a free 14-day trial and is great for any size business because they don’t limit the number of employees that you can have in the app. Large companies like Domino’s and Panera Bread use 7shifts so it’s safe to say it’s reliable even at a large scale.
When I Work is a cloud-based employee scheduling solution that helps organizations like yours track time and attendance, create and edit employee schedules, add new jobs to the calendar, review timesheets, and fill shifts.
Employees get mobile alerts when a new schedule comes out so you don’t have to worry about them seeing it. They can request shift changes or time off using the app and managers are notified of these requests so they can approve them. Where When I Work varies from some other scheduling apps is the way it allows users to import employee data from spreadsheets or CSV files to help avoid schedule conflicts. There is also support for group email services and custom texting if you need it.
Some people who have reviewed the app reported that getting started wasn’t as easy as they would have liked but ultimately it was worth the time. When I Work integrates with payroll providers such as Gusto, QuickBooks, and ADP and is suitable for businesses of multiple sizes.
When I Work offers a “free forever” plan for business with up to 75 employees but the features available in their paid plans may make it worth upgrading even if you don’t have more than 75 employees.
Schedulefly is a staff scheduling and communication tool designed specifically for use by restaurants and is a favorite of independent restaurants. You can deliver schedules to everyone via the web, email, and text. Of course, it allows you to create your schedule but it also has capabilities for forecasting, messaging, job-posting, and information storage.
Schedulefly encourages communication between managers and coworkers with a built-in message wall that is useful for sharing important updates. This feature is a great way to keep everyone in the loop. Daily crib-sheet and scheduled reminders arrive via email each day and you can manage time-off and shift-trade requests remotely. Schedulefly is web-based so there are no potential issues with someone’s phone not being compatible with the app.
This tool provides more than just scheduling, in fact, it acts as a sort of company hub. Cloud storage enables you to keep track of important paperwork, staff information, and restaurant policies, making them available to your staff at any time. All of those important documents are easily accessible within a few clicks.
Schedulefly includes a unique job post tool to assist you with hiring and keeping track of resumes. This is a feature that isn’t common but we can see how it would be incredibly helpful for managers!
No matter which scheduling app you decide to use, know that it will save you and your manager’s frustration and countless hours. Your time is best spent working on growing your business, not lost in a spreadsheet trying to make the logistics of scheduling work. When you streamline this part of your business, it will free you up to do more of what you love!
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