6 Best Restaurant Scheduling Software Tools for 2024

It’s an hour before the Friday dinner rush and one of your servers calls in sick. You’re scrambling to figure out who can cover their shift. You try to remember who’s on vacation, who’s working at your other venue, and who might be available at the last minute. This stressful scenario is all too common for restaurateurs, but the good news is that it’s an unnecessary headache. Finding the best restaurant scheduling software for your business can alleviate shift coverage issues – and that’s only the beginning of what this technology can do.

Considering that 82% of restaurateurs report being understaffed (the average of whom are down four team members), help is a welcome intervention when it comes to labor management. But it’s important to choose wisely when you’re making an investment in new technology. That’s why we decided to do some of the legwork for you.

In this guide to scheduling software for restaurants, we’ll review six of the top restaurant scheduling solutions, including:

• TouchBistro Labor Management
• 7shifts
• Sling
• Homebase
• Push Operations
• Schedulefly

Here’s everything you need to know to choose the right restaurant scheduling software for your unique needs.

6 Best Restaurant Scheduling Software & Apps for 2024

No scheduling tool is one-size-fits-all. So, to help you choose the best restaurant scheduling software or best restaurant scheduling app for your needs, we’ve put together a roundup of six different solutions – including our own. It includes customer feedback sourced from firsthand testimonials on software review webpages and forums, in addition to restaurant industry-specific threads on Reddit. 

You’ll likely find that some of these options will suit your restaurant better than others. It’s time to dive in and see how they stack up against one another.

TouchBistro Labor Management

First on our list is TouchBistro Labor Management, a robust restaurant staff management and scheduling software that integrates directly with TouchBistro POS. This TouchBistro solution is designed to help you streamline labor forecasting, employee scheduling, and task management for teams of all sizes, while keeping costs in check. The solution eliminates outdated manual processes, reduces operational complexity, and helps to keep employee turnover down.

Features include labor forecasting and scheduling, a centralized location to manage employee communications, a reporting dashboard, and multi-location management.

Benefits of TouchBistro Labor Management

What is TouchBistro Labor Management most useful for? Let’s walk through a few ways this solution can benefit you.

1. Simplify team management across multiple locations with scheduling automations and a dedicated hub for all of your communications, including schedule changes and vacation requests.
2. Near real-time labor data from the TouchBistro POS allows you to generate suggested schedules based on forecasted revenue, which makes it incredibly easily to keep labor costs in check.
3. Monitor staff performance with an overview dashboard and in-depth reporting, including the option to create custom reports.
4. Only pay one single fee to unlock all of TouchBistro Labor Management’s features, regardless of your team size.
   

Drawbacks of TouchBistro Labor Management

1. No integrated payroll option at this time
2. The software is not recommended for restaurants that have fewer than seven employees, so it may not be the most efficient option for very small teams.

7shifts

Next up is 7shifts, a team management platform for restaurants that is designed to improve business performance. This software was built with the purpose of freeing up time for managers and allowing them to focus on serving their staff and customers. It’s an ideal option for owners and managers of both franchises and independent restaurants.

At its core, 7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention tool. It offers features like time clocking, tip management, payroll, team engagement, and a scheduling app for restaurants.

Benefits of 7shifts

1. Save time and stay organized by scheduling and paying your team through this centralized solution. Built specifically for busy restaurant managers, 7shifts automates calculations, speeding up manual tasks like tip management and payroll. 
2. Get the support you need from 7shifts’ effective customer service team. Users of this tool report reliable and consistent customer support.
3. Leverage various communication options, including the ability to communicate with a specific department or with your entire staff.
   

Drawbacks of 7shifts

1. A more expensive top-tier plan is required for teams of 30 or more staff, and to unlock the compliance tools and payroll integration, which is a handy integration to have, but an added expense to consider.
2. While you can adjust the filters in your reports, custom reports are not an option, which may be limiting for some businesses.
   

Sling by Toast

Third on our list, Sling by Toast is an employee management and communication platform. The software facilitates seamless planning and scheduling for restaurants of all sizes, and offers the option to easily integrate with Toast’s POS. 

Features include employee scheduling, time clocking, task management, payroll, communication, and more.

Benefits of Sling by Toast

1. Streamline communication and efficiently share shift information with employees through push notifications. This ensures staff are up-to-date on their schedules, as well as urgent company announcements.
2. Easily learn how to use the solutions Sling offers with an intuitive platform that’s simple to navigate. 
3. Create a clean and organized labor management system. Sling allows users to color-code assignments, build detailed task lists, and create recurring shifts, providing clarity for managers and staff.

Drawbacks of Sling by Toast

1. Can be costly for larger teams, as the software is priced per user rather than per location.
2. Users have requested more functionality, which suggests they may be dissatisfied with the limited array of labor management tools, such as labor insights.
3. Difficulties with integration between Sling and other POS systems may arise, given that customers have reported challenges syncing their data.
4. Users have reported excess notifications for chats taking place within the software. They’ve also reported the tool freezing, forcing them to restart the application.

Homebase

Homebase is an employee scheduling and time management platform tailored to smaller-scale businesses, particularly those in the service, retail, and hospitality industries. The software aims to streamline the scheduling process and increase operational efficiency. 

This tool offers features like scheduling, shift tracking, timesheets, and time clocking, early access to wages, payroll, hiring and onboarding, HR compliance, and more.

Benefits of Homebase

1. Leverage a scheduling app for restaurants that is efficient and straightforward to navigate, with the option of clocking-in right from your phone. Avoid operational inconsistencies between desktop and mobile interfaces that users report experiencing with other scheduling platforms.
2. Gain visibility into earnings per shift with tracking. Employees can also see how much they earned immediately after their shift, ensuring they are accurately compensated. 
3. Easily create schedules with available templates, reducing the room for error inherent in manual scheduling. In addition, employees can request time off and shift trades through the app, which helps managers build accurate schedules.
   

Drawbacks of Homebase

1. Homebase is less appropriate for large businesses with multiple departments, or few departments with employees who may work in more than one. This could cause difficulty in scheduling universal employees. 
2. The software’s payroll feature only allows payments in USD, which makes it less appealing for restaurateurs in other countries.
3. Functionality does not always work smoothly, with users reporting that they don’t always receive notifications of schedule changes. It’s also difficult to adjust time clocks when employees forget to clock in or out.

Push Operations

Push Operations is an all-in-one cloud-based workforce management solution. It enables managers to cut down on HR and payroll time and costs, increase operational efficiency, and allocate more time to their business. 

Features include payroll management, wage tracking, employee hiring and onboarding including an applicant tracking system, employee performance management, scheduling and time tracking, and more.

Benefits of Push Operations

1. Get support from excellent staff. Users have reported accessible, reliable, and knowledgeable customer service.
2. Access user-friendly tools with ease. Managers value the simplicity of the software’s HR functions, which lets them maximize their use of the various management integrations.  
3. Enjoy convenience thanks to Push’s cloud-based system. It enables managers to access the platform from anywhere, ensuring they stay up-to-date on payroll.
   

Drawbacks of Push Operations

1. Push Operations lacks a customer relationship management (CRM) system, which some users say detracts from the software’s capabilities as a comprehensive business solution.
2. Since Push Operations offers advanced payroll features, it’s likely not an ideal fit for larger businesses with several salaried staff members.

Schedulefly

Schedulefly is a simple restaurant employee scheduling software. It’s designed to be fast, easy, and engaging. The solution allows users to quickly post schedules online and text or email them to staff, organize vacation requests and manage shift changes, share important messages, and keep an eye on labor costs.

Features include scheduling, communication tools and unlimited text messages, a multi-unit dashboard, an employee database, labor reporting, and more.

Benefits of Schedulefly

1. Streamline scheduling and communication. Employees receive automatic notifications and can easily view or update their shifts, reducing confusion and ensuring everyone is on the same page. 
2. Enhance team coordination with a secure platform for announcements, updates, and important reminders. The multi-unit dashboard also supports seamless management across multiple locations. 
3. Centralize employee information and important documents, including job postings, manuals, and menus.

Drawbacks of Schedulefly

1. The software doesn’t offer a POS integration. Without this crucial connection, you’ll need to manually input sales and labor data.
2. Employees can’t manage their tips through Schedulefly. This limitation means they may need to manually track their tips.
3. The software doesn’t offer payroll functionality or integrations. So, you may need to export scheduling data and import it into a separate payroll system.

How to Choose the Best Restaurant Scheduling Software

Price isn’t the only thing to consider when you’re shopping for back of house software or the best restaurant scheduling app. Here are three other critical factors to evaluate when selecting a restaurant scheduling solution.

Ease of Use

Restaurant employee scheduling software should be intuitive and easy for both you and your staff to use. If the tool you choose is too complex or cumbersome, it’ll inevitably lead to frustration and errors, hindering instead of helping your operations.

The purpose of implementing this kind of solution is to streamline your scheduling process, not complicate it. So, look for restaurant scheduling software with a user-friendly interface that requires minimal training. This way, everyone on your team can quickly adapt to the new tool and take full advantage of its capabilities. 

Robust Features

The best restaurant scheduling software strikes a balance between meeting your current needs and supporting your future growth. Your restaurant will inevitably go through changes, so it’s a good idea to select a scheduling tool that can flex to meet your needs as they evolve – be it adding more staff or opening up an entirely new location. Otherwise, you may be shopping for new software again sooner than you initially anticipated.

Look for features like labor forecasting (which can reduce operating costs), data-driven reporting, and multi-location management (even if you don’t need it yet). This functionality can help you manage your team more efficiently today and in the future, should you choose to expand.

POS Integration

Seamless integration with your existing point of sale (POS) system is an essential feature of any scheduling software for restaurants. When your scheduling tool is directly linked to your POS, it ensures a smooth flow of data between systems. Without this integration, you’ll find yourself manually transferring data, which is inefficient at best and can lead to errors at worst.

Restaurant employee scheduling software with a POS integration also helps you track labor costs, monitor employee hours, and analyze performance metrics with greater ease. This not only saves time, but provides confidence in your labor data.

If you’re looking for the best restaurant scheduling software – one that fits all the criteria listed above – TouchBistro Labor Management is an option worth considering. Labor management shouldn’t require extra labor. TouchBistro Labor Management saves you countless hours on admin with easy-to-use staff scheduling tools, data-driven forecasts, and real-time team communications.

by Katherine Pendrill

Katherine is the Content Marketing Manager at TouchBistro, where she writes about trending topics in food and restaurants. The opposite of a picky eater, she’ll try (almost) anything at least once. Whether it’s chowing down on camel burgers in Morocco or snacking on octopus dumplings in Japan, she’s always up for new food experiences.

Topics

BOH Labor Technology