A Complete Guide to Restaurant Scheduling Software

Many restaurant owners and managers still rely on traditional pen-and-paper methods to create employee schedules, leading to a host of issues hindering productivity and overall business performance.

This is where digital tools like restaurant scheduling software step in. Adopting a restaurant scheduling app is a game-changer for business owners and managers seeking to optimise their workforce management. Read on to discover the key features and benefits of restaurant scheduling software.

What is Restaurant Scheduling Software?

Restaurant scheduling software primarily helps businesses create employee rosters for superior staff management. It helps businesses move away from cumbersome methods like pen-and-paper and spreadsheets.

Some software goes above and beyond with additional features like timesheets, payroll management and labour cost analysis. The right tool can transform staffing in your hospitality venue.

Signs of Quality Restaurant Scheduling Software

When looking for the right restaurant scheduling software for your venue, it is essential to look the following key features:

• Intuitive interface: With user-friendly tools such as templating, intuitive drag-and-drop functionality and easy-to-use dashboards, you can quickly integrate scheduling software into your business.
• Templates: Tools like Sling enable businesses to work from scheduling templates, saving time when it comes to creating rosters. This makes it easier to implement various kinds of rosters like rotating rosters.
• Additional features: Popular restaurant scheduling tools like 7Shifts and Deputy have a range of features that integrate with the financial side of employee management and time tracking for employees. In hospitality, efficiency is everything, and these extra features help your restaurant achieve it.
• Employee communication: Many restaurant scheduling software tools are designed to be used by your whole team. This allows everyone to easily check the shifts they are rostered on for and may even include chat features.
• Mobile accessibility: Restaurant scheduling software that is accessible on mobile devices offers many benefits to staff members and managers alike. It means that staff can access rosters anywhere they are. It can also allow team members to easily clock in and out using their phones.

Common Features of Restaurant Scheduling Software

Some common ways restaurant scheduling software helps out restaurants include:

• Shift scheduling: Naturally, the most important aspect of restaurant scheduling software is the ability to create rosters and schedule employees for shifts. The effectiveness of shift scheduling is bolstered by roster templates and easy communication with employees.
• Labour cost management: Given all the information that is recorded by restaurant scheduling software, they can also offer useful labour cost management functionality. You can discover the labour costs of particular days or weeks and analyse where you are spending too much. Examples of software that specialises in this area include Crunchtime and Deputy.
• Time tracking: A convenient bonus feature found in many pieces of restaurant scheduling software is employee time tracking. Customers can use these tools to clock in and out of work, often on their own mobile device. Employers can easily compare the time staff were rostered on to work and how much time they tracked.
• Payroll: Many restaurants also find it ideal to use restaurant scheduling software to help with payroll. Tools like Deputy use timesheet data to calculate employees' pay based on their awards. This means managers can put away their calculators and get staff paid quickly. 
  
• Compliance: Perhaps the most important part of staff scheduling is ensuring your rosters are legally compliant. Restaurant scheduling software can highlight when staff members are entitled to overtime wages, or if they are scheduled to exceed the maximum legal number of consecutive days worked (10 in Australia).

Benefits of Integrating Restaurant Scheduling Software Into Your Business

There are many reasons why restaurant scheduling software can be a big help to business compared to pen-and-paper alternatives.

Efficiency

Adopting scheduling software streamlines and automates restaurant operations. As a restaurant manager, you can spend less time creating spreadsheets or paper rosters.

With the right payroll functionality, you can save even more time as awards and tip management can be taken care of for you, too.

All this efficiency gives more time back to your management team, allowing you to focus on the important aspects of operating a restaurant. Improved roster creation also helps you cut down on labour costs, as you can avoid issues with over-rostering.

Less Rostering Mistakes

With high-quality software taking care of scheduling in your restaurant, you can enjoy fewer mistakes in your rosters.

Scheduling software can easily record employee unavailability and incorporate it into rosters. Issues with legal compliance can also be avoided.

Reduced rostering mistakes also contributes to greater efficiency. Having a particular staff member fail to appear for their shift can be disastrous, especially during busy service periods. The proper use of restaurant scheduling software helps avoid these scenarios.

Improved Staff Communication and Satisfaction

Many restaurants are familiar with confusion that can result from traditional rostering systems. Often, employees don’t know when a new roster has been posted, and can be upset if miscommunications result in an unworkable roster.

Restaurant scheduling software can help change this. Depending on the software in use, employees can access their schedules, manage employee hours, swap shifts directly, drop shifts and input time off requests, all within a single platform. 

This fosters a positive work environment, motivates employees and increases overall job satisfaction as team members will feel valued. This improves restaurant staff retention and can result in better job performances in your team.

How ResDiary Restaurant Booking Data Can Support Your Rostering Efforts

Restaurant scheduling software pairs well with other software in a hospitality venue. One of the best examples is restaurant booking systems.

By leveraging booking data in your restaurant scheduling software, you can build your understanding of how customers dine in your restaurant and how you can manage your team as a result.

If you’ve received an influx of bookings on a particular night, you can swiftly update restaurant scheduling software to get the help you need from your team. 

You can also analyse historical booking data to understand baselines of busyness in your venue. This means your week-to-week rosters can be more accurate and your restaurant more efficient.

Using ResDiary’s insights in your rostering is just one small way it will benefit your venue. ResDiary is a leading table management system with powerful integrations including EPOS systems and marketing solutions.

Embrace the future of hospitality management and unlock your business's full potential by booking a ResDiary demo today.