Scheduling on a spreadsheet that staff can't access without being texted a photo, meaning shift swap requests come through personal messages and changes are never reflected in the actual rota?
Building next week's schedule without knowing what last week's labour cost was as a percentage of revenue because payroll and scheduling live in separate systems with no connection?
Restaurant Staff Scheduling Software
Labour is the second-largest cost in a restaurant after food, yet most operators build rosters in a spreadsheet with no visibility of labour cost as a percentage of projected revenue for each shift -- the number that actually matters when deciding whether to add a second sous chef on a Tuesday lunch.
We build scheduling systems where the cost of the schedule is calculated in real time as it is built, using forecasted revenue for each shift, so managers make staffing decisions with the right data rather than adjusting headcount by feel.
Shift planning by role and section with labour cost overlay
Availability and leave management
Shift swap and cover requests
Clock-in integration and payroll export
RaftLabs builds custom restaurant staff scheduling software for restaurants, restaurant groups, and hospitality venues. A purpose-built scheduling system connects shift planning directly to labour cost forecasting -- showing scheduled labour as a percentage of forecasted revenue as the schedule is built, not at month end when the overrun is already locked in. The system covers shift planning by role and section, availability and leave management, shift swap and cover workflows, clock-in and time attendance, and payroll export. Most restaurant staff scheduling projects ship in 10 to 12 weeks at a fixed cost with full source code ownership.
Labour costShift visibility
·Role + SectionScheduling
·FixedCost delivery
·10-12Week delivery cycles
Restaurant staff scheduling built around labour cost, not just shift coverage
Spreadsheet scheduling solves the wrong problem. It answers the question "who is working when" but not the question that determines whether the week is profitable: "what will this schedule cost as a percentage of the revenue we are forecasting?" Without that number visible during schedule building, managers routinely over-staff quiet shifts and under-staff busy ones -- not from poor judgment, but from an absence of the data needed to make the call.
The second problem is disconnection. Payroll lives in one system. Scheduling lives in a spreadsheet. Clock-in records are on a separate system or on paper. Labour cost actual versus budget is only known at month end, after the wage bill has been processed. A custom scheduling system closes that loop: it shows forecast labour cost while the schedule is being built, records actual hours from clock-in, and exports actuals to payroll in a format that removes the manual re-entry step.
What we build
Shift planning by role and section
Schedule builder with role-level planning -- head chef, sous chef, line cook, waiter, bar, host, runner -- mapped to the sections they cover: floor, bar, kitchen, or takeaway. Minimum cover requirements per role per shift so the schedule must satisfy service requirements before it can be published. Copy last week's schedule as a starting point and adjust from there rather than rebuilding from scratch each week. Schedule published to staff with a notification so the team can see their shifts without a manager needing to communicate individually. Unpublished draft mode so the manager can build and review the schedule before releasing it to staff.
Labour cost forecasting
Labour cost calculated in real time as the schedule is built, using the contracted or hourly rate for each staff member assigned to each shift. Scheduled labour shown as a percentage of forecasted revenue for each shift and aggregated for the full week, so the manager knows before publishing whether the schedule sits inside the target labour percentage. Labour budget threshold alert when the scheduled cost exceeds the configured target -- a prompt to review before publishing rather than a surprise at month end. Overtime flag when a staff member is being scheduled beyond their contracted hours in the current week.
Availability and leave management
Staff availability submission by week or as standing availability patterns -- a member of staff who is never available on Monday mornings sets that once rather than submitting it every week. Leave request workflow with manager approval or rejection and a notification to the requesting staff member. Unavailability blocks prevent a staff member from being scheduled on shifts they have marked as unavailable or when leave has been approved -- the schedule builder will not allow the assignment to be made. Public holiday management with the option to apply uplift pay rates to shifts on public holidays. Availability view for the manager during schedule building so the picture of who is free for each shift is visible without a separate check.
Shift swaps and cover requests
Staff-initiated shift swap requests submitted through the app and routed for manager approval before the swap takes effect in the rota -- changes do not appear until approved. Open shift posting when a shift needs covering: eligible staff are notified and can express interest, with the manager selecting who takes the shift subject to availability and role requirements. Decline and reassignment workflow when a staff member calls in sick on the day: the shift is flagged, eligible cover staff are contacted, and the replacement is recorded in the schedule. Every schedule change is logged with the reason for the change and the name of the manager who approved it.
Clock-in and time attendance
Staff clock-in via app or tablet at the venue at the start of each shift. Clock-in time compared against the scheduled start time with a late arrival flag visible to the manager. Clock-out matched against the scheduled end time so early departures are visible alongside overtime. Break time logging where required by employment law, recorded separately from worked hours. Actual hours worked per shift calculated from clock-in and clock-out records and compared against the scheduled hours -- the raw data that payroll export is built from and the basis for labour cost actual versus scheduled comparison.
Payroll export and reporting
Actual hours worked exported per staff member in a format compatible with your payroll processing system -- standard CSV or direct integration with Xero, Sage, or your existing payroll provider. Overtime hours flagged and separated from standard hours in the export so payroll processing applies the correct rate without manual identification. Labour cost actual versus budget comparison per shift and per week so the variance is visible without manual calculation. Labour cost by department -- kitchen, floor, bar -- with week-on-week trend tracking. Staff cost per cover as a productivity metric alongside revenue per labour hour, giving the operations team the numbers to compare performance across sites or across service periods.
Frequently asked questions
General workforce management tools are designed for retail, logistics, and multi-site operations where the primary variable is headcount by location and time slot. Restaurant scheduling has a different set of constraints: role-specific minimum cover requirements per shift, section-based assignment, labour cost as a percentage of forecasted revenue (not just total headcount cost), and tight integration between scheduling, clock-in, and payroll. A general workforce tool can model a rota but it typically can't calculate labour cost against a shift-level revenue forecast or flag when a specific role section is under-covered against service requirements. The custom system is built around the way restaurant labour planning actually works.
Yes. Payroll export is a core feature of the system rather than an add-on. The export format is configured to match your payroll provider's import requirements during the build -- Xero, Sage Payroll, BrightPay, and standard CSV formats are all supported. If your payroll provider has an open API, we integrate directly so actual hours push to payroll without a file export step. The integration approach is confirmed during project scoping based on which payroll system you use. If you are considering switching payroll providers at the same time, we can scope both together.
Split shifts are modelled as two separate shift blocks for the same staff member on the same day, with each block assigned independently and clock-in and clock-out recorded for each block. Variable shift patterns -- hospitality zero-hours contracts, annualised hours arrangements -- are supported through availability-based scheduling rather than fixed contracted hours. The system tracks total hours worked per week against any contracted minimum and flags both under-hours and over-hours positions. Public holiday premium rates and any other contractual pay uplifts are configured per contract type and applied automatically to shifts on the relevant dates.
A restaurant staff scheduling system covering shift planning by role and section, labour cost forecasting against revenue, availability and leave management, shift swap workflows, clock-in and time attendance, and payroll export typically falls within a fixed project scope confirmed after a scoping session. The session covers your team size, role and section structure, current payroll provider, and the scheduling problem you are solving -- whether that is primarily a labour cost visibility problem, a communication problem, or a payroll accuracy problem. We give you a fixed cost and timeline from that session. Most projects in this scope ship in 10 to 12 weeks.
