Restaurant scheduling software built around the shift.

A restaurant schedule changes fast: someone updates their availability, a dinner shift opens, or the person covering it needs to swap. ClockOut keeps restaurant employee scheduling, attendance, tips, and approved hours in the same workflow so managers spend less time reconciling separate tools.

Restaurant scheduling that connects the plan to the punch

A schedule is only useful when employees can see it and managers can compare it with what actually happened. ClockOut combines the weekly schedule with a restaurant time clock, so late arrivals, no-shows, early leaves and missed breaks appear in the Exception Inbox for review instead of surfacing at payroll time, and an overtime alert goes to the employee and to managers before someone crosses the weekly overtime threshold. If you only need the schedule side today, the employee scheduling app page walks through templates, open shifts, swaps, and confirmations in more detail.

Build repeatable schedules

Start from recurring shift templates for the parts of the week that rarely change: the Friday dinner line, the weekend brunch hosts, the Monday prep crew. The scheduler flags conflicts and respects the availability and approved PTO already recorded for each employee. Positions such as line, server, host, or bar label each shift so the week reads at a glance.

Staff each shift by position

A position can be limited to the people you pick, so a new server cannot claim a bartending shift, and that rule also applies to open shifts and swaps. The rotation tally shows how many shifts and hours each person has worked at each position over the last 4 to 26 weeks, which is how you spot the server who always gets the slow section, and staff can ask to prefer or avoid a position for a date range. A staffing plan sets how many of each position you need and when, for example 2 cooks from 10:00 to 15:00 and 4 servers from 17:00 to 22:00, with a different plan for any single date such as a private event. The Positions view of the week shows every need, who fills it, and what is missing; click a gap and ClockOut lists who can take it, fewest recent hours at that position first, then assign in one click or post it as an open shift. All of this is on Starter. On Pro, auto-fill drafts the open spots for 1, 2 or 4 weeks with the same fair rotation, and you review every drafted shift before it is saved.

Fill gaps without starting over

Post an open shift when coverage changes. Employees claim open work from their phone, or use the shift-swap workflow, and the change lands in the same schedule managers already use. The manager gets a notification when a shift is claimed and reviews swaps before they go through.

Keep the week inside a labor budget (Pro)

On Pro, set a weekly target in hours, dollars or both, for the whole business or one location. A budget bar on the schedule board compares it with the scheduled hours and the projected cost from each person’s pay rate, so you see the week go over before you publish it. It budgets against the schedule, not against sales, so it cannot show labor as a percent of sales. Managers limited to one location or department do not see it, because it is built from pay rates.

Give every employee a practical way to clock in

Employees clock in from the ClockOut iPhone or Android app, or the web app, with GPS captured on the punch. On Starter and Pro, a shared tablet can run kiosk mode so employees use a 4 to 6 digit PIN instead of a personal phone, or scan a personal QR badge for an instant punch when the whole line clocks in at once. Read more about the GPS time clock or the tablet kiosk setup.

A week in the life of a 20-person restaurant on ClockOut

Here is how the pieces fit together for a single-location restaurant with about 20 staff across the kitchen, floor, and bar. Everything below is included on Starter unless noted.

1. 01

   Sunday evening: next week builds itself from the template

   Recurring templates hold the standing shifts for each day of the week. ClockOut generates next week’s shifts from them automatically and they are visible to employees right away. The manager spends ten minutes editing exceptions: a server on vacation, a private event on Thursday, a new hire shadowing Saturday brunch.

2. 02

   Monday morning: post the shifts you could not fill

   Two dinner shifts have no one assigned. The manager posts them as open shifts with the position attached. Every eligible employee sees them in the app, the first to claim gets it, and the manager gets a notification. Open shifts that pass their date unclaimed close on their own.

3. 03

   Monday afternoon: staff confirm or decline on their phone

   With shift confirmation on, each employee taps confirm or decline on every published shift. A decline carries a reason so the manager can act on it. Anyone who has not responded to a shift starting in the next 24 hours gets a reminder notification, which is how you find out about a no-show before the shift, not after.

4. 04

   Wednesday: a swap and an availability change

   A bartender needs Friday off. From her phone she offers to trade her Friday shift for a coworker’s Sunday shift, the coworker accepts, and the manager approves it in one tap. A line cook updates his weekly availability because his class schedule changed, and the scheduler flags any shift that falls outside it. Neither change means rebuilding the week.

5. 05

   Every shift: clock-in tied to the shift window

   With punch limiting turned on, an employee can clock in starting 15 minutes before the scheduled shift (the window is configurable) and not before. An optional rule also blocks clock-in for anyone with no shift that day. The kitchen punches in on the kiosk tablet with a PIN or QR badge, servers use the app with GPS on the punch, and the Exception Inbox collects late arrivals and missed breaks for review.

6. 06

   After close: tips entry

   Servers and bartenders log their tips for the day in the app, tagging each entry as cash, card, pool, or other. Managers see totals by employee for any date range, which is what the payroll conversation about overtime for tipped employees needs.

7. 07

   Monday: approve timesheets and export the payroll CSV

   The manager clears the Exception Inbox, approves the week’s timesheets, and downloads the CSV. Every plan includes a generic CSV; Pro adds files formatted for RUN Powered by ADP, Gusto, and QuickBooks Time. The setup side of this is covered in time tracking for restaurants.

Coffee shop scheduling works the same way

A coffee shop schedule is a restaurant schedule with earlier opens and shorter shifts. The same template handles the 5:30 am opener, the mid-morning rush overlap, and the closer, and the same kiosk tablet behind the counter takes the punches. Because ClockOut prices by the number of people rather than per location, a ten-person cafe pays $34 a month on Starter. The cafe and coffee shop time tracking guide covers the setup, and the free work schedule maker is a no-signup way to draft a coffee shop work schedule before you commit to any software.

What restaurant scheduling software costs: ClockOut vs 7shifts, Homebase and When I Work

ClockOut bills a base fee that covers the first 5 people, then a price per extra person, and everyone with an account counts, including the owner and managers. Homebase and 7shifts bill a flat rate per location, and When I Work bills per user. So the comparison depends on headcount. Here it is at common restaurant sizes and for a group of 3 restaurants with 50 people between them (about 17 per site), on each tool’s lowest plan with a weekly schedule, open shifts or trades, and a mobile time clock. Competitor prices are list prices from each vendor’s own pricing page, checked October 15, 2026.

The plain reading: at 10 staff only 7shifts costs more than ClockOut Starter. From 15 staff on one location, and for a 50-person group across 3 sites, ClockOut costs more than all three, because its price grows with headcount and Homebase and 7shifts charge per location with no per-person fee. When I Work is $2.50 per user a month for one location and $5 for more than one. 7shifts does not say whether its 30-employee Essentials cap counts per location or per account; if it is per account, 50 people need Pro at $89.99 per location, or $269.97 for 3. Sling, another common pick, is $2 per user a month on Premium (shift swaps, mobile time tracking and geofencing): $50 for 25 people and $100 for 50, with kiosk time tracking on its Business plan ($4 per user a month). Annual billing takes 20% off ClockOut, and every new company starts with a 14-day Starter trial with no card.

Free plans matter for a single restaurant too: Homebase Basic covers one location with up to 10 employees, and 7shifts Comp covers scheduling for one location with up to 15 employees (no time clock). ClockOut Free covers 2 people.

What each one includes

Sources, all checked October 15, 2026: 7shifts pricing, Homebase pricing, When I Work pricing and Sling pricing. The 7shifts pricing page does not say which plan includes GPS or geofencing. For the tier-by-tier detail, see the ClockOut vs Homebase and ClockOut vs 7shifts comparisons, or the roundup of Homebase alternatives for restaurants. Current ClockOut prices are on the pricing page.

Running two locations

A second restaurant, or a cafe and a food truck under the same owner, needs multiple work locations so each site has its own geofence and its own view of the schedule, every punch is tagged to the site it happened at, and the owner still sees one team and one payroll export. Staffing plans can be set per location, and a manager can be limited to one location’s people. Multiple locations are on the Pro plan ($39 a month for 5 people, then $6 each, no per-location fee). The multi-location time clock guide covers how to set up the second site.

What ClockOut does not do for restaurants

• No POS connection. ClockOut does not read sales, covers or tips from Toast, Square or any other POS. 7shifts and Homebase list POS devices for their time clocks, and When I Work lists POS integrations on every plan.
• No tip pooling or payouts. Tips are a daily log with totals and a CSV. A tip pool split or tip payout needs another tool, such as the tip add-ons 7shifts and Homebase sell.
• No sales-based labor forecast. The Pro labor budget compares the schedule with a target you set, not with projected sales.
• No payroll processing. ClockOut computes hours, overtime and pay estimates and exports payroll-ready files; you run payroll in your payroll provider. 7shifts and Homebase sell their own payroll add-ons.
• No reservations or table management. ClockOut schedules employee shifts and tracks employee hours, not tables or guests.
• A small free plan. Free covers 2 people. Homebase Basic (up to 10 employees) and 7shifts Comp (up to 15) give a single restaurant more for free.

Which one fits your restaurant

If you want the lowest monthly bill at 15 or more staff on one location, POS support, or tip management, Homebase or 7shifts is the closer fit, and When I Work is the simple per-user option. ClockOut fits a restaurant that schedules by position and wants a staffing plan, fair rotation, shift confirmations, clock-in tied to the schedule and a tips log on one plan with no add-ons, priced by the number of people. The 14-day trial is long enough to schedule two real weeks and compare.

From availability to approved hours

1. 01

   Add the restaurant team

   Add employees, assign roles and positions, upload a CSV of staff, or share an invite link so employees can join from their phone.

2. 02

   Collect availability and PTO

   Keep weekly availability and approved time off in front of the scheduler before shifts are assigned.

3. 03

   Build and publish the schedule

   Reuse recurring templates, resolve conflicts, and publish the week. Employees confirm or decline each shift.

4. 04

   Handle open shifts and swaps

   Post uncovered shifts and keep employee swaps inside the scheduling workflow, with manager review.

5. 05

   Review time and export

   Clear attendance exceptions, approve timesheets, and export a payroll CSV. Pro adds payroll-ready exports in ADP, Gusto, and QuickBooks formats.

Which plan fits a restaurant team?

Free is useful for testing ClockOut with one employee besides you. Starter is $19 a month for up to 5 people, then $3 per extra person, and carries every scheduling workflow in the week above. Pro is $39 a month for up to 5, then $6 each, and adds multiple locations, the weekly labor budget, auto-fill from the staffing plan, payroll runs, payroll-ready exports, PDF export and monthly attendance summaries, the compliance pack with daily overtime and double-time rules, and work rules so different groups of staff can follow their own overtime and break rules. Salaried managers can be marked exempt from overtime on every plan. See the complete pricing page for the current plan details.

Restaurant scheduling and time-clock guides

• Time tracking for small restaurants: setup guide
• Time tracking for cafes and coffee shops
• How to handle overtime for tipped employees
• ClockOut vs 7shifts for restaurant teams
• ClockOut vs Homebase
• Homebase alternatives for restaurants
• What the free time clock includes

Related pages

• Employee scheduling app: recurring templates, open shifts, swaps, and confirmations.
• Open shifts and shift swaps: every check a claim and a swap goes through.
• Free work schedule maker and time card calculator, no signup.
• Kiosk QR badges, GPS time clock, punch controls, and PTO tracker.
• ClockOut for iPhone and Android: the staff app for schedules, confirmations, swaps, punches, and tips.
• Also for hotels and event staff teams.

Restaurant scheduling software FAQ