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, missed breaks, and unapproved overtime appear in the Exception Inbox for review instead of surfacing at payroll time. 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.

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.

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 four-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 due today or tomorrow 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. She requests a swap from her phone, a 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 respects it from next week on. 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, or pool. 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 per person 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 at 10, 20, and 30 staff

ClockOut bills per person. Homebase and 7shifts bill a flat rate per location. That means the comparison depends on headcount, so here it is at three common restaurant sizes, on monthly billing for one location, using each product’s entry paid tier as of September 2026.

At 10 staff the entry tiers are within a few dollars of each other. Past 20 staff a flat per-location fee is cheaper on paper, and Homebase also has a free Basic tier for one location with up to 10 employees, so the right comparison depends on which features you need and on which tier they sit; check the ClockOut vs Homebase and ClockOut vs 7shifts comparisons for the tier-by-tier detail, or the roundup of Homebase alternatives for restaurants. Annual billing takes 20% off ClockOut, and every paid plan starts with a 14-day free trial. Current 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. 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.

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 formats for ADP, Gusto, and QuickBooks.

Which plan fits a restaurant team?

Free is useful for testing ClockOut with two employees. 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, payroll runs, formatted payroll exports, reporting, and the configurable compliance engine with daily overtime rules. 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.
• Free work schedule maker and time card calculator, no signup.
• Kiosk QR badges, GPS time clock, 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