Restaurant staff management software for rotas, shifts and clock-in

Restaurant staff management software replaces the rota pinned by the office door, the WhatsApp group and the sign-in sheet by the till. It sends each person their shifts on their phone, handles open shifts, swaps and time-off requests, records clock-in and clock-out times, and controls what each role can do on the POS. For an independent restaurant or takeaway with 8 to 40 staff, that covers most of the admin between writing the rota on Thursday and cashing up on Sunday.

The app is the easy part. The rota still has to match the hours you are busy, the wage bill still has to fit your sales, and your hours records still have to stand up when a Workplace Relations Commission inspector in Ireland or a former employee in the UK asks to see them. Software that makes a bad rota quicker to publish does not help.

This page covers rota building step by step, labour cost maths in euro and sterling, working time law in Ireland and the UK with official sources, clock-in records, shift swaps and time off, POS permissions, tips law, published software prices, questions to ask and a set-up checklist. Eclyde’s staff features, and what they do not cover, are near the end. Watching sales and orders from your phone is a separate job, covered in the guide to a restaurant management app.

Jobs of restaurant staff management software

Three kinds of tool do this work.

• Standalone rota and workforce apps. Deputy, RotaCloud, Planday, Rotaready and Bizimply are examples. They go deepest on scheduling, with features such as demand forecasting and payroll links on higher plans, and usually charge per user or by quote.
• Staff features inside a restaurant platform or POS. Fewer scheduling extras, but staff use one system for the till, the orders and the rota, and you pay one bill.
• Spreadsheets and templates. Free. They work for a small team on fixed hours and fall apart once shifts change weekly, swaps happen by text and someone has to add up hours for payroll.

What staff tools usually leave to someone else: food cost, stock, and the PAYE, PRSI or National Insurance calculations your payroll provider or accountant runs.

Restaurant rota building

Demand by hour

A rota starts from sales, not from who wants which days. Pull orders by hour for each weekday over the last four weeks from your POS end-of-day reports. How to read those reports is covered in the guide to restaurant analytics software. Average the four weeks, then take out any night distorted by a big match, a storm or a closed road.

Next, set ratios from your own good nights. Example: on a strong Friday, two cooks handled 30 orders an hour and no ticket went past 20 minutes, so the kitchen ratio is 15 orders per cook per hour. A driver who completes 3 deliveries an hour gives a driver ratio of 3. These ratios belong to your restaurant. They depend on the menu, the kitchen layout and the size of the delivery area.

Example: a Friday at a takeaway where 40% of orders are delivered. Staff numbers are rounded up.

Nobody works a one-hour shift. The table tells you where shifts should start and finish. Here, a second cook starts at 17:00, a third cook covers 18:00 to 20:00 and stays to help close down the pizza station, and two drivers start at 18:00 rather than 16:00.

Roles and skills

For each person, record:

• the stations they can work, such as pizza, grill, fryer, wok, prep or counter;
• whether they can open or close, and hold keys and the alarm code;
• whether they drive for you;
• whether they are under 18;
• their contracted hours or band of hours;
• days they cannot work, agreed in writing.

A rota with names but no skills record leaves a manager at 17:30 discovering that nobody on shift can run the pizza oven.

Restaurant rota template

A usable template, on paper or in software, has these columns and rows. Example for part of a week:

The last four rows turn a rota into a budget. Without them, you only find out the rota was too heavy when the payroll bill arrives.

Weekly rota, step by step

1. Pull demand. Orders by hour for each weekday, averaged over the last four weeks.
2. Mark the calendar. Public or bank holidays, school holidays, big matches, local events, planned promotions.
3. Forecast sales and set a labour budget for each day, using your own labour cost percentage target.
4. Place fixed shifts. Head chef, opening, closing, deliveries of stock.
5. Fill the peaks using your ratios, with shift starts and finishes placed where the table says.
6. Add breaks. In Ireland, any shift over 4.5 hours needs a break, and in the UK any day over 6 hours does (rules below).
7. Check rest between shifts. Both countries require 11 hours between working days for adults. A close at 23:30 means no start before 10:30 the next day.
8. Check young workers. Daily and weekly limits, extra rest and, in Ireland, finishing times.
9. Check weekly hours against contracts, bands of hours and the 48-hour average.
10. Apply approved time off and availability.
11. Cost it. Hours × pay rate, plus employer PRSI or National Insurance and pension, against the forecast.
12. Publish with notice. In Ireland, staff whose hours vary must be told start and finish times at least 24 hours in advance. A fixed publishing day, such as Thursday for the week starting Monday, gives far more notice than that.
13. Keep the published version. In Ireland the notice of working time, such as the weekly rota, is one of the records you must keep for three years.

Restaurant labour cost

Labour cost % = (gross wages + employer PRSI or employer National Insurance + employer pension contributions) ÷ net sales excluding VAT × 100.

Use net sales. In Ireland the VAT rate on food and catering services fell from 13.5% to 9% on 1 July 2026, per the Government of Ireland announcement. In the UK, catering and hot takeaway food are standard-rated according to HMRC’s VAT rates guidance, and the standard rate is 20%.

There is no universal right percentage. It depends on your menu, how much prep you do in-house, whether you deliver with your own drivers, and your rent. Agree a target with your accountant from your own accounts, then watch the weekly movement. Holiday pay and public holiday pay are labour costs too, so include them when you look at a full month.

Worked example: a takeaway week in Ireland

Example: two full-time chefs and six part-time staff, net sales of €16,000 for the week.

How the rates apply:

• Pay rates. Both are above the national minimum wage of €14.15 an hour, which applies from 1 January 2026 to workers aged 20 and over.
• Employer PRSI. Until 30 September 2026, the Class A employer rate is 11.25% where weekly pay is more than €552 and 9% where it is €552 or less. The chefs earn €900 a week and the part-time staff €375.
• October 2026 change. From 1 October 2026 the same table sets the rates at 11.40% and 9.15%. On these wages PRSI becomes €205.20 + €205.88 = €411.08, labour cost €4,488.08 and labour cost 28.1%. That is €6.08 a week, or €316.16 a year, for the same rota.
• Pension. Under MyFutureFund auto-enrolment, which began on 1 January 2026, employers pay 1.5% of salary in the first year for eligible staff aged 23 to 60 earning €20,000 or more a year, or more than €5,000 over 13 weeks. The chefs qualify. The part-time staff earn €19,500 a year and €4,875 over 13 weeks, so they do not in this example.

Worked example: a takeaway week in the UK

Example: the same staff pattern in a UK takeaway, net sales of £14,000.

How the rates apply:

• Pay rates. The National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour from April 2026 for workers aged 21 and over. The rate for 18 to 20 year olds is £10.85 and for under-18s and apprentices £8.00.
• Employer National Insurance. HMRC’s 2026 to 2027 rates set employer NIC at 15% above the secondary threshold of £96 a week. The same page sets a 0% employer rate for employees under 21 on earnings up to £967 a week. If the six part-time staff were aged 18 to 20, the £199.58 line would fall to zero, about £10,378 a year.
• Employment Allowance. The same page sets it at up to £10,500 a year for eligible employers. Check eligibility with your accountant.
• Pension. Employers pay at least 3% of qualifying earnings, the band between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, for staff who earn at least £10,000 a year. £120 is the weekly equivalent of the lower limit. The part-time staff earn £16,523 a year, so they are included.

Cost of a late finish

Example, Ireland: four closing staff are rostered to finish 30 minutes after the kitchen is clean, seven nights a week.

• 4 staff × 0.5 hours × 7 nights = 14 hours a week.
• 14 × €15 = €210, plus 9% employer PRSI = €228.90 a week.
• €228.90 × 52 = €11,902.80 a year.

Example, UK: 14 hours × £12.71 = £177.94, plus 15% employer NIC for staff already above the threshold = £204.63 a week, or £10,640.76 a year.

Sales per labour hour

Sales per labour hour = net sales ÷ hours clocked. For the Irish example week, €16,000 ÷ 240 hours = €66.67. The weekly figure hides where hours are wasted, so split it by day part.

Weekday afternoons use 25% of the hours (60 of 240) for 11.3% of sales (€1,800 of €16,000). Weekend evenings take 42.5% of sales on 25% of the hours. Moving ten hours from weekday afternoons to weekend evenings costs nothing extra in wages and puts staff where the orders are.

Working time law in Ireland

Most rules come from the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, with changes from the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 and the European Union (Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions) Regulations 2022. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) enforces them. Citizens Information pages linked below were checked on 10 September 2026.

Breaks and rest periods

Citizens Information on breaks and rest periods sets out:

• a 15 minute break after more than 4.5 hours of work;
• a 30 minute break after more than 6 hours, which can include the first 15 minute break;
• breaks should not be placed at the end of the working day;
• breaks do not have to be paid by law, and the contract decides;
• 11 consecutive hours of rest in every 24 hours;
• a weekly rest period of 24 consecutive hours in every 7 days, following a daily rest period.

Split shifts and changing shifts can fall under exceptions, in which case staff are owed compensatory rest later. The WRC has a code of practice on compensatory rest. A split shift is not a way around the break rules; the rest still has to be given.

Maximum weekly hours

The maximum is an average of 48 hours a week, per Citizens Information on working hours. The average is usually taken over 4 months. It is 6 months for some sectors, including businesses with peak periods at certain times of year such as tourism, and can be 12 months under an agreement approved by the Labour Court.

Example: a chef works 55 hours for 6 summer weeks and 44 hours for the other 11 weeks of a 17-week period. (6 × 55) + (11 × 44) = 330 + 484 = 814 hours. 814 ÷ 17 = 47.9 hours a week, within the limit. At 45 hours instead of 44 for those 11 weeks, the total is 825 hours and the average 48.5, over the limit.

Notice of working hours

Where hours vary from week to week, the same page says the employer must:

• tell staff their start and finish times at least 24 hours before their first day of work;
• give at least 24 hours’ notice of the hours for each day they work;
• give 24 hours’ notice of additional hours, except in unexpected cases such as covering a colleague who is off sick.

Staff not given the minimum notice can refuse the work without negative consequences. This is Section 17 of the 1997 Act, as updated in 2022.

Sunday work

Staff who work Sundays are entitled to a benefit, according to the working hours page. If it is not already covered in the contract, the employer must give a reasonable allowance, a reasonable pay increase or reasonable paid time off. Premiums for working Sundays, Saturdays or public holidays do not count towards the national minimum wage, so the base rate must meet the minimum on its own. Put your Sunday rate in writing and make sure Sunday hours are easy to pick out for payroll.

Zero-hours contracts and banded hours

Citizens Information on zero-hours contracts explains the rules from the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018:

• zero-hours contracts are banned except for work of a casual nature, emergencies and short-term relief to cover routine absences;
• staff required to be available and given no work, or less than 25% of the available hours, are owed payment for 25% of the hours or 15 hours, whichever is less, at 3 times the national minimum wage per hour;
• example from the same page: 20 hours of availability and no work means 5 hours × 3 × €14.15 = €212.25.

Staff on a low-hour contract who regularly work more can apply in writing to be placed on a band of hours based on their average over the last 12 months. The employer must place them on a band within 4 weeks of the request, and they are then entitled to an average of those hours for the next 12 months.

An employer can refuse in some cases, for example where there is no evidence to support the request or the business suffered significant adverse changes during the 12 months. Your clock-in records are the evidence both sides will use.

Young workers

Citizens Information on young people’s working hours sets these limits under the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act 1996:

• Aged 16 and 17. Maximum 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, a 30 minute break after 4.5 hours, 12 consecutive hours off between shifts, 2 days off a week (consecutive if possible). Generally no work before 6am or after 10pm. During school term they can work until 11pm only on a day not immediately before a school day.
• Under 16. Children aged 14 or over can do light work in school holidays for up to 7 hours a day and 35 hours a week, and cannot work before 8am or after 8pm.

A 17-year-old on the counter generally cannot work past 22:00, even if they ask to. The 23:00 finish is only allowed during school term on a night that is not immediately before a school day.

Minimum wage

From 1 January 2026, per Citizens Information on the minimum wage:

The hourly rate is worked out as gross pay divided by hours worked in the pay reference period, which cannot be longer than a month. Tips, whether paid directly or through a central fund, do not count as pay for the minimum wage. The same page sets the board allowance, when an employer provides food, at €1.27 an hour.

Annual leave and public holidays

• Annual leave. Most employees get 4 working weeks a year, per Citizens Information on annual leave. Part-time staff usually get 8% of hours worked, up to 4 working weeks. The employer decides when leave is taken, subject to conditions.
• Public holidays. Ireland has 10 public holidays a year, per Citizens Information on public holidays. Part-time staff qualify once they have worked 40 hours in the previous 5 weeks. Qualifying staff get a paid day off on the day, an extra day of annual leave, an extra day’s pay, or a paid day off within a month.

Example: a part-time server works 25 hours a week for 48 weeks of the leave year. 1,200 hours × 8% = 96 hours of annual leave, which is 3.84 weeks at 25 hours.

Written terms

Employees must get their core terms in writing within 5 days of starting, including the normal length of the working day and week the employer expects, and the remaining terms within 1 month, per Citizens Information on contracts of employment. A new starter’s first rota should not arrive before their written terms.

Working time law in the UK

The Working Time Regulations set most of these rules. The gov.uk and Acas pages linked below were checked on 10 September 2026.

Breaks and rest

Per gov.uk on rest breaks:

• one uninterrupted 20 minute break during the working day for anyone working more than 6 hours;
• 11 hours of rest between working days;
• an uninterrupted 24 hours without work each week, or 48 hours each fortnight.

Weekly hours and the opt-out

Workers cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average, normally averaged over 17 weeks, unless they choose to opt out, per gov.uk on maximum weekly working hours. The opt-out must be voluntary. Keep signed opt-outs with the staff member’s records.

Young workers

• Under-18s cannot work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week, per the same gov.uk page.
• They are entitled to a 30 minute break if they work more than 4.5 hours, 12 hours of daily rest and 48 hours of weekly rest, per gov.uk on young workers’ breaks.

Minimum wage rates

From April 2026, per gov.uk minimum wage rates:

The rates change on 1 April each year, so the April rota is the one to re-cost.

Holiday

Almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, capped at 28 days for someone working 5 days a week, and employers can include bank holidays in that entitlement, per gov.uk on holiday entitlement. Example: a worker on a fixed 25 hours a week over five days is entitled to 5.6 × 25 = 140 hours.

Records in the UK

• Working time. Records showing the 48-hour limit, night work limits and young workers’ limits are respected must be kept for 2 years, per Acas on working time rules. Acas says a record of every daily hour is not required, though clear records prevent disputes.
• Minimum wage. Records proving minimum wage was paid must be kept for at least 6 years for records created on or after 1 April 2021, per gov.uk on employers and the minimum wage. Payroll records must show total hours worked.
• Holiday. From 6 April 2026, employers must keep records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least 6 years, per Acas on the Employment Rights Act 2025.

Zero-hours changes planned

The same Acas page, updated on 2 September 2026, says changes for zero-hours and low-hours workers are scheduled for 2027: a right to guaranteed hours if they want them, payment when a shift is cancelled, shortened or moved, and reasonable notice of shifts and changes. Acas says implementation is subject to government consultations. A system that records when each rota was published and changed will make those rules easier to follow when they arrive.

Ireland and UK rules side by side

Sources for each row are linked in the Ireland and UK sections above.

Clock-in and hours records

Records in Ireland

Per Citizens Information on working time records, employers must keep detailed records of the hours staff work each day and week, plus leave, rest periods and breaks. Records can be electronic, such as a clock-in system, or on form OWT1 or similar.

What to keep:

• name, address, PPS number and a brief statement of duties;
• a copy of the contract;
• total days and hours worked each week;
• days and hours of leave taken each week, including annual leave and public holidays, and the pay for that leave;
• any additional pay for a public holiday;
• a copy of the written notice of working time, such as the weekly rota.

Records must be kept for 3 years and must be easy for a WRC inspector to understand. Employers who do not keep them can be fined up to €1,900. The WRC’s statutory records page adds that payroll records must include shift and other premiums and allowances, and that an inspector can seek full access.

Breaks are the detail most restaurants miss. An employer using electronic or manual hours records does not have to record each break if it has told staff in writing about their break entitlements and has a written procedure for staff to report a break they could not take. Staff who miss a break must tell the employer in writing within one week, with the reason. Keep the written notice, the procedure and every report.

Clock-in rules for your restaurant

Write these down and apply them to everyone:

• When the clock starts. Decide the point at which staff clock in, and make sure managers do not ask anyone to start work before it.
• Breaks. Staff clock out and back in, or the system records the break against the shift.
• Missed clock-outs. The manager corrects the time the next day, with a reason.
• Edits. Every edit shows who made it, when and why.
• Early starts and late finishes. If a manager asks for it, it is worked time and gets paid.
• Where staff clock in. On their own phone at the site, or on a shared device at the pass.

Worked example: unrecorded minutes

Example: a part-time counter worker on €14.15 an hour is rostered for 25 hours over 6 shifts but starts setting up 10 minutes before clocking in each shift.

• 6 × 10 minutes = 60 minutes of unpaid work a week.
• Pay: 25 × €14.15 = €353.75 for 26 hours worked.
• €353.75 ÷ 26 = €13.61 an hour, below the €14.15 minimum.

In the UK, the same pattern at £12.71: 25 × £12.71 = £317.75 ÷ 26 = £12.22 an hour, below the National Living Wage. Across eight staff, the pattern is 8 hours of unpaid work every week, which is exactly what a clock-in record shows an inspector.

Clock-in app checklist

• Timestamped clock in and clock out for every shift
• Break recording
• Manager approval of hours before payroll
• Edit history with reason and name
• Reminders for missed clock-outs
• A clear record of rostered hours against actual hours
• Records kept for at least 3 years in Ireland and 6 years for UK minimum wage and holiday records
• Hours you can take out of the system for your payroll provider or accountant
• Behaviour when the phone or site has no signal
• Access removed when someone leaves, with their records kept

Shift swaps, open shifts and time off

Open shifts

An open shift is a shift with no name on it, posted so qualified staff can claim it. Rules that keep it fair and legal:

• post it only to staff with the right skills for that station;
• show the shift time, role and any notes, such as closing duties;
• the manager approves each claim;
• before approving, check the 11-hour rest gap, weekly hours, young workers’ limits and the claimant’s band of hours;
• when nobody claims it within a set time, the manager calls round.

Shift swaps

A swap moves a shift from one person to another with the manager’s approval. Common rules:

• both staff agree in the app, so there is a record;
• the person taking the shift has the skills for it;
• the swap does not break rest rules or push anyone over their hours;
• swaps close a set time before the shift, for example 12 hours;
• once approved, the rota updates for everyone.

In Ireland, staff whose hours vary are owed at least 24 hours’ notice of their hours, so keep a record showing the swap was requested by the staff member.

Time-off requests

Annual leave rules are set out in the Ireland and UK sections above. A time-off policy for a restaurant covers:

• How far ahead requests must be made, for example 4 weeks for a week off;
• Blackout dates, such as the weeks around Christmas or a big local festival, published in advance;
• Limits per role, for example no more than one chef off at a time;
• Order of approval, first come, first served or a rotation for popular dates;
• Sick leave and emergencies, reported by phone, not by a message in the app.

Approved leave should show on the rota automatically, so no manager rosters someone who is on holiday.

Team communication and POS permissions

Team chat

A personal WhatsApp group has three problems for a restaurant. Staff who leave keep reading it, it mixes work with private life, and nothing important can be found three weeks later. A team chat inside the staff app keeps work messages with work accounts, and access ends when the account is closed.

Use it for:

• menu changes and new specials;
• changes to procedures, such as a new closing checklist;
• cover requests that have not been filled through open shifts;
• reminders before a busy day.

Keep personal matters, grievances and anything about a named customer out of group chat. Handle those one to one.

POS permissions

Every person should have their own POS login. Shared PINs make refunds, voids and discounts impossible to trace. A typical permission set:

Kitchen staff work from tickets or a screen rather than the till; the guide to a kitchen display system covers kitchen set-up. Drivers work from a driver app; dispatch and driver employment are covered in restaurant delivery management software. What else a till should do is covered in the guide to a restaurant POS system.

Tips law in Ireland and the UK

Tips affect the rota because staff ask how they are shared, and the law now answers that question. This section is general. Get advice on your own tipping policy.

Ireland

Per Citizens Information on tips, gratuities and service charges:

• the Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Act 2022 came into effect on 1 December 2022 and made it illegal to use tips to make up basic wages;
• electronic tips, including card, contactless and app tips, must be distributed fairly and transparently;
• employers can take into account seniority, sales generated, hours worked, full-time or part-time status and the worker’s role;
• employees must be consulted on the tips policy and before any material change to it;
• employees must receive a statement of tips distributed within 10 days of distribution;
• a mandatory charge can only be called a “service charge” if it is treated the same way as electronic tips;
• a tips and gratuities notice must be displayed, stating how tips and service charges are distributed.

On-the-spot fines listed on the same page include €750 for not giving the written statement about tip distribution, €750 for not treating a service charge as a tip, and €500 for not displaying the notice.

UK

Per the statutory code of practice on the distribution of tips, published on 29 July 2024 under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, which came into force on 1 October 2024 in England, Scotland and Wales:

• employers must pass on all qualifying tips and service charges without deductions, other than in very limited cases such as income tax;
• tips must be paid out by the end of the month after the month the customer paid them;
• employers need a written tipping policy where tips are received on more than an occasional and exceptional basis;
• tip records must be kept for three years from the date the tip was paid;
• an independent tronc can be used, provided distribution stays fair.

Acas on tips policies and records adds that workers can request their tip records once every three months, and the employer must provide them within 4 weeks.

What to look for in software

Tips need a record of tips taken per transaction, a total per period, and an allocation per person that matches your written policy. Some workforce and payroll tools include tip or tronc features; Bizimply, for example, lists tronc in its Complete WFM plan. If your staff tool does not handle tips, keep the calculation with your payroll provider or accountant and keep the records for as long as the law requires.

Restaurant staff management software prices

Published prices checked on 10 September 2026. Prices change, so confirm before signing.

Worked example: 18 staff at one site

Example: a restaurant with 18 staff, prices from the table above.

Per-user pricing grows with staff turnover and seasonal hires. Ask how users are counted: every profile in the system, or only people who worked or were rostered that month. For a restaurant that only needs rotas and clock-in, a standalone rota app on a low plan is the cheapest route. For a restaurant replacing its POS, ordering and marketing tools at the same time, compare the total of all those bills with a single platform price.

Questions to ask before buying restaurant staff management software

1. How are users counted for billing, and what happens to the price when seasonal staff join and leave?
2. Is clock-in included, or is time and attendance an add-on?
3. Can staff swap shifts and claim open shifts in the app, with manager approval?
4. Does the system warn a manager before approving a shift that breaks the 11-hour rest rule or a young worker’s limits?
5. Can I record breaks and missed-break reports?
6. Does it keep a history of every published rota and every change?
7. How long are hours records kept, and can I keep them for 3 years in Ireland or 6 years in the UK?
8. What does the staff app look like on an older Android phone and an iPhone?
9. Can a manager see rostered hours against clocked hours before payroll?
10. How do hours reach my payroll provider?
11. Is team chat included, and does access end when someone leaves?
12. Are POS permissions set in the same system as the rota, or somewhere else?
13. What does set-up include, and who adds my staff and trains them?
14. What is the notice period, and can I take my records with me if I leave?

Common rota mistakes

• Rostering from availability instead of sales. Staff fill the days they want, and Friday at 19:00 is short.
• Publishing late. Staff whose hours vary in Ireland are owed at least 24 hours’ notice, and a Sunday-night rota for Monday loses good people.
• Ignoring the close-to-open gap. A 23:30 finish followed by a 09:00 start breaks the 11-hour rest rule in both countries.
• Forgetting young workers. An Irish 17-year-old generally cannot work after 10pm.
• Round numbers everywhere. Every shift starting at 17:00 and ending at 23:00 pays for quiet half-hours at both ends.
• Letting swaps happen by text. The rota says one name, the clock-in says another, and the records no longer match.
• No written break policy. In Ireland it decides whether you must record every break.
• Treating tips as pay. Tips do not count towards minimum wage in Ireland, and in the UK all qualifying tips go to workers.

Set-up checklist

Week one: records and rules

• List every member of staff with role, skills, contracted hours or band, age if under 18, and start date
• Check each person has written core terms and a contract on file
• Write the break policy and the procedure for reporting a missed break
• Write the clock-in rules
• Write the time-off policy, including blackout dates
• Write or review the tipping policy and, in Ireland, the tips notice
• Set each person’s POS permissions and remove shared PINs

Week two: rota and app

• Pull four weeks of orders by hour for each weekday
• Set kitchen, counter and driver ratios from your good nights
• Build the rota template with forecast sales and labour cost rows
• Add staff to the staff app and check every person can log in
• Post a test open shift and run a test swap
• Have every person clock in and out once in training
• Publish the first rota on your fixed publishing day

Week four: review

• Compare rostered hours with clocked hours
• Work out labour cost % and sales per labour hour by day part
• Move hours from the weakest day part to the strongest
• Check the records you must keep are being kept

Eclyde staff management

Eclyde is a restaurant growth platform for independent restaurants, starting in Ireland and the UK. Staff management is one part of it, alongside the POS, online ordering, kitchen display, delivery, customer data, loyalty, marketing and analytics.

Staff web app on any phone

• Shifts, so each person sees their rota on their phone
• Open shifts, for gaps staff can pick up
• Shift swaps
• Time-off requests
• Clock in and clock out
• Team chat

The staff app runs in the phone’s browser and is added to the home screen like an app, on iPhone and Android. App Store and Google Play versions are coming.

POS permissions. The Eclyde POS has role-based staff permissions, so counter staff, managers and owners each get the access their role needs. The POS is an Android app that keeps taking orders during an internet outage and syncs when the connection returns; the guide to an offline POS system covers outage planning in general.

POS set-up. The Eclyde POS app is on Google Play and is activated with a device code from the Devices tab in the Eclyde dashboard. It works with existing Android tablets and runs on SUNMI Android POS devices, so each till login and permission set sits on hardware many restaurants already own.

Where each job on this page sits

What Eclyde does not do. Eclyde does not run payroll, distribute tips or produce labour cost reports. Keep your payroll provider or accountant for PAYE, PRSI or National Insurance, pensions and tips, and work out labour cost with the method on this page. If you need demand forecasting, auto-scheduling or payroll integrations inside your rota tool, a dedicated workforce app such as Deputy lists those features on its Core and Pro plans and may suit you better.

Cost and set-up. Eclyde costs €499 to launch, which covers menu build, website and ordering set-up, POS and printer configuration, customer import, staff onboarding, testing and go-live support. It is refunded in full within 30 days if Eclyde is not right for the restaurant. After that it is €99 a month for the whole platform, as set out on the Eclyde pricing page.

Your restaurant’s numbers

A tight rota protects margin, but only when orders arrive in the hours you staff for. Before changing a single shift, get four weeks of sales by hour, your current rota and last month’s payroll total in one place, because every calculation on this page starts from those three documents. Eclyde offers a free audit for independent restaurants, and it is a sensible next step once those numbers are together. Request it on the free restaurant audit page.