Restaurant scheduling

Restaurant staff scheduling, simplified

Running a restaurant schedule means juggling front-of-house and back-of-house, split shifts, prep versus service, and the call-out that lands an hour before the dinner rush. Daypart keeps all of it in one place — without bolting on payroll, hiring, and an HR suite you didn't ask for.

Build the week by dragging shifts onto days, give servers, cooks, hosts, and bartenders their own color-coded roles, and publish in a tap. When someone calls out, post the shift as open and let the qualified crew claim it — no frantic group text.

  • Server
  • Line cook
  • Host
  • Bartender
  • Dishwasher

Built for how restaurants actually run.

  • Cover call-outs before the rush

    Turn an unfilled shift into an open shift and your crew can claim it from their phone. First tap wins, the gap closes, and nobody's blowing up the group chat at 4 p.m.

  • FOH and BOH on one schedule

    Color-code roles — server, line cook, host, bartender, dishwasher — so the whole week reads at a glance and you can see coverage by station.

  • Overnight and split shifts

    Late closes that cross midnight and split availability are first-class. Schedule a 6 p.m.–2 a.m. shift without fighting the tool.

  • Mark the nights that matter

    Pin events, promos, and holidays above each day so the team sees the patio brunch or the big reservation block before they pick up shifts.

Built for how small shops actually work

The schedule, handled.

Four questions, answered fast: who's working, who's available, what's open, what changed.

  • Weekly schedule builder

    Drag a shift onto a day, snap to half-hour cells, copy last week with one button. The week comes together in minutes.

  • Availability collection

    Each teammate sets when they can work — split shifts welcome. The builder flags conflicts with a sunset ring before you publish.

  • Publish in one tap

    Push the week live and every assigned teammate gets the update — in the Activity feed, by email, or both. No group text needed.

  • Shift swaps & trades

    Crew requests a drop or a two-way trade. Manager approves with a 7-second undo. Full audit trail on every decision.

  • Open shifts to claim

    Post an unfilled shift; qualified teammates see it on the app. First come, first scheduled — the row drops out of the list.

  • Time-off requests

    A clean approval queue with the same undo-and-change-decision UX as swaps. Approvals flow straight onto the schedule.

  • Day-level events row

    Pin an Event, Promo, Holiday, Closure, or Note above each day so the whole week reads at a glance. Color-coded chips, manager-edited, employee read-only.

  • Smart notifications

    Schedule published. Swap approved. Shift starts in 30. Ten kinds of notifications, throttled so no one gets spammed during weekly planning.

  • Print-friendly schedule

    Black-and-white weekly schedule for the fridge or the back-of-house corkboard. Density toggle for poster or handout sizing.

What we're not building.

No payroll. No tax filings. No HR onboarding flows. No multi-state compliance maze. Daypart is a scheduling command center — not another HR platform you have to babysit. We'll integrate with the tools you already use for the rest.

Honest pricing

Honest pricing for small teams.

Start with a 30-day free trial of Team — no credit card. When it ends, keep going on Team or Business; upgrade right in the app.

  1. Free trial

    $0for 30 days

    Full Team features — no credit card.

    • Everything in Team, free for 30 days
    • No credit card to start
    • Upgrade anytime to keep going
    Start free trial
  2. Team

    Most popular
    $20/ month

    Where shops actually run their week.

    • Shift swaps + two-way trades
    • Time-off approvals + audit log
    • Multi-manager delegation
    • Up to 25 teammates · 3 locations
    Start free trial
  3. Business

    $40/ month

    Reporting & multiple locations under one roof.

    • Hours reporting + weekly email
    • Overtime heads-up alerts
    • CSV / payroll exports (Gusto, QuickBooks)
    • Multi-location aggregate view
    • Up to 75 teammates · 10 locations
    Start free trial

Compare plans

Try it free. Grow into the workflow you need.

Every business starts with 30 days of full Team features — free, no credit card. After the trial, Team ($20/mo) is where shops run their week (swaps, time-off approvals, audit log); Business adds operator reporting (hours, overtime alerts, weekly email), payroll-ready exports (Gusto, QuickBooks), a multi-location overview, and higher caps. Until you upgrade, the account goes read-only — your data is never deleted.

TrialTeamBusiness

Scale

  • Team size252575
  • Locations3310
  • Price$0 / 30 days$20 / mo$40 / mo

Always included

  • Weekly schedule builder
  • Drag-and-drop + copy last week
  • Conflict detection
  • Availability collection
  • Open shifts + claims
  • Roles (assign + filter)
  • Activity feed
  • Email notifications
  • Print-friendly schedule
  • Light & dark mode
  • iOS app (iPhone + iPad)

Team — the working product (yours during the trial)

  • Role color coding
  • Day-level events row
  • Shift swaps + two-way trades
  • Time-off requests + approvals
  • Approval audit log
  • Multiple managers
  • Publish 2+ weeks ahead

Business — operator reporting & multi-location

  • Hours reporting dashboard
  • Overtime heads-up alerts
  • Weekly email report
  • CSV / payroll exports (Gusto, QuickBooks)
  • Multi-location aggregate view
Your 30-day trial includes everything in Team — no credit card. Keep going for $20/mo.

Restaurants — FAQ

Common questions

  • Is Daypart a good scheduling app for small restaurants?
    Yes. It's built for small, owner-run teams (3–75 people) and handles restaurant realities — FOH/BOH roles, open shifts, swaps, time off, and overnight closes. A 5-person shop is usually live in about 10 minutes.
  • Does Daypart handle tips or POS integration?
    No — Daypart is scheduling-only. It doesn't do tip pooling or connect to your POS. If those are essential, a restaurant-specific platform may suit you better; if you just need the schedule, Daypart is simpler and cheaper.
  • Can servers swap shifts themselves?
    Yes. A server can request a drop or a two-way trade from their phone; a manager approves it with a 7-second undo, and an approved trade reassigns both shifts automatically.
  • Can I print the schedule for the back of house?
    Yes — there's a print-friendly weekly and monthly view on every plan, with a density toggle for a poster or a handout.