Our Full Review
7shifts was built by someone who's managed a restaurant floor on a Saturday night—and it shows. Every feature addresses a real pain point: chaotic shift swaps, last-minute call-outs, labor costs spiraling, servers fighting over sections.
Who Should Use 7shifts?
7shifts is ideal for:
- Restaurants (quick service, casual, fine dining) of any size
- Bars, cafes, and food trucks managing shift workers
- Hotels (front desk, housekeeping scheduling)
- Catering companies with event-based staffing
- Any hospitality business with tips, sections, and variable scheduling
Who Should Look Elsewhere?
- Non-restaurant businesses — 7shifts is laser-focused on food service. Use Connecteam or Deputy instead.
- Office-based teams — This is for shift workers, not 9-5 salaried staff
- Large enterprises needing full HRIS — 7shifts does scheduling brilliantly but isn't a payroll or HR platform
Employee Scheduling
7shifts' scheduling is restaurant-native:
- Drag-and-drop builder with visual timeline
- Role-based scheduling: FOH, BOH, bartenders, hosts, etc.
- Section assignments: Assign servers to specific sections/tables
- Shift templates: Clone last week's schedule in seconds
- Availability management: Employees set when they can/can't work
- Auto-schedule: AI suggests optimal schedule based on sales forecasts and availability
- Conflict detection: Warns about double-bookings, overtime, understaffing
Schedules publish to employees' phones instantly with push notifications.
Labor Cost Management
This is where 7shifts saves you real money:
- Real-time labor % tracking: See labor cost as % of sales during shifts
- Sales forecasting: Uses historical data + weather + events to predict demand
- Budget alerts: Get warned when you're overstaffed based on projected sales
- Labor reports: Analyze labor cost by day, shift, role, or employee
- What-if scenarios: Model schedule changes to see labor impact before publishing
Example: 7shifts warns you that Saturday dinner is overstaffed by 2 servers based on sales forecast. Cut one server, save $100 in labor. Over a year, that adds up.
Shift Marketplace
Employees manage their own shift changes:
- Drop shifts: Employee posts shift to marketplace; others can claim it
- Swap requests: Trade shifts with colleagues (with manager approval rules)
- Pick up open shifts: Managers post available shifts; employees grab them
- Time-off requests: Built-in PTO request/approval workflow
Managers set approval rules (auto-approve for same role, require approval for cross-department, etc.). Cuts "can you cover my shift?" texts by 90%.
Team Communication
Built-in messaging reduces group text chaos:
- Broadcast messages to entire team or specific roles
- Shift notes: Leave notes for next shift ("86 salmon, broken ice machine")
- Task lists: Assign opening/closing checklists
- Announcements: Policy updates, menu changes, etc.
Time Clocking
7shifts includes basic time tracking:
- Mobile clock-in/out from employee app
- Kiosk mode: Shared tablet at the restaurant
- GPS/photo verification: Optional to prevent abuse
- Break tracking: Automatic compliance with break laws
- Tip tracking: Log cash/credit tips for tax reporting
Time data exports to payroll systems (ADP, Gusto, Paychex, etc.).
POS Integration Magic
7shifts syncs with restaurant POS systems to pull sales data:
- Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, Revel, TouchBistro, Aloha and 50+ more
- Pulls hourly sales to calculate labor %
- Syncs employee lists to avoid duplicate data entry
- Feeds sales forecasting for better scheduling
This integration is what makes the labor cost features actually useful—you're not manually entering sales data.
Hiring & Onboarding
7shifts added light recruiting features:
- Post jobs to free job boards
- Applicant tracking pipeline
- Interview scheduling
- Digital onboarding forms (I-9, W-4, etc.)
Not as robust as dedicated ATS tools, but fine for high-turnover restaurant hiring.
Compliance & Reporting
Helps with labor law compliance:
- Predictive scheduling laws: Track advance notice requirements
- Break compliance: Automatic meal/rest break reminders
- Overtime tracking: Alerts before hitting OT thresholds
- Tip reporting: Track cash/credit tips for payroll
- Labor law posters: State-specific compliance resources
Pricing Breakdown
7shifts uses location-based pricing:
- Free: 1 location, up to 30 employees — Full scheduling, shift marketplace, basic reports
- Entrée: $34.99/location/month — Adds labor forecasting, POS integration, hiring tools
- The Works: $76.99/location/month — Adds advanced reports, task management, training tools
- Gourmet: $135.99/location/month — Adds API access, custom integrations, dedicated support
For a 3-location restaurant group on Entrée: $104.97/month.
That's reasonable compared to generic scheduling tools that don't understand restaurants. The labor cost optimization alone can save multiples of the subscription cost.
The Bottom Line
7shifts is the gold standard for restaurant scheduling. It's not trying to be a Swiss Army knife—it's a laser-focused tool that does one thing (restaurant labor management) exceptionally well.
If you're running a restaurant and still doing schedules in Excel or (heaven forbid) on paper, 7shifts will save you hours every week and cut labor costs by 2-5%. The free plan is fully functional for single locations—try it for a month and you won't go back.
Not for non-restaurant businesses, and it won't replace your payroll system. But for schedule management in food service? Nothing else comes close.