How to Cut 10 Hours of Scheduling Time Every Month (Without New Staff or Multiple Systems)

Running a restaurant means wearing a lot of hats. One of the biggest time drains? Building and managing employee schedules. Between juggling shift swaps, unexpected call-outs, and making sure you’re not overspending on labor, scheduling can quickly eat into your week.

The good news: you don’t need to hire new staff or juggle multiple software systems to get back those hours. With the right approach, you can save up to 10 hours a month on scheduling — and still keep your team happy and your labor costs in check.

Here’s how.

1. Start with a Smart Scheduling Template

Copy-and-paste spreadsheets only get you so far. Instead, build a base schedule that reflects your restaurant’s weekly rhythms — your busiest nights, your lunch rush, and your slower periods.

CheddrSuite makes this even easier by letting you create smart scheduling templates that can be adjusted in minutes. Once the framework is in place, updates become quick tweaks instead of a weekly rebuild.

2. Give Staff Easy Access (and Reduce Back-and-Forth)

How many hours are lost every month just fielding “When do I work?” texts? With CheddrSuite, your team always has real-time access to their schedule—no more endless back-and-forth.

Employees can log in online or use the free CheddrSuite app, available in both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, to see their schedules anytime. They’ll also receive a text notification one hour before their shift starts, giving them a timely reminder and helping reduce late arrivals or missed shifts. Updates appear instantly, so everyone stays on the same page—fewer phone calls, fewer mistakes, and a lot less stress.

3. Empower Shift Swaps Without Manager Headaches

Last-minute conflicts are inevitable — but they don’t need to derail your day. The key is giving staff controlled flexibility to swap shifts while keeping manager oversight.

CheddrSuite’s scheduling tools let employees request swaps directly in the platform, and managers can approve or deny with one click. That means fewer emergencies on your plate and more accountability for your team.

4. Connect Scheduling to Labor Costs

Scheduling in a vacuum is risky. Without visibility into labor spend, it’s easy to be overstaffed on a slow night or short-handed during a rush.

CheddrSuite ties scheduling directly to POS real-time labor costs, so you can see how your staffing decisions impact the bottom line. Adjusting a shift instantly updates your projected labor percentage — keeping you profitable and compliant.

5. Align Scheduling with the Rest of Your Operation

The best time-savers come when your tools talk to each other. Instead of bouncing between disconnected systems for scheduling, time clocks, communication, and inventory, CheddrSuite pulls it all into one platform.

That means:

• Labor forecasts based on actual sales data
• Team updates that reach everyone instantly
• Less admin work, more time on the floor

The Bottom Line

You don’t need extra staff or multiple disconnected systems to simplify scheduling. By using smarter restaurant scheduling tools and tightening up your labor management, you can save yourself 10+ hours every month — hours you could be spending training staff, improving guest experience, or simply catching your breath.

With CheddrSuite, scheduling becomes a quick, connected process — not a weekly burden.

👉 Ready to take scheduling off your plate? Book a demo of CheddrSuite today.