Employee scheduling software for Cafes and coffee shops
Scheduling for coffee shops, from one counter to a handful of locations.
What makes scheduling hard here
- Somebody has to open at 6am, seven days a week, and it cannot be you every time.
- Trained baristas covering more than one location.
- The morning rush needs three people, the 3pm lull needs one.
How Squadra solves them
Squadra builds the schedule, sends it to your team, and counts the hours if you want it to. Here is what actually changes:
Drag and drop scheduling
Drag shifts on the weekly grid, duplicate last week, adjust in 2 clicks. No spreadsheet to update.
The schedule in your team's pocket
One button and you send it on WhatsApp or by text. Everyone opens the link, picks their first name once, and sees their hours: no account, no app, even without an email address, and even with no signal.
Time tracking, if you want it
It switches on or off in one click. Switched on, everyone clocks in from their phone or on a tablet at the counter, and hours add themselves up. Switched off, it disappears from the menu.
Hours that add themselves up
The counter adds up the clocked hours, week by week and person by person. You read them in Time tracking, with nothing to recompute by hand.
The morning rush is the whole schedule
A coffee shop's week is decided between 6:30 and 9:30 in the morning. That is where the line forms, where a missing barista costs walk-outs, and where the opener's 5:30am start makes or breaks the day. Everything else, the mid-morning lull, the lunch bump, the afternoon of students on laptops, can be run with one fewer person. Build the schedule from half-hour transaction counts, not from who is available: the register already knows which half hours need three people on bar and which need one.
The second decision is the opener. Someone reliable has to be there before the first customer, seven days a week, and it cannot be the owner every day. A rotation written weeks ahead, with the opener known and the backup named, is worth more than any perk.
Short shifts, and the break rules that sit right on top of them
Barista shifts are short: four to six hours, often two people overlapping for the rush. That length lands exactly on the thresholds in state break laws. In California a shift of 3.5 hours already earns a paid 10-minute rest break, and a shift over 5 hours needs a 30-minute meal period before the end of the fifth hour. In Washington a shift over 5 hours needs a 30-minute meal starting between the second and fifth hour, and nobody may work more than 3 hours without a paid rest. In New York and Massachusetts a 6-hour shift needs no meal break; 6 hours and 15 minutes does. In Texas, Florida and most other states there is no rule for adults and the handbook decides.
The practical consequence: the difference between a 5-hour and a 5-and-a-half-hour shift is not 30 minutes of labor, it is a meal period to plan and cover. Write the break into the shift, and let the schedule flag the shift that crossed a threshold when someone stayed late to help with the 9am line.
Students and minors behind the bar
Coffee shops run on students, and a share of them are under 18. Under the federal child labor rules a 14 or 15 year old may not start before 7am, so they cannot open, may not work more than 3 hours on a school day or past 7pm during the school year, and may not bake. Sixteen and seventeen year olds have no federal hour limits and may run an espresso machine, an oven and a blender; several states add their own limits on late hours and weekly totals for them. Availability changes every semester: collect it once per term, in writing, rather than every week by text.
Tips, tip pools and who may share them
Tip jars and screen tips are pooled among baristas in most shops. The federal rule since 2018 is simple on one point: managers and supervisors may not keep any part of a tip pool, whatever their schedule looks like. A shift lead who spends the shift on bar may share tips only if they do not meet the FLSA's manager test (hiring, firing, directing the work as a primary duty). Where the employer pays the full minimum wage and takes no tip credit, back-of-house staff such as bakers may be included in the pool. Whether the pool is split by hours worked or by shift, the schedule and the time clock are the record it is split on.
More than one location: the hours add up across all of them
A barista who covers two of your shops is one employee. The 40-hour overtime threshold counts every hour worked for the same employer, across locations, in the same workweek. A schedule kept per shop in separate spreadsheets is how a 44-hour week goes unnoticed until payroll, and how the same person is scheduled to open in one shop and close in the other. One schedule with a location per shift, and a weekly total per person, removes both.
Seattle's Secure Scheduling Ordinance and Oregon's statewide law apply to coffee chains above 500 employees worldwide, New York City's fast food rules reach coffee chains with 30 or more locations nationally, and Chicago and Philadelphia have their own thresholds: 14 days of notice, extra pay for changes, and a right to decline a shift that starts less than 9 to 11 hours after the last one. Below the thresholds nothing is required, and the same two weeks of notice is still what keeps a student staff from quitting mid-semester.
What a week looks like when the tool does the checking
Sunday evening: copy last week, move the two baristas whose classes changed, add a third person on bar for the Tuesday promo. The grid shows people per half hour against last month's transactions, flags the 15 year old placed on a 6am open, and shows the closer from Saturday opening on Sunday with eight hours of rest. Publish: the link goes out by text, everyone opens it on their phone with no account, the swap for Thursday happens in the app. Daily: the opener clocks in on the tablet at 5:28, the break is recorded when taken, and the week's hours per person, across both shops, are one export away from payroll.
Frequently asked questions
- How many baristas do I need for the morning rush?
- Count from the register, not from habit: transactions per half hour over the last four to eight weeks tell you which half hours need one, two or three people on bar. Schedule the overlap for exactly those half hours and let the rest of the day run lighter.
- Can a 15-year-old open the coffee shop?
- No. Under federal child labor rules 14 and 15 year olds may not work before 7am, more than 3 hours on a school day or past 7pm during the school year, and may not bake. Sixteen and seventeen year olds may open and may use espresso machines and ovens; check your state's limits on their hours.
- Do baristas get a break on a 5-hour shift?
- It depends on the state. In California a shift of 3.5 hours earns a paid 10-minute rest break and a shift over 5 hours a 30-minute meal period; in Washington a shift over 5 hours needs a 30-minute meal starting between the second and fifth hour; in New York or Massachusetts a shift of 6 hours or less needs no meal break. In states with no rule, your handbook decides.
- Can shift leads be in the tip pool?
- Only if they are not managers or supervisors under the FLSA test: someone whose primary duty is managing, who directs the work of others and has a say in hiring and firing, may not keep any part of the tip pool. A shift lead who mostly works the bar and has no such authority may share tips.
- Does overtime count across two locations?
- Yes. Hours worked for the same employer in the same workweek are added together whatever the location. A barista with 24 hours in one shop and 20 in another has 4 hours of overtime that week.
What a typical week looks like
Open 6am to 6pm, seven days, morning rush and an afternoon lull.
How much does it cost
Free up to 10 employees. Above that, $29 a month for the whole company, with no per employee and no per location fee. No credit card required to start.
Resources
New to this? Our practical guides are on the blog.