Build the week, not the day
Shifts are created and edited a week at a time, so the rota is a plan you can look at rather than a list of individual decisions made under pressure.
Restaurant workforce management
The rota you planned, against the hours you paid for.
Build the week's shifts, let staff clock in with a PIN on a shared device, and read the hours back by employee and by role before payroll runs.
- Week-by-week rota
- PIN clock-in
- Hours by employee and role
- Access follows the branch
What workforce management covers
Scheduling and attendance, on one record.
Plato holds the week's shifts, the clock-ins and clock-outs against them, and the hours that come out the other end. Because staff are assigned to branches and roles, the same record decides what they can open on a screen and what they are owed at the end of the period.
From rota to payroll
The gap between planned and actual is the number.
Labour is the cost most restaurants manage by feel. It becomes manageable the moment scheduled hours and clocked hours sit next to each other.
Clock in without a login
Staff clock in and out with a PIN on a shared device. Nobody needs a personal account, and current status shows who is actually on the floor.
Hours you can read by role
Hours come back per employee and grouped by role, with a weekly trend — so you can see whether the cost is in the kitchen or on the floor before you change anything.
Access follows the assignment
People are assigned to branches with a role, and that assignment is what grants access. Someone who works two locations does not need two accounts.
Week · Front of houseScheduledSample week
- Shifts
- 38
- Scheduled hours
- 296
- Clocked hours
- 301
- Variance
- +5
The rota is what you planned. Attendance is what happened.
Planned against actual
A rota is a forecast until someone clocks in.
Scheduled shifts give you the intended hours for the week. Attendance gives you the hours that actually happened. Reading them together is what turns labour from a monthly surprise into a weekly decision.
- Shifts created and edited by week
- Clock-in and clock-out with current status
- Hours per employee and grouped by role
- Weekly hours trend across the period
Against the printed rota
More than a sheet on the office wall.
A paper rota tells you what was supposed to happen. It has nothing to say about what did.
| Capability | Paper rota and notebook | Plato |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling | Rewritten each week | A week of shifts you can edit |
| Attendance | A signature, maybe | PIN clock-in and clock-out |
| Who is in now | Walk and look | Current status per employee |
| Hours | Counted at month end | Per employee and per role |
| Trend | Not available | Weekly hours across the period |
| Access | Keys and trust | Role and branch assignment |
Fitted to how you staff
Three staffing realities.
Small fixed teams
A stable rota that barely changes, with attendance to confirm it and hours ready when payroll comes round.
Split shifts and rushes
Weeks built around the hours that actually get busy, and clocked hours to show whether the plan survived Thursday night.
Staff across branches
One person, assigned to more than one location, with the role for each — and hours that still add up correctly.
Getting the team on it
Four steps from paper rota to real hours.
Start with the people you already employ and the week you were going to write on the whiteboard anyway.
- 1
Add your team
Create employees and assign them to the branches they work in, with the role each one holds there.
- 2
Build the week
Create the shifts for the week ahead and adjust them as the plan changes.
- 3
Clock in on a shared device
Staff clock in and out with a PIN, so attendance is captured without personal logins.
- 4
Read the hours
Check hours by employee and by role, and compare them against what you scheduled.
Workforce questions
What managers ask before dropping the paper.
RelatedWhere labour meets the rest of the operation:Restaurant accounting softwareMulti-branch management
How do staff record attendance?
They clock in and out with a PIN on a shared device, so no one needs a personal account or a phone, and the current status shows who is on shift right now.
Can I schedule a week at a time?
Yes. Shifts are created and edited by week, so you build the rota as a plan rather than as a series of one-off decisions.
Can I see hours by role?
Yes. Hours come back per employee and grouped by role, with a weekly trend, so you can tell whether labour cost is moving in the kitchen or on the floor.
What about someone who works in two branches?
Staff are assigned to branches with a role for each, so one person can work in more than one location without needing separate accounts.
Does attendance connect to what people can access?
The same assignment that puts someone on a branch also carries their role, and the role is what grants permissions on the screens they use.
Is payroll included?
Plato produces the payroll summary and the hours detail behind it, per employee and per role, so the period's numbers come from recorded attendance rather than a rebuild at month end.
See it on your own rota
Put next week on the record.
Book a walkthrough with your real team, your busiest shifts and the labour number you cannot currently see until it is too late.
30-minute walkthrough
See Plato on your menu.
Send us a few details. We'll set up a live walkthrough on your real menu, in your language, within one business day.
- We respond within one business day.
- The walkthrough runs on your menu, in your language.