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Workzenly is restaurant employee management software for US cafés, bars and restaurants. Build the week by station, let servers and cooks swap shifts from their phones, clock everyone in by phone or a tablet at the kitchen door, and send approved hours, overtime and PTO straight into payroll.
Schedule
Northfield Coffee · Tue Nov 17 – Sat Nov 21 · published Mon, Nov 9
Saturday kitchen, 10–6:30, has no one yet
Tyler N. is free Saturday and would reach 32 hours, no overtimeBuilt for the people who run the floor
The schedule is a photo in the group chat, two cooks swapped Saturday by text, and payroll is working from a stack of time cards with coffee on them.
Restaurant employee management software puts the schedule, the punches and the pay in one record. The shift you post is the shift people see on their phones, the hours they clock are the hours a manager approves, and the approved hours are what payroll pays. Nothing gets retyped between the host stand and the pay stub.
What changes in the first month
Build the week by dragging people into counter, kitchen and bar shifts. The moment you publish, everyone sees their shifts in the app, and PTO already approved sits on the grid so you do not schedule someone who is away.
A server offers Thursday from their phone, a coworker picks it up, and the schedule updates for everyone. Open shifts work the same way, and you see whether the cover would push anyone past 40 hours.
Phones on the floor are a problem in most kitchens, so a shared tablet by the back door works as a time clock kiosk. Front-of-house staff can clock in on their own phones. Both land in the same timesheet.
Breaks, overtime and late starts are worked out from the punches. Approve the whole week in one tap and the regular hours, overtime and PTO go into the pay run together.
How it works
From the schedule you post on Monday to the pay stubs that arrive on Friday, the same record carries every shift.
Start from last week, drag people into counter, kitchen and bar shifts, and watch weekly hours per person as you go. Approved time off and standing days off are already on the grid.
Counter · 9:00 AM–5:30 PM
Maya Torres · 32 h this weekKitchen · 6:00 AM–2:30 PM
Sam Rivera · 40 h this weekBar · 7:00 AM–3:30 PM
Jordan Lee · 40 h this weekBar · 12:00 PM–8:00 PM
No one yet · Dana Brooks is free, 15.5 h so farDrag Dana into the 12–8 bar shift
Her week goes from 15.5 to 23.5 hoursJordan cannot work Thursday. He offers the shift from his phone, Dana accepts it, and the manager sees both people’s new weekly hours before the swap goes through.
Jordan Lee gives it up
40.0 → 32.0 h this weekDana Brooks takes it
23.5 → 31.5 h this week · no overtimeWaiting for Marcus to approve
Both stay under 40 hoursServers and baristas clock in from the Workzenly app, with GPS and geofencing confirming they are at the restaurant. The kitchen clocks in on a shared tablet by the back door with their own PINs. Breaks are clocked the same way.
| Employee | Station | In | Via | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Rivera | Kitchen | 6:14 AM | Kiosk | Late 14 min |
| Emily Carter | Kitchen | 10:01 AM | Kiosk | In |
| Jordan Lee | Bar | 7:01 AM | Phone | On break |
| Maya Torres | Counter | 8:58 AM | Phone | In |
| Dana Brooks | Bar | – | – | Due 12:00 PM |
Timesheets build themselves from the punches. On Monday the manager looks only at the exceptions, approves the week in one tap, and the approved regular hours, overtime and PTO go into the Nov 1–14 pay run paid on Friday, Nov 20.
| Employee | Regular | Overtime | PTO | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emily Carter | 72.0 | 6.0 | 8.0 | Approved |
| Jordan Lee | 80.0 | 2.5 | – | Approved |
| Maya Torres | 76.0 | – | – | Approved |
| Chris Walker | 56.0 | – | 24.0 | Approved |
| Sam Rivera | 64.0 | – | – | Waiting |
1 timesheet still waiting
Sam Rivera · approve to send to payrollOvertime and labor hours
Hours per person and per station add up as you build the schedule, and during the week the clock-ins add up against it. When a Saturday pickup would put a cook over 40 hours, you see it before you say yes, and you see who else is free and under 40.
Emily’s Saturday shift adds 6.0 overtime hours
Tyler N. is free Saturday and would reach 32Hiring and onboarding
Post a role, keep every application in one list, schedule interviews and send the offer letter from the same screen. New hires sign it, fill out their W-4 and I-9, add direct deposit and read the handbook on their phone before their first shift, and their food handler card goes in their record.
Offer letter · Bartender, $17.75/hr
Signed Tue, Nov 10Form W-4
Signed Wed, Nov 11Direct deposit
Checking ··2210Form I-9, Section 1
Due by her first day · Section 2 by Thu, Nov 19Employee handbook
Read and acknowledgeFood handler card
Upload a photoThe employee side
Staff see their shifts, pick up open ones, request a day off with their balance in front of them, clock in, photograph a receipt for the supply run and read their pay stub on Friday. Each person sees only their own record.
Thu, Nov 12
Good morning, Maya
Counter · Northfield Coffee
8:58 AM
Today’s shift 9:00 AM–5:30 PM
Inside geofence
Not clocked in yet
PTO left
52 of 80 hoursNext paycheck
Fri, Nov 20 · Nov 1–14Who uses it
A schedule spreadsheet, a payroll login and the group chat
Watch scheduled hours against clocked hours, keep overtime in check and run payroll from approved hours
Labor hours they trust before payroll, not after
Texting around for cover and signing time cards
Post open shifts, approve swaps, see who is in or late, fix a missed punch with a note
Covering a shift takes one post, not ten texts
A photo of the schedule and a paper time card
See shifts, swap and pick up, clock in on their phone, request PTO, read their pay stub
Pay stubs that match the hours they worked
A punch clock and a clipboard
Clock in and out on the tablet by the door with their own PIN, clock breaks, check next week’s shifts
No phone needed on the line
Access you control
Each person sees their own shifts, hours, PTO and pay stubs, never a coworker’s pay.
Shift leads see their team’s schedule, attendance and time off, and approve their team’s timesheets.
Pay rates and pay stubs are visible only to the people you give payroll access to.
The features restaurants use most
Build the week by station, publish once, let staff swap and pick up.
Scheduling →A shared tablet by the kitchen door for staff without phones on the line.
Kiosk →Front-of-house clock-ins from a phone, with today’s shift on screen.
Time clock →Weekly totals against 40, with warnings before a pickup costs you.
Overtime →Requests in two taps, and who else is off before you say yes.
PTO →Approved hours, overtime and PTO become pay stubs in the app.
Payroll →Tell us your stations and your team size. We set up a demo workspace with your restaurant’s name before the call.
A restaurant runs on a schedule that changes every week, staff who are paid by the hour and often by the tip, and a kitchen where phones do not belong. This guide covers what restaurant employee management software has to handle, the federal rules behind tipped pay and overtime, the scheduling and break laws that reach restaurants, and how to choose a system for one location or ten.
Four jobs, in order. Schedule the week by station and publish it where staff will see it. Record hours from a phone or a shared tablet, with breaks and overtime worked out. Handle time off and swaps without a manager in the middle of every text. Then pay for exactly the hours that were approved. Scheduling, the time clock kiosk, PTO and payroll in Workzenly are those four jobs on one record.
Tools built only for scheduling, such as the ones compared in our list of the best restaurant scheduling apps, stop at the schedule. The hours then get retyped into a payroll service, which is where most Friday corrections start.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, an employer may pay a tipped employee a cash wage of $2.13 an hour and take a tip credit of up to $5.12, as long as tips bring the employee to at least the $7.25 federal minimum wage; the employer must make up any shortfall and must tell employees about the tip credit in advance, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Many states set a higher cash wage, and some, including California, Washington and Oregon, allow no tip credit at all. Our Texas minimum wage guide walks through the federal rule as Texas applies it.
Overtime for tipped staff is figured on the full minimum wage, not the cash wage: time and a half on $7.25 is $10.88, minus the tip credit, so the employer pays at least $5.76 cash for each overtime hour at the federal rates. Managers and supervisors may not keep any part of a tip pool. See how to calculate overtime for the regular-rate math when a server also earns a shift differential.
| Rule | Federal | What to check in your state |
|---|---|---|
| Tipped cash wage | $2.13 an hour | Higher cash wage, or no tip credit (CA, WA, OR and others) |
| Tip credit | Up to $5.12, with notice to employees | Smaller or no credit; tip pool rules |
| Overtime | 1.5 × regular rate after 40 hours a week | Daily overtime in California and a few other states |
| Meal breaks | Not required; unpaid only if 30+ minutes and fully relieved | Required breaks and premiums in CA, WA, OR and others |
Fair workweek laws in Oregon and in cities including New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles require some food-service employers to post schedules in advance, usually 14 days, and to pay a premium for late changes. New York City’s fast-food law covers chains with 30 or more locations nationally. Our scheduling page has the verified table of who is covered and the notice each law requires.
Break rules are set by states, not federal law. California requires a 30-minute meal break when a shift runs more than 5 hours and a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours or major fraction, and charges one extra hour of pay when a break is missed. Set your break rule during setup and read the time card calculator guide for how breaks come off the day’s hours.
Federal child labor rules let 14- and 15-year-olds work only outside school hours: no more than 3 hours on a school day, 18 in a school week, 8 on a non-school day and 40 in a non-school week, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day), according to the Department of Labor. They may not cook over an open flame or operate most power equipment. Federal law sets no hour limits for 16- and 17-year-olds, but many states do, and no one under 18 may run a power-driven meat slicer. Workzenly shows each person’s weekly hours as you build the schedule; checking the hours against your state’s rules for minors is yours to do.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Wage and scheduling rules change every year, so check your state labor department or a restaurant employment lawyer for your situation.
Most restaurant owners watch labor as a share of sales. The software side of that is hours: scheduled hours per day and per station, clocked hours against them, and the overtime that creeps in when a Saturday pickup takes a cook from 36 hours to 46. A worked example: Emily Carter earns $19.00 an hour; 46 hours in a week is 40 × $19.00 = $760.00 plus 6 × $28.50 = $171.00, so $931.00. Offering that Saturday shift to Tyler at 24 hours instead costs 8 × $17.75 = $142.00 and no overtime. Workzenly shows the hours and the overtime risk while you build; sales forecasting is not something it does, so keep your POS reports beside it.
If you want to see your own week in Workzenly, book a demo and we will set up a workspace with your restaurant’s name before the call. Plans and prices are on the pricing page.
Workzenly records hours, overtime and PTO for every employee and sends the approved figures into payroll. Under federal law a tipped employee can be paid a $2.13 cash wage with a tip credit of up to $5.12, as long as tips bring them to at least $7.25 an hour; many states set a higher cash wage or allow no tip credit at all. Tell us your state and your tip-pool rules on the demo call and we will show how tipped pay is set up.
Yes. A shared tablet by the kitchen door or host stand works as a time clock kiosk, and each person clocks in with their own PIN. Phone and kiosk punches land in the same timesheet, so a server who clocks in on the tablet and a manager who clocks in on their phone are counted the same way.
An employee offers a shift from their phone, a coworker accepts it, and the schedule updates for everyone. Managers see the swap, who is covering and whether the cover would push anyone past 40 hours. Open shifts work the same way: post it once and let people pick it up instead of texting the group chat.
Yes. Employees clock meal breaks the same way they clock in. Unpaid meal breaks of 30 minutes or more are deducted and short rest breaks stay paid, following the federal rule. States such as California, Washington and Oregon require breaks at set points in a shift and charge a premium when one is missed, so set your break rule during setup and check your state’s rule.
Federal law sets no hour limits for 16- and 17-year-olds, but it bars them from certain hazardous tasks, and many states limit their hours on school nights. Workers aged 14 and 15 may only work outside school hours, no more than 3 hours on a school day and 18 in a school week, and only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day). Check your state before you build the schedule.
Most restaurants are scheduling and clocking in within a week. Send us your staff list, pay rates and PTO balances as a spreadsheet and we import them, then we walk through your first schedule and first timesheet approval with you and stay with you through the first pay run.