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Retail stores

Retail workforce management software for every store and shift

Workzenly is retail workforce management software for US stores with one location or ten. Build each store's week by zone with coverage for every open hour, let part-timers pick up shifts from their phones, clock the team in at a tablet by the stockroom door, and run payroll by store from approved hours.

Book a demo See how it works
  • Schedules by store and zone
  • Kiosk or phone clock-in
  • Payroll by store

Built for the people who open and close the store

  • Owners with one store or several
  • Store and assistant managers
  • Cashiers and sales associates
  • Stockroom and receiving
  • Whoever runs payroll on Monday

Saturday is two people short, the college kid changed his class schedule again, and the register has to open at 10 whether or not anyone is there to open it.

One schedule, one time clock, one pay run, across every store

Retail workforce management software puts the schedule, the punches and the pay in one record for each store. The shifts you publish are the shifts staff see on their phones, the hours they clock at the stockroom door are the hours a manager approves, and the approved hours by store are what payroll pays. Nothing is retyped.

What changes in the first month

Covered weekends, fewer surprise hours, one pay run for all stores

Coverage you can see before Saturday

Build each store's week by zone: registers, sales floor, stockroom. The board shows how many people are on for every open hour, so the 11-to-6 gap on Saturday shows up on Thursday.

Part-timers who cover each other

Unavailable times and approved time off sit on the grid while you build. When a student's classes change, they offer the shift from their phone, a coworker picks it up, and you see both weekly totals before you approve.

A retail time clock at the stockroom door

Phones stay in the break room in most stores, so a shared tablet by the stockroom door works as the time clock, one PIN per person. Whoever opens can clock in from their phone inside the store's geofence. Both land in the same timesheet.

Payroll by store, from approved hours

Breaks, overtime and late starts are worked out from the punches, timesheets are grouped by store, and each store's week is approved in one tap. Regular hours, overtime and PTO go into the pay run together.

How it works

A retail week in Workzenly, store by store

From the schedule published two weeks out to Friday's pay stubs, one record carries every shift at Ridgeline Mercantile's two stores.

Build next week around who can actually work it

Start from last week and drag people into register, floor and stockroom shifts. Jonah's Monday and Wednesday classes, Riley's school days and Devon's approved day off are already blocked out, and each person's weekly hours update as you go.

  • Unavailable times and approved PTO shown on the grid before a single name goes in
  • Hours per person while you build, with anyone near 40 flagged
  • Publish once and both stores see it in the app

Schedule versus actual

See what each store's week really cost in hours

Scheduled hours by store and zone sit next to clocked hours as the week runs. An early clock-out on the floor, a stockroom shift that ran long for a late truck or a missed clock-out at the sister store shows up the same day, and the original punch stays in the edit history.

  • Scheduled versus clocked hours by store, zone and day
  • Exception flags for late starts, missed clock-outs, outside-geofence punches and anyone near 40
  • Punch fixes requested by the employee, approved by the manager, original kept
See timesheets

Seasonal hiring and onboarding

Hire for the holidays without a folder of paper

Post the seasonal role once, keep every application in one list, schedule interviews and send the offer letter from the same screen. The new hire signs it, fills out the W-4 and I-9 Section 1, adds direct deposit and reads the handbook on their phone before the first Saturday. Everything stays in their record for next season.

  • Offer letters that state the hourly rate, store and end date of the season
  • Paperwork done before day one, on the new hire's phone
  • Documents kept with each person, so a returning hire is not a new file
See hiring

The employee side

One app for every cashier, associate and stocker

Staff see their shifts at whichever store they work, pick up open ones, request a day off with their balance in front of them, clock in, photograph a receipt and read their pay stub on Friday. Each person sees only their own record.

  • Shifts, swaps, open shifts and PTO in two taps
  • Pay stubs on payday, no PDFs forwarded from the back office
  • The handbook, dress code and return policy, searchable
See the employee app

Who uses it

One record, from the owner to the stockroom

Role

Owner

Replaces

A schedule spreadsheet per store, a payroll login and a weekly call to each manager

They use it to

See every store's scheduled and clocked hours on one board, keep overtime in check, run payroll from approved hours

What they notice

Labor hours by store they trust before payroll, not after

Role

Store manager

Replaces

The group chat, a printed schedule by the time clock and a stack of punch corrections

They use it to

Build the week by zone, post open shifts, approve swaps, see who is in or late, fix a punch with a note, approve the store's timesheets

What they notice

Saturday is covered on Thursday

Role

Cashiers and sales associates

Replaces

A photo of the schedule and a time card in a rack

They use it to

See shifts, swap and pick up, clock in on the tablet or their phone, request PTO, read their pay stub

What they notice

Pay stubs that match the hours worked

Role

Stockroom and receiving

Replaces

A punch clock by the loading door and a clipboard

They use it to

Clock in, out and on break at the stockroom tablet with their own PIN, check next week's truck days

What they notice

No phone needed on the dock

Access you control

Everyone sees what they need, and nothing else

Staff see their own

Each person sees their own shifts, hours, PTO and pay stubs, never a coworker's pay or another store's numbers.

Store managers see their store

A store manager sees their store's schedule, attendance and time off, and approves its timesheets. The owner sees all stores.

Pay stays with payroll

Pay rates and pay stubs are visible only to the people you give payroll access to.

The features stores use most

Everything a retail week needs

Store scheduling software

Build each store's week by zone, publish once, let staff swap and pick up.

Scheduling →

Time clock kiosk

A shared tablet at the stockroom door, one PIN per person.

Kiosk →

Hiring

Post the seasonal role, interview, and send the offer letter from one list.

Hiring →

Overtime tracking

Weekly totals against 40, with warnings before a pickup costs you.

Overtime →

PTO tracking

Requests in two taps, and who else is off that weekend before you say yes.

PTO →

Payroll

Approved hours by store become pay stubs in the app on Friday.

Payroll →

See your stores' week in Workzenly

Tell us your store hours, zones and team size. We set up a demo workspace with your stores' names before the call.

Book a demo

The store owner's guide to retail workforce management software

A store runs on a week that peaks on Saturday, a team that is mostly part-time, a register that opens at a fixed minute, and often a second location. This guide covers what retail workforce management software has to handle, the fair workweek laws that reach retail first, the federal limits on minors' hours, the part-time line, more than one store, and how to choose.

What retail workforce management software needs to do

Five jobs, in order. Schedule each store by zone and show coverage for every open hour, not just a list of names. Work around availability that changes with the semester, and let staff trade and pick up shifts without a manager in the middle of every text. Record hours from a shared tablet or a phone, with breaks, overtime and late starts worked out. Hire and onboard seasonal staff in time for Black Friday. Then pay each store for exactly the hours that were approved. Scheduling, the time clock kiosk, hiring, onboarding and payroll in Workzenly are those five jobs on one record.

Tools built only for retail employee scheduling, like most of those in our comparison of the best retail scheduling software, stop at publishing; the hours then get retyped into a payroll service, and the first corrections appear on Friday. Still on a spreadsheet? Our weekly schedule templates show what a zone-by-zone grid looks like.

Fair workweek rules that reach retail

Federal law says nothing about how far ahead a schedule must be posted. One state and several cities do, and retail is the industry they name first. New York City's retail rule is the strictest on short notice: 72 hours' written notice of the schedule, no on-call shifts, no cancellations within 72 hours, and no added shifts on short notice without the worker's written consent, according to the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. The full verified table is on our scheduling page; this is the retail summary.

WhereRetail employers covered (summary)Schedule noticeOther rules (summary)
New York CityRetail employers in the city72 hoursNo on-call shifts; no cancellations within 72 hours; added shifts on short notice only with written consent
Oregon (statewide)Retail, hospitality and food service with 500+ employees worldwide14 calendar daysGood faith estimate at hiring; 10 hours of rest after the previous day's shift unless the employee agrees, paid at time and a half; employee-requested written changes exempt
SeattleRetail and food service with 500+ employees worldwide14 daysTime and a half for hours worked when shifts are less than 10 hours apart; a written good faith estimate of hours
San FranciscoFormula retail with 40+ establishments worldwide and 20+ employees in the cityTwo weeksPredictability pay of 1 to 4 hours for short-notice changes; pay for on-call shifts that are not used
Los Angeles (city)Retail employers with 300+ employees worldwide14 days10 hours of rest between shifts unless the employee consents in writing, paid at 1.5 times; employees can decline later changes
Chicago and PhiladelphiaRetail among other industries; 100+ employees (Chicago) or 250+ employees and 30+ locations (Philadelphia)14 daysRest between shifts of 10 hours (Chicago) or 9 hours (Philadelphia) unless the worker agrees, with extra pay

Most independent stores fall under the thresholds everywhere but New York City. Publishing two weeks ahead is still the right habit: people can only claim a Saturday they can see. Oregon and others treat changes the employee asks for differently from the employer's changes, and a swap requested from the app carries the employee's name and a time stamp; a text thread does not.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Scheduling and wage rules change and thresholds are updated, so check your city or state labor agency or an employment lawyer for your situation.

Minors on the schedule

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, as summarized by the U.S. Department of Labor, 14- and 15-year-olds may work in retail jobs such as cashiering, bagging and stocking shelves, but only outside school hours and within these limits:

  • No more than 3 hours on a school day, including Fridays
  • No more than 18 hours in a week when school is in session
  • No more than 8 hours on a non-school day
  • No more than 40 hours in a week when school is not in session
  • Only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., extended to 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day

They may not operate power-driven machinery other than office machines or work from ladders. Federal law sets no hour limits for 16- and 17-year-olds, but no one under 18 may operate a paper baler or compactor, which matters in every stockroom. Many states add hour and night limits for 16- and 17-year-olds, and the stricter rule applies. Workzenly shows each person's hours as you build and lets you block out school hours; checking a minor's shifts against your state's rules is yours to do. Keep each minor's age record in HR documents so whoever builds the schedule can see who is under 18.

Part-time hours and the 30-hour line

"Part-time" means three different things. Your handbook sets one line, usually 20 to 29 hours, for benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 35 hours as full-time. And for the Affordable Care Act's employer shared responsibility rules, the IRS counts an employee averaging at least 30 hours of service a week, or 130 hours a month, as full-time; an applicable large employer, generally 50 or more full-time employees including equivalents, must offer that person coverage. Our guide to how many hours is part time covers all three.

The retail problem is drift. A part-timer scheduled for 24 hours picks up two open Saturdays a month, covers a sick day and averages 31. Hours per person on the schedule show that in week two rather than on a year-end report. The same weekly total keeps a pickup from turning a 38-hour week into 46: every hour a non-exempt employee works past 40 costs 1.5 times the regular rate, and a few states, California among them, add daily overtime.

Setting up more than one store

A second store doubles the schedules, not the owner. The setup that works is one account with each store as its own location:

  • Each store has its own schedule, hours and zones. The board shows one store at a time or both.
  • Each store has its own geofence and its own kiosk. A phone punch is recorded with its location and compared against that store's geofence; a tablet at each stockroom door takes PIN punches. Our geofence guide covers how big to draw it when two stores share a plaza.
  • Store managers see their store; the owner sees all of them. Tessa approves Carytown's timesheets, Devon approves Short Pump's, and neither sees the other's pay.
  • Staff can float. When Elias from Short Pump picks up a Saturday at Carytown, he clocks in at Carytown and the hours count toward one weekly total of 38.5, not two totals of 32 and 6.5.
  • Payroll is one run, subtotaled by store. You see what each store cost in regular hours, overtime and PTO, and pay everyone on the same Friday.

Attendance, no-shows and records

A register that opens at 10 cannot wait for someone who is 20 minutes late, so most stores write down what "late" means and what happens after the third one. Our attendance policy templates give you four to copy, and the no-call, no-show guide covers the opener who never shows and never calls. A policy only holds up if the record behind it is clean: the scheduled start, the actual punch and the note on any fix, with the original punch kept. The Fair Labor Standards Act accepts any complete and accurate timekeeping method and requires a record of hours worked each day and each workweek; payroll records must be kept at least three years and time cards and schedules two, according to the Department of Labor.

How to choose

  1. Run last Saturday through it. Take your real schedule for the busiest day, two swaps that happened by text, one late opener and one missed clock-out, and see which tool turns them into a correct pay run with the fewest steps.
  2. Count coverage, not names. Ask to see how many people are on the floor at 2 p.m., by zone.
  3. Check the stockroom. If phones stay in lockers, the tablet kiosk is not optional. Ask how PINs, breaks and a second store's tablet work.
  4. Open the app as a 19-year-old cashier would. Staff who avoid the app produce the same bad data as paper. Pick up a shift, request a day off, read a pay stub.
  5. Count the hand-offs. Every time hours are retyped between tools, someone fixes a pay stub later. Our guide to how to process payroll lists every step; on the demo call, ask us who handles tax deposits and filings for your setup.

If you want to see your own stores in Workzenly, book a demo and we will set up a workspace with your stores' names before the call. Plans and prices are on the pricing page.

FAQ

Questions from store owners

Something else on your mind? Write to [email protected].

Does Workzenly work for more than one store?

Yes. Each store is its own location with its own schedule, geofence and tablet kiosk, and each store manager sees only their store. The owner sees every store on one board, and timesheets and payroll are grouped by store. An employee who covers a shift at another store clocks in there and the punch lands in the same timesheet.

How does retail scheduling software handle part-timers whose availability changes?

Each person’s unavailable times and approved time off sit on the grid while you build, so a student with Monday and Wednesday classes is never dropped into a Monday morning shift. When availability changes mid-week, swaps and open shifts let the team cover each other from their phones, and the manager sees everyone’s weekly hours before saying yes.

Can store staff clock in if phones stay in the break room?

Yes. A shared tablet by the stockroom door or behind the registers works as a time clock kiosk, and each person clocks in with their own PIN. Staff who prefer their phones clock in from the Workzenly app, with GPS confirming they are inside the store’s geofence. Kiosk and phone punches land in the same timesheet.

Does it help with fair workweek laws for retail?

Workzenly records when each schedule was published and keeps a history of every change, and swap and open-shift requests are stored as requests from the employee with a time stamp. That is the evidence fair workweek laws ask for. Checking your city’s notice period and premium rules is still yours to do; New York City retail, for example, requires 72 hours’ written notice and bans on-call shifts.

Can I schedule a 15-year-old on the register after school?

Under federal child labor rules, 14- and 15-year-olds may do cashiering, bagging and shelf stocking, but only outside school hours, for no more than 3 hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a non-school day and 40 hours in a non-school week, and only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day). They may not operate power-driven machinery, and no one under 18 may operate a baler or compactor. Many states add their own limits, so check yours.

How long does it take to set up two stores?

About a week. Send us your staff list by store, pay rates and PTO balances as a spreadsheet and we import them, set up each store’s hours, zones and geofence, and put a tablet kiosk at each stockroom door. Then we walk through your first schedule and first timesheet approval with you and stay through the first pay run.

GUIDEAttendance policy: four free policies to copy COMPARISONBest retail scheduling software TEMPLATESFree weekly schedule templates