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HotSchedules has become a reliable solution for businesses in various industries, including restaurants, amusement parks, resorts, and …
Overview
What is HotSchedules?
HotSchedules is a cloud-based scheduling, labor and communication management software solution serving the restaurant and hospitality industry.According to the vendor, key benefits include:Build & Communicate SchedulesThe scheduling and labor management software reduces the time it takes managers to create and…
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What is HotSchedules?
HotSchedules is a cloud-based scheduling, labor and communication management software solution serving the restaurant and hospitality industry. According to the vendor, key benefits include: Build & Communicate Schedules The scheduling and labor management…
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The Lightspeed Restaurant POS, from Lightspeed in Montreal, is a restaurant POS and management system designed to enable users to sync the user's menu with major food delivery apps, manage all orders and and reach new customers.
Product Demos
HotSchedules Demo: The Employee Experience
YouTube
HotSchedules Demo: Creating a New Schedule
YouTube
Demo of Red Book Keep
YouTube
HotSchedules Demo: Navigating the Schedule
YouTube
HotSchedules Demo: Employee Shift Release & Pick-Up
YouTube
HotSchedules Demo: Submitting Time-Off Requests
YouTube
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is HotSchedules?
HotSchedules is a cloud-based scheduling, labor and communication management software solution serving the restaurant and hospitality industry.
According to the vendor, key benefits include:
Build & Communicate Schedules
The scheduling and labor management software reduces the time it takes managers to create and communicate schedules. All scheduling and employee information is stored in one central location, so managers have access to time-off requests, availability, skill level, and certification compliance.
Work Schedule AppThe HotSchedules mobile app lets employees check their schedule, request time off, swap shifts, manage availability, and send messages. All shift requests require a manager's approval.
Forecasting and ReportingWhen integrated with the POS, the tool pulls time and attendance, sales and guest data into the system. The forecasting engine shows past sales trends, which makes it possible to build schedules with the right amount of labor. There are also over 40 reports.
Multi-Unit Store ViewThe Above Store Console provides reporting and visibility across stores, anywhere and at any time. It can be configured by region, state, country.
Bilingual App & SupportThe mobile app is available in English & Spanish. Employees can call into the AVS or Customer Support Center to get their schedule in English or Spanish - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
HotSchedules Features
- Supported: Online Scheduler
- Supported: Time-Off and Availbility
- Supported: Work Schedule Mobile App
- Supported: Scheduling Templates
- Supported: Employee/Staff Communication
- Supported: Sales and Labor
- Supported: Forecasting Engine
- Supported: Reporting
- Supported: Point-of-Sale Integration
- Supported: Centralized Communication
- Supported: SMS Messaging
HotSchedules Screenshots
HotSchedules Video
HotSchedules Competitors
- When I Work
- ScheduleFly
- Crunchtime
HotSchedules Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Mobile Web |
| Supported Languages | English, Spanish |
HotSchedules Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
When I Work and ScheduleFly are common alternatives for HotSchedules.
Reviewers rate Usability and Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.9.
The most common users of HotSchedules are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
HotSchedules has become a reliable solution for businesses in various industries, including restaurants, amusement parks, resorts, and retail establishments. Users have reported significant time savings and improved efficiency in scheduling processes. For example, a restaurant manager praises HotSchedules for reducing their scheduling time from over 3 hours to just 30 minutes per week. This software enables employees to cover their own shifts with approval, allowing for better shift management and flexibility. It facilitates communication among team members, ensuring constant checking and trading of shifts in an amusement park setting. Multiple departments at a resort rely on the platform to handle last-minute schedule changes, call-offs, and requests for added shifts.
HotSchedules assists food and beverage departments by providing easy access to availability, time off requests, and labor forecasting. This improves communication between staff and management. The software's user-friendly interface allows for generating and posting weekly schedules effortlessly. It also serves as a means of communication with staff members across multiple locations within a restaurant group.
Moreover, HotSchedules Train formerly Schoox is utilized for employee orientation and training purposes. The software not only helps with controlling labor costs but also offers features like sales forecasting and labor cost analysis. Across organizations, HotSchedules proves valuable by assisting in proper staffing needs and managing labor expenses effectively. In retail settings, the product streamlines employee scheduling while enabling them to view their schedules easily and make shift swaps when necessary.
In conclusion, HotSchedules is highly regarded for its ability to save time, improve communication, increase flexibility in scheduling processes, and provide various features that benefit different departments within organizations. Its broad range of applications makes it suitable for businesses of all sizes across multiple industries.
Users highly recommend signing up for HotSchedules and getting familiar with the application. They also suggest using the convenient mobile app and setting up email notifications for easy access to schedules and efficient shift swapping. Additionally, users highly recommend HotSchedules as a reliable solution for scheduling needs in various work environments. Overall, they find HotSchedules to be a valuable tool for controlling expenses, allocating labor, improving communication, and making positive changes within the service industry.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
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April 03, 2017
HotSchedules for President
This program is being used by several departments within the food and beverage department. It addresses the organization of scheduling, staff requests, availability, etc. It makes it much easier to keep all scheduling information in one place.
- Organizes the staff requests, availability and needs.
- The reporting abilities are fantastic.
- The communication and immediate updating in real time for any edits or changes is great.
- You are able to message all employees in real time at any given moment.
- I would like to be able to add a dollar budget amount to compare my actual schedule dollars to my budget.
- Edit and post schedules from the app.
- Print the weekly schedule in a larger font.
March 31, 2017
Hot Schedules Review
It is used across the whole organization. We are an amusement park and we use it for scheduling as well as a log book. We have found it to be very helpful in allowing us to reach our employees. I also find it to be helpful in making sure employees are taking constant effort to check and trade shifts.
- The digital app works great.
- The time off/shift trade applications work well.
- The digital logbook is helpful and syncs well with the app allowing managers to quickly and easily report issues.
- I would like employees to be able to change their availability with approval from a manager.
- They are doing a better job of not allowing employees to pick up shifts that overlap with other department but that is still an issue.
- The time off/shift change screen is pain. I would prefer they allow you to select all instead of clicking each employee.
March 31, 2017
You should be using HotSchedules!
We use HotSchedules for our Front of House Employees: Servers, bussers, bartenders, hosts etc. We have also implemented it for our musicians that play nightly at the restaurant. It frees up time for management by allowing employees to cover their own shifts (with approval) and is a great platform for company wide communication as well as employee to employee communication.
- Excellent customer service/ tech support
- Clean mobile app
- Clean and Easy scheduling interface
- App can be glitchy on sign-in
- Allow attachments to messenger
- Color code job codes
March 31, 2017
HotSchedules Has My Business Smokin' The Competition
HotSchedules is used at the restaurant where I am employed for all staff. Not only does it help schedule efficiently and manage labor, it is a great tool for communication among managers. We use it in every department (FOH, BOH and management). Everything we need is at the click of the button. We love how it keeps lines of communication open and our staff loves being able to release and pick up shifts with the press of a button. Hot schedules has helped streamline labor issues and has kept us running efficiently.
- HotSchedules helps to manage labor costs. We are able to enter labor forecasts, special events, weather, etc. and compare anywhere from last week or last year to the current week. This simple feature is huge when it comes to managing profits and labor costs.
- HotSchedules prevents scheduling errors. Employees can block out when they are not available as well as show when they are available and that makes scheduling much easier. Schedule requests are documented as to the date when submitted and managers can prevent last minute requests by setting due dates for all scheduling requests.
- Communication: Everyone's phone numbers and emails are in the program which helps us contact each other with the simple press of a button. If we are ever short staffed or need to call someone in, we can send a message to the masses or quickly text/call someone. Gone are the days of having to go look up staff phone numbers in a file or office computer when you are slammed with a lunch or dinner.
- Documentation: the log-book feature is such an important tool for the restaurant. We are able to document everything such as employee or guest incidents, repair and maintenance issues, staff announcements and more. Having everything recorded is vital for efficient restaurant management.
- The only thing I wish that could change is being able to log into multiple accounts from one user name. Where I work, I am a catering manager and we have 3 restaurants. If I need staffing, I have to log in separately to each restaurant. I hate having 3 log-ins.
- I would love to have color coding on shift rosters for am and pm shifts to make them easier to read.
March 31, 2017
HotSchedules Review
We currently use HotSchedules for all of our scheduling needs. It is being used across the whole organization. We also utilize HotSchedules for manager communications via the log book application, sales to labor analysis with proforma, and labor evaluation in the reporting application. It address the business problem of scheduling many employees in various departments. With HotSchedules we can get this accomplished all in one program.
- Provides employees with a way to request time off and trade or swap shifts.
- Creates schedules for many various departments in one program.
- Is very user friendly and also gives you the option to personalize in many areas.
- I would like to see larger screen for schedules.
March 29, 2017
Business on FIRE?!? Try Hot Schedules
I like the accessibility and the layering of security. I also like the integration with our POS system. I am the administrator over several of our stores, and the way HotSchedules allows me to give access to each manager and employee is awesome. I know there are a lot more features than what I am using right now, but I do plan on expanding the usage of HotSchedules in the future.
- As I mentioned, POS integration was top of my list.
- Customer service has been great.
- Security and accessibility are seamless.
- The only issue I have had, has been the changing of personnel with HotSchedules. Getting the new person "up to speed" takes time.
March 29, 2017
We love it
We use it for scheduling for our FOH restaurant staff. We are currently integrating the BOH staff....they tend to have less access to smartphones and are lees adept at using technology. We are also trying to use the forecasting module as well as the labor input. Overall it's a great product.
- cuts scheduling time down
- manager logs
- computes actual labor costs
- not sure how, but easier to use for BOH employees?
- easier training - tutorials
March 29, 2017
Great for medium to large businesses
We use for all scheduling company wide. [It provides] easy access for all employees.
- Easily accessible by all employees. Keeps employees informed.
- Need to be able to print schedules for review with posting them first.
March 29, 2017
HotSchedules Review
We use HotSchedules for all of our front of the house scheduling.
- Scheduling - although I hate a lot of the functionality of the new software.
- Shift changes- request time off
- Messaging
- Forecasting schedule cost outs
- The POS integration was an absolute mess when we tried it.
- The scheduler lags. There is no good way to schedule on calls. The template generator needs some work too.
- You can't copy and paste on the scheduler.
March 29, 2017
Restaurant Viewpoint of HotSchedules
We use Hotschedules as our method of scheduling all FOH employees. It is used at all five of our locations and keeps track of hours, as well as shift coverage. It alleviates confusion on who's working when, and is helpful with shift exchanges.
- Easy shift pick-ups and exchanges.
- Good way to send out messages to all staff.
- When scheduling it can be difficult because you can't see everything at once. There is a ton of scrolling and not being able to access all staff and days at the same time can make things confusing.
- Automatically adding the am/pm is frustrating because it causes confusion if not changed properly. Trying to schedule a 4 pm shift is irritating when it automatically defaults to AM.
- Trying to move shifts from one staff member to another without making it a house shift first can be frustrating.
March 29, 2017
HotSchedules is Great!
HotSchedules is being used by our whole organization. We use it for scheduling staff and as a communication tool for all of our employees by sending out important information and updates.
- HotSchedules is user-friendly.
- HotSchedules is a great way for managers to get information out to staff, quick and easy.
- HotSchedules is great because it allows staff to take accountability for time off requests and finding someone to cover their shifts without adding more work to the managers.
- The reports aren't easy to use and I've noticed that the reporting information that is pulled from Micros does not match the reports in Micros.
March 28, 2017
Can't live without it
We use it for scheduling, forecasting, and communication. It is used at the store level with my 4 corporate stores and at the owner top level to communicate more efficiently with all stores.
- Very user-friendly from the bottom up
- Links with smart phones and Google Calendar so there are fewer "missing shifts" as employees get real-time push notifications of their schedules
- Added features for sales forecasting makes scheduling more efficient
- On going training could be better
- Above Store console could be more user friendly
- More on the back end in terms of scanning in invoices
- integration with POS and payroll company would eliminate a lot of extra data entry time
March 28, 2017
Business as usual
HotSchedules is used by multiple departments at the resort. This helps with changes of schedules made at the last minute, call offs, and requests for added shifts all within the last minute. Employees are able to contact each other through hotschedules and they're all notified of any changes made.
- Easy to use app
- Great for maximizing hours without hitting overtime
- Allows employees to work amongst themselves to fix scheduling holes or mishaps
- I am able to create a schedule analysis for the shift leader to assign agents to each shift needed
- It would be nice if it could accept Excel spread sheet uploads
- If you can pre-select 8 or 10 hour shifts
March 28, 2017
HotSchedules and the way it works
HotSchedules has made my 3+ hours a week of scheduling into a modest 30 minutes a week to do all 3 schedules! Front of house, back of house and MoD! I don't know where we'd be without it. Plus its messaging app keeps all of us up to speed and on the same page!
- Scheduling is a breeze with the new and always updated format.
- HotSchedules recruit had made it so easy to stay in contact with today's workforce.
- Messaging app keeps us all on the same page, daily.
- Easier to contact tech support.
- Keep us better informed on website maintenance.
- Intergrateable into POS Lavu.
March 28, 2017
HotSchedules Review
We use it for our restaurant only. We use it mainly for scheduling, and to look at labor. Up until recently it was great for scheduling, but some of the changes made recently have made it worse.
- It compiles data for labor well. It communicates with our POS system and collects numbers from it to give us up to date, accurate numbers.
- The message function is nice, you can quickly send an message to all of your employees, a selected group, or just one person.
- If your weekly projections are fairly accurate it also helps with determining how many people should be scheduled.
- Scheduling has gotten worse within the last six months in my opinion.
- It seems like they have a lot of problems and the site goes down often.
- There should be more that can be done from the app.
March 27, 2017
Schedules!
We use Hotschedules for scheduling and as a tool to communicate to the staff. It helps with scheduling labor costs, employee files, and communication log.
- Scheduling
- Employee files
- Communication
- POS integration
- Employee integration over multiple stores
March 27, 2017
HotSchedules is the perfect online scheduling system for for a multifunctional business.
Hotschedules handles all of our scheduling changes and needs. Everything and all times and changes are done through HotSchedules.
- Shift changes
- Shift approvals
- Organization of reports
- Ability to see multiple people while scheduling
March 24, 2017
HotSchedules - Great Program that has a few drawbacks
It's being used by our Front of House management to schedule staff members. Access to scheduling, requests off and shift changes. Allows us to easily monitor the number of hours that staff members are scheduled. Allows us to block off specific peak days and times for request offs. Allows us to easily change an employees work availability.
- It can be accessed from anywhere using the a computer or smartphone.
- It allows us to monitor employee shift swaps and to accept of deny them the change.
- Prints a easy-to- read daily roster to reference by the management team and front desk staff
- Easy to input new employees and delete former employees.
- There have been multiple occasions when the site has been down and we have not been able to gain access
- The most recent updates have made it more difficult to view and schedule shifts for the upcoming week.
- We don't like the new layout of the scheduling page. It's not as user friendly as the previous addition.
March 24, 2017
Excellent Software for Employee Shift Management
We currently utilize HotSchedules in the Food and Beverage Department. This software allows ease of access and up to the minute communication between staff and management. It allows easy access to availability, time off, and labor forecasting.
- Easy to use
- Accurate forecasting
- Reporting Capabilities
- Messaging
- Does not communicate with other timekeeping operational systems
March 17, 2017
HotSchedules Works for Me
I use HotSchedules daily to schedule employees in the restaurant. It is easy to use and convenient, as I don't have to be at work to use it. I love the app for my iPhone. We currently only use it at 1 of our properties. It makes scheduling easy and makes my job as the scheduler for 4 different departments much easier.
- User-friendly, ease of use
- Website is always up to date, hardly ever down for maintenance
- Mobile friendly
- Requesting time off for employees could be easier to do
March 14, 2017
Have Had Great Results With HotSchedules!
It is used to schedule multiple departments for restaurant employees.
- Rosters
- User Management
- Projecting Labor Dollars
- Would be nice if it could integrate the other location's schedules for employees that work at multiple locations; this would avoid scheduling conflicts between the two locations.
March 14, 2017
Basic HotSchedules functionality
We use Hostschedules primarily for scheduling and labor watching for a restaurant. Additionally, it is used to keep data, such as employee phone numbers, emails, alcohol and food seller certifications. Occasionally, it is used for mass emailing.
- Keeping track of certifications is quite simple. You are notified when a certification is nearing expiration.
- In conjunction with Aloha, it integrates data (labor, employee syncing) easily and quickly.
- It is user friendly for staff members to navigate, whether it be web or app based viewing.
- The most recent iteration for the scheduler on the manager's end seems a bit buggy, sometimes applying shifts to employees that I did not intend to give them.
- There used to be a legend for hotkeys that you could use when scheduling.(I.e. Copying shifts, setting shifts to house shifts, swapping shifts, etc)
March 13, 2017
HotSchedules 101
We use it to generate and post our weekly schedules. Also use it to communicate with staff. You can reach out to multiple staff [members] at once which is great. Staff can also use it to request days off and availability. It also has a great format for printing schedules. It's easy to use and read.
- Copy and pasting a schedule. Great if there are no changes for the week.
- Great for requesting a day off. If approved the manager making the schedule will not be able to schedule you that day without a GM override.
- Great for sending a message to all staff. You can message all the staff at once.
- Once you have a posted schedule you can back out or go to the next if you change it without reposting or putting it back exactly the way it was. When working on the next week it's easy to change the current schedule without realizing you're not on the following week.
- It would be nice for management to be able to edit the schedule from the hotschedules app.
March 13, 2017
Maximize Your Time with HotSchedules!
I'm involved in the hiring, scheduling, and training process for our three Kilroy's venues in Bloomington, IN. HotSchedules is an amazing tool for our business. It has greatly helped with our entire training process for new employees and promotions. We have a very in-depth training program and within the last 6 months, the Schoox online training academy has helped us extend that training process even further. Our employees are now able to get their feet wet before starting their physical training. I have set up curriculums for security staff, bar back staff, server staff, kitchen staff, and our bartending staff. These tools have helped out tremendously in terms of time management, preparation, and execution in all tiers of our establishment.
- HotSchedules provides a great solution to time management. It can be a some what difficult managing over 500 employees across three different venues. With this program in place, we can easily prepare schedules and trainings weeks in advance which gives an abundance of time for shift management, creative thinking, and execution.
- It's a great communication tool! The ability to communicate with all of your staff through one source is very unique! We never have problems now with shift maintenance. Employees are actually able to communicate with themselves when a problem arrives in terms of their schedule. Employees can easily trade shifts with a managers approval.
- The Schoox training website is a must have!!! Very impressed with its capabilities. I love that you're able to setup lectures, courses, and curriculums for however you business model is setup. I'm constantly hiring, promoting, and training new employees. Our training process is one of the essential keys for us to make sure our employees accomplishing their duties how we see fit.
- So one problem I have with HotSchedules is the ability to link multiple venues within the same app. From a manager's perspective, we have to constantly log in and out of our HotSchedules application so we can see who is scheduled for that particular venue for that day. It would be extremely convenient if you could log in once with one administrative hotschedules username instead of having to memorize three usernames to sign into three different venues. We use an application called "Pulse" that allows the user to view yearly, daily and hourly sales. A really unique feature that "Pulse" has is their swipe functionality. With a simple swipe to the left or right, we are able to see all the sales for a certain venue. This would be extremely helpful if that was implemented.
- Another feature that would be great to add to HotSchedules is some type of notification system for the training process. It would be nice to receive some type of text or email to notify when an employee has completed a certain course, lecture, or quiz.
- Another feature I think would be awesome to have is the ability to turn off a scheduling process until the curriculums have been fully completed. We are constantly hiring tons of security staff, and some times there's a few employees that slip through the cracks without us realizing that they haven't completed their online training process.
March 10, 2017
HotSchedules Review
We use hotschedules to schedule all of our labor. We use it to form weekly labor budgets and for employee requests off. We have 2 restaurants and hotschedules allows us to make sure we are covered in both locations.
- Creating schedules.
- Giving a labor budget for schedules.
- Communicating with employees.
- Linking with more POS systems to allow easier labor budget review