Can't live without HotSchedules
February 13, 2017

Can't live without HotSchedules

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with HotSchedules

We use HotSchedules to schedule all our FOH and BOH staff, as well as our managers. It allows our team members to switch shifts, pick up shifts, and send messages. I also use it to send group messages about important specials, menu changes, reminders, meetings, etc. All of our restaurants use HotSchedules and now we can't live without it.

Pros

  • It makes scheduling a complicated FOH team -- many of whom are cross-trained in multiple departments and appear on several schedules -- VERY easy, because I can see when they're scheduled already elsewhere. I also love not having to keep manual track of requests for time off from employees, and I don't remember everyone's individual availability.
  • We've just started integrating HotSchedules with our Aloha POS system and it's made forecasting and budgeting much easier. Even our chefs -- who claim they are terrible with computers -- feel comfortable using it to schedule with labor forecasts in mind.
  • I like being able to send messages to my entire team, and my team members all get the HotSchedules app and get notifications on their cell phones when they have new messages, so it's much more convenient than email.

Cons

  • The new HotSchedules update has some bugs with the scheduling app. Sometimes when you try to drag a shift into place, the entire screen scrolls up much too quickly, especially if you're just doing it on a small laptop screen... the small area where shifts appear should be larger.
  • Some compatibility issues with different internet browsers. I switch back and forth between Safari and Firefox, and sometimes functionality works better in one vs. the other.
I've never actually used HotSchedules support.
HotSchedules is great for budgeting and forecasting, but it's not always easy to export that data and reporting functionality has some room to improve. Messaging on Hotschedules is great, but you can't attach documents and there's a word count limit in the mobile app that gets annoying. I also HATE the 20 minute time-out, because sometimes I'll have to suddenly step away from the computer to deal with a service issue and when I come back my entire message is gone because I've timed out.

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