iPhone and Android

Employee scheduling app for small business: the schedule, the requests and the team on every phone

One app for the whole company. An employee sees their shifts as soon as they are published, offers a shift to a coworker, asks for a day off and reads what they have earned. A manager gets the team’s day, the requests waiting for a decision and the planner in the same app, and the full admin panel opens in the phone’s browser when something bigger comes up.

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One app, two jobs

InShift is one app in the App Store and Google Play, and what it shows depends on the person’s role. An employee gets “Home”, “Rota”, “Chat” and “More”: their own shifts, cover and open shifts, time off, hours and pay, the team chat. A person whose role carries the rights gets the manager’s screens on top: the team’s day, the requests, the planner, the team list and payroll. The owner sees everything.

The schedule itself is built in the admin panel at admin.inshift.app, which opens in any browser, on a phone too. The app and the panel work on the same data, so a shift placed on the phone on the way home is on the laptop in the morning, and a request approved on the laptop is on the employee’s phone the same second.

The manager’s home

The week, the gaps and what needs attention, before the coffee

The manager’s home screen opens on today with “You are on shift until 21:00” if they work a shift themselves, then the week: shifts per day, and a red “-1” on the day a shift still has nobody on it. Under it, what the team is doing: a birthday today, a birthday tomorrow, “1 person without the app”. And “Needs attention”: “8 requests waiting”, with what they are.

  • The “Planner”, “Team” and “Check in” tiles under the week strip
  • “1 person without the app”: “They cannot see their schedule on the phone”, one tap to the invite code
  • “8 requests waiting”: time off and swaps counted, and the nearest day they touch
  • A push at nine in the morning, “Needs attention today and tomorrow”, only when something is; “Something urgent came up” when the list grows during the day
What the manager’s home reads from

The day

Who is in today, by location or by person

A tap on any day of the week strip opens it: “Mon 28 Sept, 15 people”, grouped “By location” with every person’s shift time, or “By person” for one name. The “Off” tab lists whoever has an approved day off. It is the screen a manager opens when the phone rings at seven in the morning, and it answers in one look.

  • Three locations on one screen, the number of people on each
  • Shift times next to every name, so a call for cover goes to someone already in
  • “Schedule shifts for this day” when a day is still empty, straight into the planner
  • Arrows for the day before and after; the calendar for any date
The team’s day in the app

Requests

A request from one side, a decision from the other

An employee opens “Day off”, picks “Holiday”, “Sick leave”, “Personal” or “Unpaid”, sets the dates and adds a note. The screen already shows “Vacation 2026”: days used and days left. The manager’s phone gets “New time-off request” and shows it in “Requests” under “Pending” with the dates, the days counted and the note; “Approve” or “Reject”, and the person gets the answer as a push.

  • “Mine” and “Pending” for a manager who also has requests of their own
  • “Swaps”: a swap between two coworkers waits here for the manager’s approval
  • “Open”: the volunteers for an open shift, and the manager picks one
  • Approved days show under “Off” in the day view, so nobody is scheduled on them by mistake
Approving requests from the phone
The employee: the type, the dates, a note, “Submit request”
The manager: the pending list with “Reject” and “Approve”

Planner

A shift placed from the phone is on the schedule

The manager’s planner shows a location by month: a column for each shift type, “Morning 08:00–16:00”, “Midday 10:00–18:00”, “Evening 13:00–21:00”, and the people on each day with their photos. An empty slot has “Add”: a person, and the shift is placed as a draft that “Only you can see”. “Publish (3)” at the bottom sends the drafts to the team with a push, the same way the panel does.

  • “Week” and “Month” modes, a switch between locations at the top
  • The number on each slot is how many people are in for that shift; the dashed red circle is a day with nobody
  • “Nobody yet”: leave the slot open so the schedule shows someone is needed, or offer it to the team as an open shift
  • The heavy lifting stays in the panel: shift types, “Copy last week”, printing and Excel
The planner in the app

The employee’s side

Today on the home screen, the month one tab over

“Today you have one shift”: the hours, the position, the location, and “In progress, until 16:00” once it has started. Below it the three tiles the day runs on: “Check in”, “Day off” and “Open shifts”. The “Rota” tab is the month with a dot on every working day; a tap on a date shows the shift and “Who else is working”, when the role may see the location’s schedule.

  • “Next shift” with a countdown when today is a day off
  • “Property issued to you” with “Received” to confirm, when the company hands out gear
  • “Available shift swap” and “N open shifts” the moment there is something to take
  • The month as a table instead of a calendar, from “Rota view” in settings
The schedule in the app
Home: today’s shift and the three tiles
“Rota”: the month, the day and who else is in

Notifications

Every change arrives as a push, and the night stays quiet

A new shift, a moved shift, a swap request, an open shift, an approved day off, a message in the team chat: each one is a push with the details in it. The bell keeps the list under “Unread” and “All” with “Read all”. “Quiet hours” in settings keep the phone silent overnight; the notifications still arrive in the app.

  • “Shift starts soon”: a reminder before every shift
  • “Schedule updated”: “Shifts added: 4, next one Monday” after the manager publishes
  • “Swap request”, “Open swap”, “Swap approved”: the whole path of a cover
  • “New open shift”, “The shift is yours” or “The shift went to someone else”
Notifications and quiet hours

Joining

A six-digit code, and the new hire is on the schedule

The manager adds the person in the panel or from the “Team” screen in the app, and the card gets a code that lives seven days. The person installs InShift, types the code, sets a password and lands on their own schedule; the manager’s list shows them as connected. No emails to collect, no accounts to create by hand.

  • “Invite” on the “Team” screen: the code, “Copy” and “Share” to any messenger
  • “Team”: 22 people, a search, chips per location, groups by role
  • A person who leaves is dismissed from the card; their shift and pay history stays
Inviting from the app
The code from the card, and the schedule is on the phone
“Team”: everyone by location and role, and the invite

The panel on a phone

When the phone is all you have, the panel fits it

The admin panel is a website, and it lays itself out for a phone screen: the dashboard with “5 people working now” and “all shifts covered”, the “Week ahead” with hours and gaps per day, “September in numbers”. Requests, employees, payroll and settings are the same pages, one column wide. Nothing to install; a bookmark in Safari or Chrome is enough.

  • Every section of the panel, including the ones the app does not carry: shift types, roles, premiums, integrations
  • The same login as the app
  • “Requests” with “Time off”, “Swaps” and “Open shifts”, approve and reject with one thumb
The admin panel, section by section

More screens

Six more screens of the app

The demo company on an iPhone; the Android app shows the same.

  • “Substitute”: shifts coworkers have offered, and “Take shift”
  • “Stats”: shifts, hours and pay for the period, day by day
  • “Chats”: the general chat, a channel per location, groups, announcements
  • “Requests”: the vacation balance, what is pending, what was approved and the manager’s note
  • “Payroll” for a manager with the right: owed to the team, person by person
  • “Settings”: quiet hours, the phone calendar link, the schedule as a calendar or a table

A Tuesday, phone by phone

What the app does across one ordinary day of a company with a morning, a midday and an evening shift. Every line is a screen or a push the app really sends.

07:15 · Everyone on at eight

“Shift starts soon” arrives; the home screen shows the shift and “Starts in 45 minutes”.

07:40 · Anna, a dentist at nine

“Cover” on today’s shift, offered to everyone available at the location. Coworkers get “Open swap”; the manager gets “Someone at your location needs cover”.

07:52 · Liam, off today

“Take shift”. The manager gets “Swap awaits approval” and approves. Liam gets “You are covering a shift”, Anna gets “Swap approved”.

09:30 · Sophie

“Day off”, “Personal”, next Monday, a note. The manager’s phone gets “New time-off request”; “Approve”, and Sophie gets “Time off request approved”. Monday now lists her under “Off”.

12:30 · The manager

“Publish” on next week in the panel. Everyone gets “Schedule updated”: “Shifts added: 5, next one Monday”.

15:10 · The manager

An open shift for Saturday evening. The team gets “New open shift”; three tap “I want it”; the manager picks one. She gets “The shift is yours”, the other two “The shift went to someone else”.

17:05 · Michael, finishing

“Stats”: 15 shifts, 120 hours, the pay accrued to date, tonight’s shift listed with its amount.

22:00 · Everyone

“Quiet hours”. A late announcement waits in the app until morning.

The names and numbers are the demo company’s. Who may offer a shift and who approves what is set in “Request rules” in the panel.

From the store to the schedule

  1. 1

    The manager creates the company

    At admin.inshift.app in a browser, with an email or “Continue with Google”. A location, its shift types and the first week take about ten minutes.

  2. 2

    The people are added

    “Add Employee” in the panel or “Invite” on the “Team” screen of the app. Each person gets a six-digit code that lives seven days.

  3. 3

    Everyone installs InShift

    From the App Store or Google Play. The code goes in, a password is set, and the schedule is on the phone. The manager’s list shows who is connected.

  4. 4

    The schedule is published

    “Publish” in the panel or in the app’s planner. From then on every change is a push, and every request lands on the manager’s phone.

Frequently asked questions

Is the app on iPhone and Android?▾

Yes, InShift is in the App Store and on Google Play, and it is the same app for employees and managers: the screens follow the person’s role. The admin panel is a website that also opens on a phone, in Safari or Chrome.

Can I run the schedule from my phone alone?▾

Day to day, yes: the manager’s app has the team’s day, the requests, the planner with “Add” and “Publish”, the team list and payroll. Setting up shift types, roles, premiums and integrations happens in the admin panel, which opens in the phone’s browser when you need it.

Does the app cost extra per user?▾

No. Every active person in the “Employees” list is already counted in the subscription, whether they use the app or not, and the app itself adds nothing to the bill. Free for one location and up to 10 people; the pricing page has the rest.

Can employees see each other’s schedules?▾

Only as far as their role allows. “Who else is working” and the location’s schedule appear when the role has “View rota” for “My locations”; with “Own” a person sees their shifts alone. Pay is visible only to the person and to roles with “View payroll”.

What if someone does not have a smartphone?▾

They stay on the schedule and count as an active person; the “Employees” list marks them as not connected. The planner prints the week as a PDF for the wall, and “Download Excel” gives the file. Their swaps and time off go through the manager.

Do employees get a push for every change?▾

For every change to their own shifts, for requests and decisions, for open shifts they match, for chat messages and announcements. “Quiet hours” in the app’s settings keep the phone silent for the hours a person picks; the notifications wait in the app.

Can a person work at two locations?▾

Yes. A person has a home location and can be scheduled at others, and “Available for substitution” on the card lets them cover shifts and take open shifts at locations where they do not usually work.

Can employees clock in from the app?▾

Yes, when the owner turns on “Time tracking”, which comes with Basic at no extra charge. The app gets a “Check in” tile that reads a code from a tablet at the workplace, anyone without a phone types a staff number and a PIN on the tablet, and the “Time tracking” board in the panel shows who is on site. Pay still comes from the published schedule, with the clocked hours next to it.

Put the schedule in every pocket

Create the company, add the team, send the codes. The first push goes out with the first published week.

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