In short
What this page covers
- Staff both services, not the whole day
- Split shifts the team can actually read
- Kitchen, floor, bar and KP on one rota
- Templates you set once
For restaurants
Rota software for restaurants, kitchen and floor on one page
Cover both services without paying for the dead afternoon, fill a hole in the brigade before prep starts, and let the hours count themselves across a split. Free, for every section and every site.
Where the time goes
What actually goes wrong on a restaurant rota
These are the everyday situations that turn a rota into a source of mistakes, phone calls and needless cost.
01
Two services and a dead afternoon in the middle
You turn the room at one and turn it again at eight. At half three the dining room is empty and fully staffed. Rota the day as one long shift and you are paying a full brigade to polish glassware for three hours between the only two hours that make money.
02
The kitchen rota and the floor rota are two different documents
The head chef writes the brigade on the back of the prep list. You write the floor in a spreadsheet. The bar is somebody else again. Nobody can answer who is in on Saturday without opening three things, and the KP is on none of them.
03
A chef de partie drops out at four and a section goes with them
Service is in two hours. One missing pair of hands on the sauce section is not one person short, it is a menu short, and the alternative is telling table nine that half of what they ordered is off.
04
Splits that move after they are published
You put someone on 11:00 to 15:00 and 18:00 to 23:00. Then the lunch book fills, the split shifts by an hour, and the message about it lands in a group chat between a photo of the specials and someone asking about a swap.
05
The book says 120 covers and the rota says ordinary Thursday
The bookings live in one system and the rota lives in another, and the only thing joining them is you remembering on Wednesday night. Nobody notices the party of sixteen at eight until the party of sixteen walks in.
06
The night the KP does not turn up
By half eight there is no clean pan on the section, a chef de partie is at the sink instead of the stove, and the pass slows to the speed of the washing up. It costs you a service, and it was one line on a rota.
How InShift fixes it
A rota built for a day with two peaks and a hole in the middle, not for a calendar. Everything below is in the free account, with no cap on people or sites.
Solution 1
Staff both services, not the whole day
Build shifts around lunch and dinner and leave the afternoon on a skeleton. Bring the floor in for the doors and let them go when the last table does. You can see each service covered before you publish it, not when the tickets pile up.
Solution 2
Split shifts the team can actually read
Two blocks on the same day, on one card on their phone, with the break in the middle where you put it. Move the split and everyone affected knows within seconds. The hours add up across both halves without anyone counting.
Solution 3
Kitchen, floor, bar and KP on one rota
Every person has a role, so a chef de partie, a waiter, a bartender and a kitchen porter never get mixed up. Look at Saturday and you can see whether every section has a body on it before service, not during it.
Solution 4
Templates you set once
A Tuesday, a Saturday double, a prep heavy Friday, a Sunday roast. Set the hours once, say which sections it covers and how many bodies each one wants, then drop them onto the week. A month of rota takes minutes.
Solution 5
Open shifts and swaps, no group chat
A hole at four goes out to everyone who could work it at once, and the first one free takes it. A waiter offers a shift, a colleague picks it up, you tap approve. One rota, one version, no scrolling back through replies.
Solution 6
Hours ready for payroll
Hours add up as the rota is worked, both halves of a split included, at each person's own hourly rate. Prep time counts because it is on the shift. Export the lot to Excel for whoever does your payroll.
A Saturday on the rota in a restaurant
A 70 seat room serving lunch from 12:00 and dinner from 18:00, with the book close to full. Note the prep hours long before the doors, the floor sized to the covers rather than to the opening hours, and the split that covers both services.
| Time | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 08:30-16:30 | Head chef | Deliveries and prep from half eight, then runs lunch |
| 10:30-15:00 / 18:00-23:30 | Chef de partie | Split: the same section for both services |
| 11:30-15:30 | Waiting staff | Lunch only: in for the doors, out when the last table leaves |
| 15:00-23:30 | Sous chef | Takes the handover at three, runs dinner and closes the kitchen |
| 17:00-23:30 | Bartender | Sets up, then holds the bar through a full book |
| 17:30-00:00 | Kitchen porter | In for the dinner push, out when the last pan is done |
Try it without an account
Three free tools that need no sign-up and no email. Build a rota or add up hours right now, and move to an account when the team has to see it.
Frequently asked questions
How many staff do I need to cover lunch and dinner service?▾
Start from the covers, not from the people. A 70 seat room doing 40 covers at lunch and 90 at dinner is two different days stacked on one date. On the floor, roughly one waiter to fourteen covers on a sitting gives you three at lunch and six at dinner, with a manager across both. The kitchen scales differently, because prep starts hours before a single table sits, so the brigade is in from half eight for a service that begins at twelve. The mistake that costs money is staffing the middle of the day like the ends of it. Put your own book and your own service times into the rota and you will see your numbers instead of these.
Can I run more than one restaurant on one account?▾
Yes, and there is no limit on how many. Each site is a location with its own brigade, templates and service times. You see everything, a general manager sees only their own room, and a chef who covers two sites has one rota with both on it.
How does the team see the rota?▾
They install the InShift app on their phone from the App Store or Google Play and enter a six digit code you give them. That is the whole setup, no email address and no password to forget. When you move a split or add a section they get a push notification, so the kitchen and the floor are never reading different weeks.
What happens when a chef de partie calls in sick at four?▾
Publish the shift as an open shift. Everyone who could work that section gets a notification at the same moment, and the first one to take it has it. You approve with one tap. It is one action instead of working down the brigade by phone with prep unfinished and doors in two hours.
Does it work out hours and pay?▾
It adds the hours up as the rota is worked, both halves of a split included, multiplies them by each person's hourly rate, and exports a timesheet to Excel for any period you like. Prep from half eight is in the total because it is on the shift. Rates sit on the person, so a chef who works both your sites is counted once, at their own.
Is it actually free, or free until it is not?▾
Free. Every feature, as many staff and as many sites as you like, no card and no trial clock running down. There is no billing in the product at all. It seems worth saying plainly on a page that is asking you to move your rota into it.