Weekly Staff Scheduling Checklist

Export covers and net sales from Toast, Square, or Aloha broken out by daypart (brunch, lunch, dinner, late-night). Compare to the same week last year and to the prior 4-week trailing average — both signals matter when the calendar lands differently.

Pull next week's book from Resy, OpenTable, or SevenRooms. Flag any 8-tops or buyouts, private events, and BNB notes (allergies, VIPs, regulars) that drive extra prep or a dedicated server.

Concerts, ball games, conventions, and holidays move covers 20-40% on a given night. A rainy patio Saturday cuts capacity by half. Check the city events calendar and a 7-day weather forecast before locking the build.

Enter projected covers per shift in 7shifts or HotSchedules. Set the labor budget as a percentage of projected sales — typical full-service target is 28-32%, fast-casual 22-26%. The schedule build will be measured against this number.

Document any unusual demand drivers in the planning notes so the AGM building the schedule has context.

Confirm the request deadline has passed (most operators set Sunday noon for the following week). Pull approved PTO, blackout dates, and student class schedules from 7shifts or Homebase. Late requests go to the wait list, not into the build.

Pull the cert tracker — ServSafe, Learn2Serve, TIPS, and any state allergen-aware cert (MA, IL, MI, NY, RI). An expired cert means the employee can't work that role until renewed. Inspectors check at point of service.

Book the renewal class or online module before the cert lapses. Pull the affected employee from any shift where the cert is required (alcohol service, allergen-aware manager-on-duty) until renewal is documented in the file.

Federal FLSA and state child-labor laws cap hours and end times for employees under 18 — typically no past 10pm on school nights, no more than 18 hours during a school week. Minors cannot operate slicers, fryers in some states, or serve alcohol anywhere.

Assign servers to sections at a covers-per-server ratio appropriate to the concept (typically 16-20 for full-service, higher for fast-casual). Staff hosts, bartenders, bussers, and runners against the same forecast. Build a cut order so you can send people home as the room slows.

Schedule sauté, grill, fry, garde manger, expo, and dish pit against the line check requirements. Pad prep cook hours on Mondays and Fridays for the weekend push. Assign a dedicated allergen-aware manager-on-duty for every shift in jurisdictions that require it.

Stagger start times so the floor is fully staffed before the rush, not at the rush. A Saturday brunch peak at noon needs servers clocked in by 10:30 doing side-work, not arriving at 11:45.

For each shift, identify one cross-trained employee who can flex into a second station — a server who can run food, a line cook who can work two stations, a host who can bus. This is what saves the shift when someone calls out at noon.

Run the projected labor report in 7shifts or R365. Compare against the budget set during forecasting. A build that lands 2+ points over budget needs trimming — usually by tightening start times or eliminating an overlap.

Shorten the longest overlap, tighten start times by 15-30 minutes, or move a borderline 6-hour shift to 5.5 to avoid the meal-break trigger. Don't cut below the minimum staffing floor — labor savings vanish if the room turns slowly.

Anyone projected over 40 hours (or 8 in a day in CA, NV, AK, CO) triggers overtime. Either redistribute the hours, get the GM's approval for the OT in advance, or move the employee to a lighter shift. Unapproved OT is the most common labor variance.

For tipped employees in tip-credit states, non-tipped side-work cannot exceed 20% of the shift or 30 continuous minutes (FLSA 80/20/30 rule). Confirm written tip-credit notice is on file for every tipped employee — without it, the employer owes full minimum wage retroactively.

Fair-workweek laws in NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Oregon, and Emeryville require schedules posted 14 days in advance. Last-minute changes trigger predictability pay (usually one extra hour at regular rate). Confirm the post date meets your jurisdiction's window.

Push the published schedule so every employee receives the app and SMS notification. Post a printed copy in the BOH hallway and at the host stand for staff without smartphones. The published timestamp is the legal record for predictive-scheduling jurisdictions.

Check the read receipts in the scheduling app. For anyone who hasn't acknowledged within 24 hours of publish, send a direct text. An unacknowledged shift on Monday morning is the no-call-no-show waiting to happen.

Post the open shift to the team feed for pickup, or reach out directly to a cross-trained backup. Document the change — predictive-scheduling jurisdictions require notice and may owe predictability pay if you reassigned without consent.

Walk the AM and PM shift leads through the week's large parties, VIPs, 86-risk items, and any new-hire shadowing. The schedule is data; the briefing is what makes the floor run.