Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you sign up through one, Adapting Services may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Each affiliate link is labelled where it appears. We only recommend tools we think fit the problem, and we say plainly who each one is not for. Features and prices were checked on each vendor's own website on 19 October 2026 and can change, so check current pricing before you buy.

If your staff schedule lives in a spreadsheet, you already know the routine. Someone builds next week's rota on Thursday night, prints it or screenshots it into a group chat, and then spends the weekend fielding texts: "Can I swap Saturday?", "Who's opening Monday?", "I told you I'm off that day."

Spreadsheets are great for many things. Shift scheduling for 10 to 200 people isn't one of them. They don't know who's available, they don't warn you when someone is double-booked, and they don't tell the team when something changes. This guide walks through what a scheduling tool fixes, featuring Shiftie, and how Make can handle the small automations around it.

Signs you've outgrown the spreadsheet

You spend more than an hour a week building or fixing the schedule.
Shift swaps happen by text, and the spreadsheet is often out of date.
Timesheets are re-typed from paper or a punch clock before payroll.
Availability and time-off requests are scattered across emails, texts and sticky notes.
You only find out a shift is short-staffed when it starts.

If 2 or more of these sound familiar, a scheduling tool will likely pay for itself in saved admin time.

Shiftie: scheduling, availability, time clock and leave in one place

Shiftie

Shiftie is staff scheduling and HR software for shift-based teams. Its website lists industries such as restaurants and cafés, retail, hotels and hospitality, healthcare, dental practices, visitor attractions, and sports and leisure centres. Based on Shiftie's features page:

Scheduling with templates. Add shifts quickly, save schedule templates, and get assignment recommendations. Shift costs and target hours appear on the rota, so you can see whether you're over- or under-staffed.
Shift swaps and open shifts. Staff can swap shifts or volunteer for open ones, and you're notified of conflicts.
Availability. Employees log one-off or recurring unavailability, so you're not chasing messages.
Time clock. Staff clock in and out on any internet-connected device, with optional GPS restrictions. A shared "Portal" device with PINs suits staff without smartphones.
Timesheets. Entries that match the scheduled shift can be approved automatically, and the rest are easy to review before payroll.
Leave and absence. Time-off requests checked against allowances and existing leave, plus sickness records.
Team records, documents, messaging and reports, plus calendar feeds so staff can see shifts in their own calendar.

Cost: Shiftie's pricing page lists £2.75 per employee per month, with all features included, and a 28-day free trial that doesn't need card details. Note that pricing is shown in British pounds, Shiftie offers UK-based support, and you're billed each month for users who were active the previous month. Check current pricing, and confirm support hours suit your time zone.

Try Shiftie (Affiliate link: we may earn a commission at no cost to you.)

A simple switch-over plan

Pick one location or department to pilot for one schedule cycle.
Load your team and roles, and ask everyone to enter their availability in the first week.
Turn your usual week into a template so building the next rota is mostly reviewing, not typing.
Agree the swap rules: for example, swaps need manager approval and must be requested 48 hours ahead.
Run the old spreadsheet in parallel for one cycle only, then retire it.

Make: automate the small jobs around the schedule

Make

Make is a visual automation platform. You build "scenarios" that move information between apps, such as when a form is submitted, add a row to a sheet and send a message. Make says it offers integrations with more than 1,000 apps, and it can also connect to any service with a public API through custom apps.

Around scheduling, examples include sending a new hire's details from your onboarding form into the right systems, posting a reminder to a team channel, or copying approved hours into a sheet your bookkeeper uses.

An honest note: Shiftie's integrations page lists ready-made connections mostly for attractions and hospitality systems. It also says Shiftie is built API-first, with access arranged by contacting Shiftie. So connecting Make to Shiftie will likely mean setting up an API connection rather than a one-click integration. Plan for that, or get help with it.

Cost: Make has a free plan with 1,000 credits a month, where most actions use one credit. Make also mentions a Start-up Plan with 50% off its Business plan for businesses with under 20 employees, if you qualify. Check current pricing on Make's site.

Try Make (Affiliate link: we may earn a commission at no cost to you.)

Who these tools are NOT a fit for

Shiftie isn't needed if your team works the same fixed hours every week, like a typical 9-to-5 office. A shared calendar will do. It's also worth checking carefully if you need a direct link to a Canadian payroll provider, since we didn't see one listed. Ask Shiftie before you commit, and factor in pricing in pounds and UK-based support hours.
Make isn't a fit if nobody on your team will own the automations. Scenarios need occasional checking when apps change, and credits are consumed with every action. For one or two simple connections, the built-in integrations in your existing tools may be enough.
Software won't fix unclear rules. Decide your swap, overtime and time-off policies first, then configure the tool to match.

What to measure

Hours spent building and fixing the schedule each week, before and after.
Number of last-minute gaps or no-shows.
Time spent preparing timesheets for payroll.

If you'd like to see where scheduling and other admin work are costing you the most time, start with the free Process Scan below.

Written by Sean Martin, Adapting Services. 15+ years in IT, processes and operations, and practical AI work. Member of the OpenAI Partner Network.