Staff Schedule
The staff schedule is a weekly grid with one row per team member and one column per day. You fill it with shifts and days off, and YellowPOS adds up the hours for each person and each day. You can plan the week as a draft and publish it when it's ready, and your staff then see their own shifts on their calendar. The finished roster can be exported as a PDF or an Excel file. Admins plan the schedule, and it is included in every plan.
1. Before you start: add your team
Everyone on the schedule needs a YellowPOS user account, as an admin or a cashier. If someone is missing from the grid, add them from Users first. The schedule lists every active user in your business, sorted by name. For choosing between the admin and cashier role, see staff access and POS permissions.
2. Opening the schedule
Click Staff Schedule in the sidebar, under Productivity. It opens on the current week, Monday to Sunday. Use This week and the arrows to move between weeks.
3. Adding a shift
Click an empty cell in the row of the person and the column of the day. A menu opens with your shift templates at the top. Click one to add that shift straight away. To set the times yourself, choose Custom shift… and fill in:
- Start and end: if the end is earlier than the start, the shift runs past midnight and shows a small +1.
- Break: in minutes, taken off the hours.
- Position: optional, like Kitchen, Cashier, or Waiter.
- Colour and notes: both optional.
The form shows how many hours the shift is worth as you type. Click any shift on the grid to edit it or delete it.
4. Shift templates
Templates are the shifts you use most, saved with a name, times, break, position, and colour. The first time you open the schedule, YellowPOS adds three to get you started. Restaurants, cafés, and resorts get Morning, Evening, and Double. Other businesses get Opening, Closing, and Full day. Change them, delete them, or add your own from Shift templates at the top of the page.
Editing a template does not change shifts that are already on the schedule, so last month's roster stays exactly as it was.
5. Filling the week in a few clicks
The template chips under the week title are for filling many cells at once:
- Click a template chip. It turns solid to show it is selected.
- Click the cells you want. Click a person's name to select their whole week, or a day to select everyone that day.
- Press Add shifts in the bar at the bottom of the screen.
Cells where the person is off, or already has that exact shift, are skipped and counted in the confirmation message. Press Esc or Cancel to stop selecting.
Copy last week brings last week's shifts and days off into the week you're viewing. Copied shifts arrive as drafts. Vacation and sick leave are not copied, because they rarely repeat. Nothing already on the schedule is replaced, and copying twice does not create duplicates.
6. Days off and leave
Click a cell and choose Mark as day off for a single day off. For anything else, choose Add leave…, pick the type, and set the dates:
| Type | Use it for | Copied by Copy last week? |
|---|---|---|
| Day off | The regular weekly day off | Yes |
| Vacation | Planned holidays, one or more days | No |
| Sick | Sick days | No |
| Other leave | Anything else, with a note | No |
A single entry can cover up to 90 days. If the person already has shifts on those days, YellowPOS asks before removing them. Adding a shift on a day off asks whether to replace the day off. Adding one during vacation or sick leave is blocked until you change the leave.
7. Drafts and publishing
Every new or copied shift starts as a draft, shown with a dashed, striped outline. Drafts are visible to admins only. When the week is ready, press Publish. The number on the button is how many drafts the week has. Published shifts turn solid and appear on each person's own calendar. Editing a published shift keeps it published.
8. Hours and warnings
The right-hand column shows each person's hours for the week, along with any leave days. The bottom row shows the hours for each day and the week's total. A small warning triangle appears on a shift that needs a look. Hover it to see why:
- It overlaps another shift for the same person.
- It falls on a day your business is closed, according to your operating hours.
- It sits completely outside your opening hours. Shifts that start a little before opening, for setup, are not flagged.
9. What your staff see
Cashiers can't open the schedule page. Instead, their calendar gains two sources, Shifts and Time off, showing only their own published shifts and their own days off. Admins see everyone's shifts on the calendar, including drafts, next to bookings and reservations, which helps when deciding how many people a busy day needs.
10. Exporting the roster
Export at the top of the page downloads the week you're viewing:
- PDF: a one-page landscape roster with a summary of hours, shifts, staff working, and days off. It's made to be printed and put on the wall. Drafts are included with a dashed outline and a note. The PDF is in English.
- Excel: a Roster sheet laid out like the grid, and an All entries sheet with one row per shift or time off, including hours as a number you can add up for payroll.
What it does not do
The schedule is a plan, not a time clock. It does not record clock-in or clock-out times, calculate salaries, or send shifts to staff by email or WhatsApp. Staff can't yet request time off from their own account, so admins enter all days off and leave.
Using it well
Plan next week on Thursday or Friday. Copy the current week, adjust for who's on leave, check the daily totals against your busiest days, and publish before the weekend. For a step-by-step routine, read how to build a weekly staff schedule. For turning the schedule into payroll numbers, see counting shift hours and days off.
Frequently asked questions
Who can use the staff schedule?
Admins plan the schedule. Cashiers can't open the schedule page, but once a week is published they see their own shifts and time off on their calendar. Everyone on the schedule needs a YellowPOS user account, which you add from Users.
When do my staff see their shifts?
Only after you press Publish. New and copied shifts start as drafts with a dashed outline, so you can plan the whole week, change your mind, and publish once it is final.
How are hours counted?
From the start time to the end time, minus the break. A shift that ends earlier than it starts, like 18:00 to 02:00, runs past midnight and is counted as 7.5 hours with a 30-minute break. Days off and leave count as zero hours.
Can staff request time off themselves?
Not yet. In this version the admin adds days off, vacation, and sick leave. Requests and approvals from staff are planned for a later update.
Does it track when staff actually clock in?
No. The schedule is the plan: who should work when. It does not record clock-in or clock-out times, and it does not calculate salaries. The Excel export gives you planned hours per shift to use for payroll.
Does it send shifts to staff by WhatsApp or email?
No. Published shifts appear on each person's YellowPOS calendar. To share the week outside the app, export the PDF and print it or send it to your team chat.
Is it included in my plan?
Yes. The staff schedule is included in every YellowPOS plan.