Bar / pub / Scheduling and payroll
Scheduling and payroll for a bar
Scored and compared prices dated
The short answer
A bar's scheduling problem has two wrinkles most restaurant scheduling advice ignores: late-night differential shifts that need to be built and paid correctly, and a tip pool that often has to split fairly across bartenders, servers and door or security staff. 7shifts covers both directly and is priced per location; Toast's module is the sensible pick only if you already run the rest of your operation on Toast.
Reviewed by the editorial team · updated 11 August 2026
Step 3
What matters most to you?
Pick one or two. Everything below re-scores instantly, and we show you the maths.
Winner overall
7shifts
The scheduling app most restaurant staff have already used somewhere else.
The trade-off
No offline mode for managers. Staff can usually still see a schedule that already loaded, but building or editing one needs a connection.
Why it won
- price
- ease of setup
- support
- volume
- integrations
Our scores, 1 to 5, defined on the methodology page.
Everything else, ranked the same way
| # | Product | From | Contract | Card rate | Score | Price checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 7shifts The scheduling app most restaurant staff have already used somewhere else. | Free, then $39.99 | month to month, annual billing saves 10-12% | not applicable | 3.6 | Pricing checked 11 Aug 2026 |
| 02 | Toast The one built for restaurants only, with the lock-in that implies. | Free, then $69 | multi-year is typical | 2.99% + 15¢ on the free Starter Kit, 2.49% + 15¢ on the $69 plan | 3.6 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
What's different about buying this for bar / pubs
Late trade changes the shape of a schedule: shifts that start at 9pm and run past midnight, differential pay that sometimes applies, and a tip pool that has to divide fairly across roles doing genuinely different jobs, a bartender making drinks, a server running tabs, door staff checking ID. Getting that split wrong is a fast way to lose good bar staff.
7shifts' tip management handles multi-role splits directly rather than forcing a workaround, and its labour compliance tracking is worth having specifically for late-night shift rules that vary more than daytime ones do. Pricing runs $39.99 to $134.99 a month per location depending on headcount, with payroll bundled into the top Premium tier at $6 per employee paid on top.
Toast's own scheduling and payroll module does similar work but only makes sense bundled with the rest of Toast; buying it against a different POS is a harder case to make than picking 7shifts on its own.
Questions people actually ask
- Can tip splits vary by role in either system?
- 7shifts supports custom tip pool formulas by role, which fits a bar's mix of bartenders, servers and door staff better than an even split would.
- Does either handle late-night labour law differences?
- 7shifts' labour compliance tracking accounts for shift-differential and late-night rules where they apply, though the specifics vary by jurisdiction and are worth confirming for your own location.