Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Team Management & Scheduling!

[Tom]

On January 28th, we hosted a Square Team Management & Scheduling Live Q&A!

@seiderman is the product manager on Square Team Management, focused specifically on scheduling, timecards, and the Square Team app. Having worked at Square for 6+ years, he’s experienced in working directly with sellers on how they can use Square to improve their team operations. While passionate about all things Square and Team Management, he still finds time to indulge in other hobbies including video games, working out, and playing with his 7yr old cocker spaniel / lab mix dog.

A few example questions:

• How can I use shift scheduling to improve my labor cost margins?
• How can I share the schedule out with my team?
• Is there a way to test out the paid scheduling features?

[Boyd]

This is good news and decent new development. Like some below, people who are on holiday or long term sick, being able to put these in easily. If someone is sick, being able to record it as sick day. Clocking in and clocking out, can it be selected by employee only using their phones, rather than switching on for the entire workforce, only selecting those who need to have it?

Like one of the requests below, if you need to publish, can it be selected that it only goes out to either all, the ones being affected or none as a choice?

Requesting days off or a swap of shift?

Thank you

[Jlmcneff]

We need the capability for each of our department managers to schedule their own staff without interfering with another department.  For example, the scheding app we currently use will not allow a manager to publish just their own department schedule ...it publishes all department schedules even if other managers are still working on editing 

[seiderman]

Appreciate the feedback. Definitely hear the need to group and schedule your team by departments. This is actually a fairly common request, and something we’re hoping to support in the future. While I’m not able to offer a specific timeline for this specific functionality, I think I can offer a workaround to at least ease your current process: When each department manager creates, and then publishes a schedule, have them select “Notify only affected team members.” This will allow department managers to publish the schedule for their respective teams, without affecting other departments’ team members noticing the evolving schedule. 

Hope this helps, but let me know if you have any follow up questions!

[seiderman]

Hi Boyd,

Thanks for the questions, and glad to hear you’re enjoying the product! Hoping the answers below are helpful: 

• Mentioned this in the post above, but the team is currently working on supporting time off requests. While we may not be able to support every reporting option at launch, I’m happy to include you in a future beta if you’re interested!
• Should also be answered above, but let me know if you’re running into any issues with this setting.
• As part of Team Plus, team members have the option to trade shifts with one another – provided you (or a manager with the “Approve open shifts and shift swaps” permission) approves the trade. You can learn more about shift swaps here. 

Let me know if you have any follow up questions.

[pessosices]

Thanks @Tom 

Hey @seiderman - thanks for hopping on here for this!

What are the benefits of using Square Scheduling over a more makeshift or traditional paper/spreadsheet scheduling system?

Making the switch over could be a bit daunting for some sellers, but could definitely be worth it if the benefits are overwhelming.

Thanks!
Pesso

[seiderman]

Hey Pesso,

Happy to be here, and totally hear you on the daunting task of switching over an entire team to a new scheduling product. But hopefully you’ll find that the somewhat larger investment at the beginning can pay huge dividends in the long run.

While there are a ton of labor management products on the market, none of them are able to offer the all-in-one value of the Square ecosystem. With the addition of Shift Scheduling, Team Management is able to offer businesses a consolidated set of tools for managing all aspects of your team. When paired with Square Payroll, businesses can schedule, track, and pay their team all from their Square Dashboard. It's also free to get started. Simply add your team in Square Dashboard or Point of Sale and start building your schedule in minutes. Once you feel you got the hang of it, you can upgrade to Team Plus to access advanced functionality, such as: preventing early / unschedule shifts, automated shift reminders, and shift trades. For more, I’d recommend checking out this Support Center article. 

Hope this helps, but definitely would love to hear from you all on specific areas you may be getting stuck in the transition.

[NinthStreet]

Couple things I'd love to see (in no specific priority):

1. Drag and drop shifts
2. Push only to employees who's schedule was effected
3. Ability to see full daily schedule within Sqaure Team App (especially for the manager)
4. Ability to print daily Schedule with notes for specific shifts
5. Monthly view
6. Able to schedule shifts by time view vs employee view.  Would be nice to see the holes in the daily schedule.
7. Ability for team members to select/submit days requested for time off or unavailable within the Sqaure team App

Thanks. We've really enjoyed using this feature so far and looking forward to the improvements ahead.

- Derek

NinthStreetmpls.com

[seiderman]

Really appreciate the feedback, and glad to hear you all are enjoying it NinthStreet! The good news is that a number of these features (drag and drop, time off, and print support) are currently in active development. Happy to keep you updated on our progress, and include you in any future beta programs. As for the other requests, added some more info below:

1. Daily schedule in the Square Team app: Are you imagining this as a purely manager view? Or something an individual team member could reference throughout the day?
2. Month view: For the monthly scheduling view, are their specific tasks you look to do in a month view vs day or week? Definitely something we’ve heard before, and are looking into.
3. Time view: Totally see how this could be useful. Is this something you imagine referencing throughout each workday? Or just as your building a schedule?

[NinthStreet]

Thanks for the reply. Here’s some answers. 
1) Daily schedule in the Square Team app: I could see it both ways. Almost like another tab on the bottom labeled “today’s schedule” organized by time (ie 8am shift, noon shift, etc). Or a screen within Sqaure POS that I could pull up on the iPad. 

2) Month view: I think the big win is seeing the full scope of who has been scheduled & where we might have holes. Right now I have to page through each week. Example I could look at the month and see employee 1 who works Thursday nights but requested the 3rd Thursday off. It will be easy to see I have a hole that Thursday. Also having it on Square POS on our iPad employees could look over their time while working. 

3) Time view: if we could print it out or have it be in the Team app I would reference it easily daily. It would be super helpful with building the schedule because right now it’s organized alphabetically which is challenging when Employee 1 with a first name “A” is closing but Employee 2 with “W” first name is opening. Makes it tricky to see my wholes. 

1 additional thought. It would be great to template our operating hours and shifts. With a click of a button it populates it all in open shifts, then I can drag & drop (please please please!) those to corresponding shifts to employees. I like the duplicate weekly schedule feature which seems to be working but if I have a template or base hours, when I delete a shift for an employee it would be nice to either A) have it go directly to open shifts or B) I can reassign it to another employee. 

Thanks and looking forward to more features. 

[seiderman]

Really appreciate the thorough follow ups! Answers / thoughts on each of them below:

1. Ah, I see. Is this something you’d imagine your team referencing as well? Or is this for your own managerial needs? While not on the immediate roadmap, providing more visibility into each workday’s schedule is something I’ve discussed with the team quite a bit. Definitely a lot more we can do here. 
2. Got it. That’s super helpful, and something we’ll continue to explore.
3. Same here, really helpful. Really interested in making this process faster for you!
4. Quick follow up question on this last point. Do you view these templates as something that can be applied to multiple team members (i.e. create a morning shift, and make sure they’re always 2 cashiers and 3 servers assigned)? Or are these specific individual shifts for each team member? Let me know if what I’m asking doesn’t make sense.

[PhotosByOrion]

I have been trying to find the information about pricing and what features are included for that pricing as it seems you have a couple different levels. Where can I get that information?

[seiderman]

Hi PhotosByOrion, I’m happy to help here. The basics of Shift Scheduling are available on the free tier of Team Management, and there are some premium features that are unlocked with Team Plus. Below I’ll highlight some of the key differences. Team Plus is available at a rate of $35/mo per location. 

With the free tier of Team Management you can create, manage, and publish schedules for yourself and your team members. This includes having your team members set their availability via Team app (or you can set it for them in your Square Dashboard), building your team’s schedule for up to 10 days out by applying Shifts to each team member, and publishing the schedule making it visible to your team. Your team members will receive an email notification with their new schedule, along with the option to view their schedule from the Square Team App. Note: In order to minimize errors and confusion when team members are clocking in/out or viewing the schedule, it’s important to make sure you have the appropriate Work Period, Overtime and Breaks settings enabled for Timecards. You can review and edit all of these settings by visiting the Timecards section of your online Square Dashboard and selecting Settings.

With Team Plus, you unlock several features that provide more flexibility for both you and your team members. First, you can build schedules further than 10 days out (as far as you want). In addition, you can publish Open Shifts allowing team members with certain job titles to request shifts which you then review and approve or decline. Shift Swaps give team members the option to trade shifts with other members of the team if they’re unable to work due to a change in their availability, or just prefer the hours of another shift. Finally, Time Enforcement allows you to customize how early your team members can clock in and out on your point of sale.

For more on pricing, I’d recommend checking out this Support Center article.

[Pj59]

How to schedule my staff

[seiderman]

Hey Pj59,

Happy to help you get started! Before creating your first schedule, we recommend the following:

1. Make sure you’ve added your entire team in the Team Members Dashboard of the Square Dashboard or the Team applet in Point of Sale. You’ll also want to make sure each team member has a job title, wage, and email address assigned.
2. Have your team create their Square Team account, and download the Square Team app so they can view the schedule, and receive notifications for any shift changes. 

Once your team’s been added, you’re ready to start adding shifts within the new Scheduling section of your Square Dashboard. For more on getting started, I’d recommend checking out this Support Center article. Hope that helps, but definitely let me know if you need anything else!

[shortststackeat]

Requests:

-the ability to have more than 1 schedule. (I need the ability to have a schedule for FOH and a separate one for the Kitchen staff)

-The ability to print the schedule

-The ability to allow employees to request off

-The ability to be able to choose when to notify staff about changes (they don't need to receive all changes)

-The ability for there to be a spot to add notes beyond just the time from a staff member is available in the availability feature

[seiderman]

Hi shortststackeat,

Thanks for the requests! More details below on each:

• Scheduling / reporting by department is something we’ve heard sellers ask for quite a bit. While I don’t have a specific timeline to share, it is something we hope to support in the future.
• Mentioned this above, but the team is currently working on it! If interested, happy to include you in a future beta.
• Mentioned this above, but you should be able to control today. Definitely let me know if either of these settings are not working for you. Just want to make sure I understand your last two. Are you looking to send out notes and announcements to your team? Curious to understand how you do this today, and how we can help automate this process in the future!

[Transport4all]

Is the scheduling tool dynamic from day today - can we build the daily schedule for our drives in the late afternoon for the next day - and modify it if needed before they start their shift?

[seiderman]

Absolutely. You can create and publish schedules on a daily basis if that’s what works best for your business. To create a daily schedule, you’ll just want to change the scheduling view to “Day.” When you’re finished creating that schedule, you can go ahead and hit “publish” as we only publish the shifts currently in the scheduling view. 

[Transport4all]

Can the employee hours be exported so we can load into our payroll company processing system (Paychex)?

[seiderman]

Yes, team members’ hours can be exported to a third-party payroll provider, such as Paychex. You can access these exports via the export button on the Labor Cost report in Square Dashboard. For more information on how to get started with Square Timecards check out this Support Center article.

[Brian90]

Are we able to have multiple jobs for one employee? 
I’d love for employees to be able to swap shifts with management approval. 
Is messaging within the scheduling possible?