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?

[seiderman]

Hi @Brian90, thank you for the questions. As part of Team Plus you’ll gain access to both multiple jobs / wages, and team shift trading. For multiple jobs: When on the Team Members section of your Square Dashboard, you should see the option to “Add additional wages” in the Jobs & Compensation card of each team member. For shift trades: Using the Square Team app, team members can request trades with one another. However, these requests will only go into effect with management approval. You might find these Support Center articles helpful as you’re getting started with multiple jobs and team shift trading. 

Lastly, messaging is a feature that I hear about a lot. While we hope to be able to support in the future, I don’t have any specific timeline to share. In the meantime, team members can add notes during their shift through both the Square Team app and Point of Sale. Once added, these notes are available to view within the Timecard section of Square Dashboard. 

[Jacks143]

Thanks for working on this side of square! I am currently using another platform and really want to switch but there are some glitches I just can't handle.

- I need to be able to schedule employees without having to go in and select all available days, my employees request time off if they need something specific, otherwise, they are assumed available.

- Create groups of employees to schedule as they may have different schedules for different jobs.

- When scheduling a shift for a particular day it defaults to add it to the previous day as well? Will not allow me to deselect previous day.

[seiderman]

Hi @Jacks143,

Really appreciate the feedback. Totally hear you on the glitches, but hope the answers below help:

• It sounds like the missing piece here is time off requests. As mentioned above, this feature is in active development and should be rolling out in the coming months. In the meantime, team members are considered always available if recurring availability has not been added. It’s only after availability has been added do we start to flag shifts that conflict with these settings. However, you always have the ability to schedule over these conflicts if needed. 
• Would love to learn more about what you’re looking for here. Could you tell me how you handle this in your current solution?
• Looking at your account, I think this has to do with your current Work Period setting. Setting a Work Period enables Square Timecards to report and calculate overtime based on your business’ operations. This is separate from the start, or end, of your business hours. If you have team members clocked-in past midnight, you’ll want to adjust this setting to around an hour after the last person leaves for the night / morning. This allows you to calculate the hours past midnight within the same workday. However, if you do not have people working past midnight, I’d recommend changing this setting back to midnight.

[WandasCafe]

1. Would it be possible to move job categories instead of them only appearing alphabetically?

I need to see the cooks and prep team schedule at the same time and had to relabel them Kitchen Cook and Kitchen Prep so that they show up alphabetically without me having to scroll up and down so far.

2. Could the color assigned to a team member stay with them and not require me to change the color when adding shifts?

The colors help with quick glances to know that green is kitchen staff, purple is bakery, etc.

3. Could you add a column on the left or right to show total hours scheduled for each employee and possibly their hourly rate? 

When filling out the week it is important to know how many hours are being scheduled. Currently we have to add them manually to be sure they are not going into overtime, to be sure hours are being spread equitably, manage labor costs at a glance, etc. It was a feature we found very useful when we used Deputy for scheduling.

4. Can you add a drop and drag feature so that we don't have to start from scratch to fill a shift if someone is adding an additional day, etc?

5. Could the PUBLISH button say PUBLISHED after the schedule is actually published preventing uncertainty and repeated publishing because there is no real confirmation that it was published on the scheduling screen?

6.  Could we have the ability to click on a shift and edit the person assigned instead of having to delete that shift and recreate it with the new person?

[seiderman]

Hi @WandasCafe,

Appreciate all the great questions / feedback. Below are the answers to your specific questions:

1. Aside from changing the sort order (ascending or descending), you’re currently unable to customize the order of the job categories within the scheduling view. While nothing on the roadmap yet, it's something we can look at for a future update. 
2. Glad to hear the colors are helping! We’ll definitely be looking at this in a future update.
3. Yup, can really see how these data points would be useful as you’re building your schedule. For the first part of the question, you should be able to see the total scheduled hours within the far left column, right under the employees name. As for overtime and labor cost forecasting during schedule creation, this is actually something we’re looking into adding later this year. Happy to keep you in the loop as we make progress!
4. Good news on this one. We’re planning to add drag and drop support soon. Keep an eye out for an announcement via Square Dashboard soon.
5. Appreciate the feedback; makes total sense. We’ll definitely look to improve this in future updates. 
6. Same here. Definitely something we’ll explore down the line.

Hope this answers your questions, but feel free to follow up!

[Nu2uagain]

We are a nonprofit resale shop who's mission is employing students and adult with disabilities.  Some do not have smart phones nor are they able to access the information on a computer.  Would love to be able to print out the shift schedule and to be able to display it by month, by person, by time of day, or some combination.  It would also be helpful if you stayed in the same spot when you publish the schedule (always defaults back up to the top).  Thank you for your help!

[seiderman]

Hey @Nu2uagain, believe this thread answers this question, but let me know if you have any follow ups.

Thanks!

[DELDIYLLC]

Is there a fee for this feature? If so, what’s the breakdown?

[seiderman]

Hi @DELDIYLLC ,

Thanks for the question; happy to help here. Believe this thread covers your question, but let me know if there's anything specific you want more information on.

[MSSAW]

Does square have multi-user accounts were employees can do transactions on-line and not be able to get into account settings for the owners bank account info? Thx.

[seiderman]

Hi @MSSAW,. 

With Team Management permissions, you can control which team members can access sensitive information, including web payment process and bank account settings. To learn more about getting started with Permissions, I recommend checking out this Support Center article. 

[Cobytaco]

Hi I am new to square. Is Team Management free and will you go over basics before diving into more in depth questions? Thanks.

[seiderman]

Hi @Cobytaco,

Thank you for reaching out; happy to help you get started! Yes, there are free Team Management tools available to help manage your team. With the free plan you get access to a single set of permissions to restrict sensitive areas of your Point of Sale and online Dashboard. You can also assign individual credentials to each team member to allow them to clock in / out on Square Team App or Point of Sale. Lastly, with the addition of Shift Scheduling, you can create and publish a team schedule for up to 10 days out. 

Hope this helps, but you can always find more information about getting started here and pricing here.

[Berolina]

We're interested in using team scheduling for our bakery team.

We need to consider many items when making schedules. College schedules, schedule requests, holidays, employee performance, experience and etc.

After reading up on your website we do have a few questions.

- We do not want the team to have the option to choose their own shift to work. We create schedules based on availability, experience and etc. 

Sometimes we switch the schedule around just for the team spirit.

Can we block the team from choosing their own schedule? That only owner and manager can schedule based on the information we have available now.

- If a crewmember wants to change their schedule because of other plans can they make it with the approval of the manager. Before making the change on their own. Or can we just set it up manager has only permission to do so?

- We still need a paper copy at the bakery. Can we print the schedule?

Hope to receive some answers in the meeting.

Youna Karlsson

[seiderman]

Hi @Berolina, 

Thanks for the interest in using Square Shift Scheduling. Below are the answers to your specific questions:

1. Yup. You have complete control over whether a shift is directly assigned to a shift, or open for claim. Creating a shift as “open” is an explicit choice you’d make for each shift during schedule creation.
2. Absolutely. 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. 
3. Print support is something the team is actively looking into. Hoping to roll this out as an update soon.

Let me know if you have any follow up questions.

[Maegan]

How does this compare to software designed for staff scheduling like Deputy?

Are features like "Requests Off" (ie: where staff can request off a particular date), drag and drop interface, and a staff communication log/newsfeed on the roadmap for this?

[seiderman]

Hi @Maegan, 

Deputy is one of the many labor management partner solutions offered through Square’s App Marketplace. They’re a great fit for many larger businesses who require advanced functionality, not yet offered through our scheduling solution, such as auto-scheduling. However, with our Shift Scheduling product, you’ll have access to an all-in-one solution for managing your team and business. Additionally, when partnered with Square Payroll, you can schedule, track, and pay your team from one central location. 

As for the specific features you mentioned, both time off requests and drag and drop support are in active development. Both of these updates should be rolling out within the next few months. If interested, I’m happy to include you in any future beta program for these features. For staff communication / newsfeed, this is actually something we hear requests for fairly often. While I don’t have a specific development timeline to share, it's something we hope to support in the future. 

Let me know if you have any follow up questions.

[TannerJustis]

I have a seasonal business and would like to see more flexibility when it comes to pausing paid subscription serves (longer periods of time for example) will that be possible at some point?

In the future will we be able to make square capital and payroll info accessible without giving the full account access for Accountants (more permissions flexibility)?

Will there eventually be a way to hold back a percentage of tips from overall tip pools to pay to a bar tender or split with the company or other employees not assigned to the particular location?

Is there a way for employees to request time off within set rules from the new scheduling service?

[seiderman]

Thanks for the feedback @TannerJustis. We’re always looking for ways to improve the billing experience for our sellers. While we’re currently unable to support >90 days pauses, the good news is that canceling and resubscribing will put you back in the exact same place at the start of the new season. 

As for the other requests, while I don’t have a specific timeline, I can confirm that these are all on our radar. Keep an eye on your Square Dashboard for future announcements!

[crackheads]

Hello , is there a feature that allows employees to request to cover each others shift then the manager approves?

[seiderman]

Hi @crackheads, thank you for reaching out. As part of Team Plus, team members have the ability to trade shifts with each other – assuming the manager approves. To learn more about how to set up shift swapping this Support Center Article is a great resource.