Free tool · for shift managers & small teams
Shift Schedule Starter Grid
The fastest way to build a week's schedule and catch a thin day before you post it. Put your people down one side and the seven days across the top, drop a shift code in each cell, and this free single-tab grid adds up each person's hours and flags any day that falls below your minimum on duty. Download it, staff a week, and see the coverage at a glance.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the files.
What it does
- Staff a person-by-day grid from your own shift library — an open, a mid, a close, a short peak, and OFF.
- Adds up each person's weekly hours automatically as you fill in the grid.
- Flags any day below the minimum staff on duty you set, so you catch a coverage gap before it lands.
- Comes pre-loaded with a small fictional cafe week so you can see it working, then overwrite it with your own.
- Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice — no macros, no signup, nothing saved anywhere but your own file.
Own it, don't rent it
Want the labor cost, not just the schedule?
This free grid shows you the schedule and the coverage. The full Shift-Schedule & Labor-Cost Workbook adds the part that pays for itself — each person's rate turns the schedule into a labor cost (regular and overtime), rolled into a labor-cost percentage checked against your sales target, so you see whether the week is affordable before you post it. Plus a coverage matrix, a Week Overview dashboard, and four guides, in one owned spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice).
A one-time purchase you keep and reuse every week — the structured workbook between a blank spreadsheet and a rented per-seat scheduling app.
A planning tool, not payroll software, and not HR, tax, or legal advice. Overtime and break rules are yours to set. The example team and week are fictional and illustrative. Free to use; please don't resell or redistribute.