Why restaurants run on hours24: rotas, shifts and payroll without Excel

If you run a restaurant, café or bar, you know the picture: the rota lives in WhatsApp, the timesheet on the kitchen wall, payroll in Excel and leave balances in the manager’s head. While the team is small it somehow works. Then a second venue opens, seasonal staff arrive - and every Sunday becomes rota-rebuilding night.

hours24 is an Estonian workforce platform that pulls all of it into one system. Here is concretely what a restaurant gets - no fluff.

The AI builds the rota, not the manager at midnight

Describe the week in plain words: "cover lunch and dinner, stronger crew on Friday and Saturday, give more hours to those who asked". The AI scheduler weighs staff wishes, contract hours and working-time law limits - and returns a ready rota in seconds. The manager reviews and publishes.

The system itself checks 11-hour daily rest, weekly limits and breaks - violations surface before publishing, not after a labour inspectorate visit.

Cover a sick shift in 30 seconds, not 6 phone calls

A waiter calls in sick at 4 pm? The shift goes out as an open shift to every eligible worker’s phone at once. First to claim gets it - the manager just taps approve. No more ringing down the list.

Clock-in without expensive terminals

The QR kiosk is free: a tablet or an old phone in the kitchen shows a rotating QR code, the worker scans it with their own phone - shift started. Clocking in straight from the app with GPS works too. Larger kitchens can rent wall terminals with fingerprint and face recognition, maintenance included.

Night premiums and minor employees - automatic

Night-work premiums are calculated from actual hours automatically. For minor employees the system watches hour limits. Pay rules are configured per role - bartender, waiter, cook - and run without manual recalculation.

Chat instead of WhatsApp

Built-in chat with per-venue and per-shift channels. Schedule changes arrive in the chat with accept/decline buttons, and important messages show who has read them. Work talk stops drowning in private chats.

Leave and sick days without Excel

An employee requests leave from the app, the manager sees who else is off on the same days and approves with one tap. Balances accrue automatically under country rules - carry-overs and expiry included.

From timesheet to payroll in one click

At month end nothing gets retyped: approved hours export to the accountant in a ready format. Hours, premiums and holiday pay are already calculated.

Everyone works in their own language

Often the deciding point for restaurants with international crews: the app works in Russian, Estonian, English, Finnish, Latvian and Lithuanian. The manager can run the system in Estonian while a cook clocks in and reads the rota in Russian. Nobody is left out because of language.

What it costs

Up to 5 employees - free, forever, with every module. Beyond that: Standard at €3 per employee per month (minimum €29), Pro with the AI assistant and AI scheduling at €5 (minimum €59). Every new account gets a 14-day free trial of all modules, no credit card. Switching from another system? We migrate your employees, balances and history - free with an annual contract.