The Restaurant Schedule Template

By Rob Bruni, founder of OpsEdge Hospitality, twenty years running restaurants, bars, clubs and resorts. Updated November 2026.

The schedule is the most expensive document a restaurant manager writes each week. It decides labor cost before a single shift is worked, and it decides whether your best people stay. This page gives you a restaurant schedule template you can print, a filled in example with the labor cost worked out, and the rules that keep a schedule fair to the team and inside the budget.

What a restaurant schedule has to do

• Cover the business. The right number of people, in the right positions, for the sales you expect each day and daypart.
• Hit the labor budget. Total hours and dollars checked against forecast sales before it is posted.
• Be fair and predictable. Posted on time, with requests honored where possible and the good shifts shared.
• Stay legal. Overtime, breaks, minors and any local scheduling laws.

Print the blank schedule

The button prints a one page weekly schedule in landscape: 18 rows for employees, a column for each day, total hours, and a footer for forecast sales, scheduled hours and labor cost.

Print the blank schedule See a filled in example

Print one for front of house and one for back of house. Write shifts as start and end times, such as 4 to 10.

A filled in restaurant schedule

Part of a front of house schedule for a dinner restaurant that is closed on Monday.

More people are on Friday and Saturday, start times are staggered so nobody stands around at 4 p.m., and everyone has at least one full day off. The hours column is where overtime gets caught before it happens.

Check the labor cost before you post

A schedule is a spending plan. Before it goes on the wall, add up the hours and the dollars and compare them to the sales you expect.

If the schedule is over budget, cut hours at the edges first: later start times, earlier cuts on slow nights, one fewer opener. The labor cost calculator and the sales per labor hour calculator do this math for a whole week.

How to build the schedule in six steps

1. Forecast sales by day and daypart from the same weeks last year and the last four weeks, adjusted for events, weather and reservations.
2. Turn the forecast into a labor budget in dollars and hours for the week.
3. Set the positions you need for each daypart from a staffing guide: so many covers, so many servers, cooks and support.
4. Fill in names, starting with availability and time off requests, then your strongest people on the busiest shifts.
5. Check hours and cost. Total each person's hours, look for overtime, and compare the total to the budget.
6. Post it on the same day every week, at least a week ahead, and two weeks if you can.

The restaurant scheduling guide walks through each step with a worked forecast.

Rules for a fair schedule

• Post it on time. People plan childcare, classes and second jobs around it.
• Set a deadline for requests, such as two weeks ahead, in writing.
• Avoid the close then open. A closing shift followed by an opening shift wears people out and leads to call outs.
• Rotate the best and worst shifts. Friday and Saturday nights make the money. Share them on merit and fairly.
• Give two days off together when you can, and never schedule seven days in a row.
• Put swaps in writing. A shift swap needs a manager's approval so overtime and coverage are checked.
• Change a posted schedule only when you must, and tell the person directly.

The legal basics

• Overtime. Under federal law, hourly employees are paid time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek. Some states also count daily overtime.
• Breaks. Meal and rest break rules are set by the states and vary widely.
• Minors. Federal and state rules limit the hours and the times of day that employees under 16 can work, and some equipment is off limits for anyone under 18.
• Scheduling laws. Several cities and the state of Oregon have fair workweek laws that require schedules to be posted in advance, often 14 days, with extra pay for late changes. They usually apply to larger employers.
• Records. Keep posted schedules and time records. Federal rules require payroll records to be kept for at least three years.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check your state and city rules or ask an employment attorney. The tip pooling and labor law guide covers tipped wages and overtime in more detail.

Six scheduling mistakes

1. Copying last week. The forecast changed. The schedule should too.
2. Scheduling people, not positions. Decide what the shift needs first, then who fills it.
3. Not costing it. If you do not know the labor percent before you post, you will find out on the P&L.
4. Everyone in at four. Stagger start times to match when guests arrive.
5. No cut plan. Decide in advance who goes home first if the night is slow.
6. Posting late. A schedule posted on Sunday for Monday tells the team their time does not matter.

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