Attendance software for cafés: 7 things it must do

Cafés have needs many “enterprise” attendance tools ignore: mostly part-time staff, shifts that change weekly, big peaks and troughs, and owners who are not in the shop all day. Here is what attendance software for a café should do.

1. Clock in on staff phones

Phone clock-in must verify presence — by GPS radius around the shop or by the shop’s Wi-Fi. In malls, prefer Wi-Fi. See how GPS and Wi-Fi clock-in works.

2. Flexible scheduling

Shift templates, multiple and overnight shifts, copy last week, self-registration and swaps.

3. Hourly pay with overtime and night hours

If the tool only exports total hours, you still do payroll in Excel.

4. Requests in the app

Leave, swaps, missed clock-ins and advances with clear approvers.

5. Remote view for owners

See who is in today from home; with several branches, each manager sees only theirs.

6. Staff see their own data

Days worked, leave left, estimated pay.

7. Cost and setup time

Per staff or per shop, setup fees, hardware, time to go live.

Quick checklist

• ☐ Phone clock-in with GPS or Wi-Fi
• ☐ Shift templates, overnight shifts, copy week
• ☐ Hourly pay, overtime, night hours, allowances
• ☐ Leave, swap and advance requests in the app
• ☐ Remote view, per-branch permissions
• ☐ Staff self-service
• ☐ iPhone, Android and computer
• ☐ Free trial before paying

CTAS Work for shops like yours

We built CTAS Work with café and restaurant owners, so it covers this list. Every plan includes the full operations feature set; plans differ by shops and staff — see pricing. Download CTAS Work.