For cafés & restaurants

Know what every service is costing, as it happens

Split shifts, last-minute cover and a wage bill that swings with the weather. WagePilot gives you the rota, the clock-in and a live labour-cost board, so you staff the rush without over-paying the lull.

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app.wagepilot.co.uk/board

Labour cost · right now

£37.50 /hr

LIVE

9am12pm3pmnow

Sam Pendry

Barista · Harbour

£40.04

Jess Moran

Front of house · Harbour

£19.67

Ade Kuti

Kitchen · Harbour

£12.40

Tom Rhys

Bar · Wharf

on break

Projected today £416 on budget

Live cost as the rush builds. Watch the £/hr climb and send someone home before 2pm, not regret it on payday.
On-site clock-in only. GPS confirms staff are actually in the café when they clock on. QR fallback by the till.
Split shifts in minutes. Copy last week, drop in the breakfast and dinner cover, publish to phones.

The bits that make shift work hard

Wage % creeps up unseen

You only find out the floor was over-staffed when payroll lands a week later.

Paper timesheets & guesswork

Hours scribbled on a pad, then keyed in by hand on a Sunday night.

Buddy-punching

Mates clocking each other in adds minutes that quietly become real money.

How WagePilot helps

Live cost as the rush builds

Watch the £/hr climb and send someone home before 2pm, not regret it on payday.

On-site clock-in only

GPS confirms staff are actually in the café when they clock on. QR fallback by the till.

Split shifts in minutes

Copy last week, drop in the breakfast and dinner cover, publish to phones.

Flat per site, staff free

Hire anyone you like. The bill never moves

No per-head fees means you can grow the team without watching a meter: one site stays at £10 whether you're 3 people or 30. Open another venue and it's a flat £8 more, never per person.

See pricing Calculate your saving

What you'd pay as your team grows: a typical per-seat tool vs WagePilot's flat price
Your team	Typical per-seat tool	WagePilot
5 staff	~£20/mo	Free
10 staff	~£40/mo	£10/mo
25 staff	~£100/mo	£10/mo
50 staff	~£200/mo	£18/mo

Per-seat figures assume a typical ~£4/user/month all-in rate (many tools sit £3–£6/user). Indicative, for illustration.

Other trades we're built for

Pubs & bars Holiday lets & hospitality Retail & salons Trades & site teams Cleaning companies Care providers Security firms Events & catering Gyms & fitness

The features that matter here

Related guides

Cafés & restaurants: common questions

Can WagePilot handle split shifts and breaks for a restaurant?

Yes. Build a breakfast and a dinner block on the same day on the rota grid, set paid or unpaid breaks per shift, and staff clock in and out for each. Approved hours, breaks deducted correctly, export to payroll in a click.

Does it stop staff clocking in before they are actually in the café?

Geofenced clock-in checks the phone’s location once, at the moment they clock in, against the radius you set around the café. If they are not on-site it is flagged. There is a QR-code fallback by the till for weak signal. Location is never tracked continuously.

How does the live labour-cost board help a café?

It shows a running total of what everyone currently clocked in is costing, this minute. On a slow Tuesday you can see you are over-staffed by 2pm and act, instead of finding out on the payroll run a week later.

What does WagePilot cost for a single café?

One site with up to 10 staff is free forever on the Solo plan. For unlimited staff on one site it is a flat £10/month (Starter). Adding people never costs more — the price only moves if you open another site.

Start running shifts on autopilot

Set up your first site this afternoon and watch the first shift tick up live. Free to start, staff always free — flat per site as you grow.

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Free forever on one site · no card to start · 14-day trial on paid plans · cancel anytime