Split shifts tracked. Every minute paid right.

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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The Live board: labour cost per hour, spend today, who is on shift and who is late

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.
Young staff, within the rules. Flags breaches of school-age and under-18 working limits, and tracks work permits for weekend staff.

The bits that make shift work hard

The same leaks show up week after week, and most of them only surface on the payroll run, long after you could have done anything about it. Here's where the hours and the money usually slip.

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.

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 £29 whether you're 3 people or 25. Open another venue and it's a flat £29 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
3 staff	~£12/mo	Free · 1 site
25 staff	~£100/mo	£29 · 1 site
50 staff	~£200/mo	£29 · 1 site
80 staff	~£320/mo	£58 · 2 sites
150 staff	~£600/mo	£87 · 3 sites
200 staff	~£800/mo	£145 · 5 sites

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

A typical week at an independent café

Eight staff on breakfast, lunch and two late openings, one site.

Hours on the published rota: 210 hours
Hours actually clocked (breaks deducted): 214.5 hours
Over-rota time, visible on the live board: 4.5 hours, about £58.50
Estimated gross at an average £13.00/hour: £2,788.50
Shifts over 6 hours with no break recorded: 1, flagged before approval
WagePilot (1 site, Core): £29 a month, about £6.69 a week

Illustrative figures. WagePilot produces estimates from clocked hours for your payroll; it does not run payroll, tax, NI or payslips. Minimum wage rates shown are the April 2026 rates and change each April.

Sources for the rules on this page

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 Hotels Warehouse & logistics Home care

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 3 staff is free forever on the Free plan, with the rota, all three ways to clock in (geofenced GPS, QR and a counter tablet), audited timesheets, UK holiday and the live cost board. One site with unlimited staff is a flat £29/month (Core), which also switches on tips and tronc, team messages and payroll-formatted export. Every site after that is another flat £29 with no limit on how many, so three cafés is £87 and five is £145. Adding people never costs more, and opening another café never changes your plan: the price simply steps up by one site charge.

Do I have to give café staff a break on a 7-hour shift?

Yes. GOV.UK says adult workers who work more than 6 hours a day are entitled to one uninterrupted 20-minute rest break, which can be unpaid depending on the contract. WagePilot flags any clocked shift over 6 hours with no recorded break before you approve the week.

Can I share tips fairly across front and back of house?

Yes, from Core (£29 a site). Pool tips for a shift, a day or a week and split them by hours worked or evenly, to the penny, with a record of how each pot was shared. WagePilot does not read tips from your till, so you enter the pot.

Start running shifts on autopilot

Set up your first site this afternoon and watch the first shift tick up live. Free to start, never per head, flat per site as you grow.

Start free Try the live demo

Free for one site, up to 3 staff · no card to start · cancel anytime