GUIDES

Guides

Practical guides for owners who schedule hourly staff across two to five locations: scheduling, cash handling, labor cost and compliance. Every figure links to its source.

• Scheduling apps for multiple locations: cost at 3 stores and 30 staffAt 3 stores and 30 staff, published monthly prices for scheduling apps run from $59 (Connecteam Operations Advanced) and $60 (Sling Premium) to $228.70 (Buddy P
• What is a blind cash count?A blind cash count is a drawer count done by someone who has not been told how much cash the register says should be there; a manager compares the written count
• What is buddy punching and how do you stop it?Buddy punching is when one employee clocks in or out for another, so the time record shows hours the absent person did not work. No federal rule uses the term,
• How to calculate overtime pay under the FLSAUnder the FLSA, overtime pay is at least 1.5 times the employee's regular rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek. Example: 46 hours at $18.00 pays 40 × $18.0
• Cash drawer over/short: causes and how to track itA cash drawer is over or short when the cash counted at close does not equal the starting float plus cash sales minus cash paid out. Track it by writing that on
• Cash handling policy for employees: a templateA cash handling policy for employees is a one-page set of rules that says who may open a drawer, how the float is counted, when cash goes to the safe, how over/
• What is a clopening shift, and is it legal?A clopening is a closing shift followed by an opening shift the next morning, with only a short rest in between. It is legal under federal law, which has no sch
• What to do when an employee calls in sickWhen an employee calls in sick, record the call, decide within minutes whether the shift must be filled, then work down a pre-written call-down list, checking e
• Signs of register theft and how to prevent itThe register-level signs of theft are repeat shortages tied to one cashier or shift, high counts of voids, no-sale drawer openings and refunds without receipts,
• Employee time-off request policy (template)An employee time-off request policy states how far ahead staff must ask, how requests are submitted and approved, which dates are restricted, and what happens w
• End-of-day cash reconciliation for small businessEnd-of-day cash reconciliation means proving that the cash counted, the card batch and the bank deposit each match what the point-of-sale system says was sold t
• Exempt vs non-exempt employees for small business ownersA non-exempt employee must be paid at least minimum wage and 1.5× the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek; an exempt employee does not have to be, but
• Rules for scheduling minors aged 14 to 17Under federal law, 14- and 15-year-olds may work only outside school hours: no more than 3 hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a non-sc
• Holiday scheduling for small businessesFor holiday scheduling, federal law sets no holiday pay and no holiday premium: the FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, such as holidays, and req
• How far in advance should you post a work schedule?Federal law sets no minimum: the US Department of Labor says the FLSA has no provisions on scheduling employees except certain child labor rules, so an employer
• How to count a cash drawer, step by stepTo count a cash drawer, pull out checks and slips, count bills from largest to smallest and coins by roll and loose, write each line on a count sheet, then take
• Labor cost percentage: how to calculate itLabor cost percentage is total labor cost for a period divided by revenue for the same period, times 100. Total labor cost means gross wages plus the employer's
• How to manage multiple store locationsManage multiple store locations by running every store on the same weekly calendar, the same opening and closing standard, and the same one-page numbers sheet t
• Meal and rest break laws: a state-by-state overviewFederal law does not require meal or rest breaks, but short breaks of 5 to about 20 minutes that you do give must be paid, and a meal period of 30 minutes or mo
• State minimum wage rates and scheduled changes (as listed by the US DOL)As listed by the US Department of Labor's state table (updated November 5, 2026), 30 states and the District of Columbia have a basic minimum wage above the fed
• Running two or more cafés: operationsRunning two or more cafés works when each café uses the same par sheet for daily prep, the same opening and closing routine, the same tip-pool rules and the sam
• Managing a salon with multiple locationsManaging a salon with multiple locations comes down to three decisions made once for every salon: how each stylist is classified (employee or booth renter), how
• No-call no-show policy for hourly staffA no-call no-show policy defines an absence where the employee neither works a scheduled shift nor tells the manager beforehand, and states the step-by-step con
• On-call scheduling: rules and alternativesUnder federal law, on-call time is paid work time when the employee must stay on your premises, and in most cases is not paid when they can wait at home or leav
• Opening a second location: operations checklistOpening a second location takes four tracks run in parallel: a cost and revenue forecast for the new site, the licenses and registrations its city, county and s
• Per-user vs per-location vs flat pricing for scheduling softwarePer-user pricing is cheaper for small teams and gets more expensive with every hire, per-location pricing is cheaper when each store has many staff, and flat pr
• Predictive scheduling (fair workweek) laws explainedPredictive scheduling, or fair workweek, laws require covered employers to post work schedules in advance, 14 days in most of them, and to pay extra when they c
• How to reduce overtime across multiple locationsTo reduce overtime across locations, plan each employee's hours across all your stores within one fixed workweek, because the FLSA requires an employer to total
• Scheduling part-time employees fairlyTo schedule part-time employees fairly, agree a written weekly hours range with each person, hand out extra hours by a rule everyone can see, and offer new hour
• How to schedule staff across multiple locationsTo schedule staff across multiple locations, build every store's weekly schedule from one shared staff list, so each person's hours at all stores add up in one
• Sharing employees between two storesYou can share employees between two stores you own, because the FLSA has no provisions on scheduling adult employees, but the hours at both stores fall in one w
• Shift handover notes (template)A shift handover note is a written record, filled in by the outgoing shift lead before leaving, that tells the next lead what is unfinished, what went wrong and
• Split shift rules and payA split shift is a workday broken by an unpaid, non-working gap set by the employer that is longer than a meal break, such as 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and then 4
• How much cash to keep in a register: the starting floatWe found no federal rule or official figure for how much cash a register should start with; the right float is the smallest amount that lets a cashier make chan
• Store closing checklistA store closing checklist covers five blocks in order: customers and doors, registers and cash, the sales floor, stock and back room, and the building, with the
• Store opening checklistA store opening checklist runs from arrival to first customer in six blocks: safe entry, cash and registers, the previous night's handover, the sales floor, sta
• Switching employee scheduling software: a checklistSwitching employee scheduling software safely means exporting your old records before you cancel, running the old and new systems side by side for at least one
• Time clock rounding rulesFederal rules allow you to round clock punches to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour, provided that over time the practice does not fail to
• Tracking cash variance across multiple storesTo track cash variance across multiple stores, log every drawer's over/short in one shared sheet with identical columns at each store, then compare stores on ab
• How to track employee hours without payroll softwareYou can track hourly employees' time on a paper timesheet or a spreadsheet, because the FLSA requires no particular form or method, only records of hours worked
• Retail store weekly schedule templateA retail store weekly schedule template needs one row per employee, one column per day with start and end times, the unpaid meal break, and a weekly total check