Two-shop schedules in half the time

> Cost: Paid. Homebase plans run $30 (Essentials), $70 (Plus) or $120 (All-in-One) per location per month, and payroll is an add-on at $49 a month plus $6 per employee paid ($29 for teams up to 5). Basic is free only for one location and up to 10 employees.

Honest note: Rules, not AI. A vendor customer story (Homebase); figures are vendor-reported. The manager says scheduling now takes 30 minutes or less and is cut by "50%, easily," which implies roughly 30 minutes saved on the schedule itself; a larger weekly saving is claimed elsewhere on the page that covers more than scheduling (time-off back-and-forth, fewer corrections), and the story does not break it down. Payroll in this story is not run in Homebase: the owner reviews timesheets in Homebase and keys hours into QuickBooks, taking 20 to 40 minutes every two weeks. Labor-law flag: staff scheduled across two locations and two roles can create overtime and rest-period issues; Homebase flags overtime and insufficient rest in Schedule Builder, but check state rules and any fair-workweek law before you publish two to three weeks ahead.

Prerequisites

• Homebase Plus (departments and publishing by department). Homebase: Basic is free for 1 location and up to 10 employees; Essentials $30, Plus $70, All-in-One $120 per location per month; payroll is an add-on at $49/month plus $6 per employee paid.
• Each location added in Homebase and each person set up with their roles and wages.
• Employees using the app to request time off.

Step-by-step setup

Step 1. Time-off requests only in the app. Have staff use More → Requests → Time Off → + → Submit. Approve under Team → Time Off; approved days show on the schedule automatically (Homebase's "How to Request Time Off" and PTO article).

Step 2. Set up departments. Go to Team → Departments/Roles, create one department for coffee and one for bikes, and assign each a manager (Homebase's "How to Set Up Department & Roles"). If each manager should only publish their own side, turn on Settings → Scheduling → Alerts & Permissions → Allow managers to build and publish schedules for their assigned departments only.

Step 3. Repeat the week. At Shifts → Schedule go to last week, open Tools → Copy Week, pick the target week, tweak the shifts, then click Publish; on Plus you can publish by department or role individually. Homebase also lets you repeat schedules up to four weeks ahead (they still need publishing).

Step 4. Watch both sites. Use the department filter in the schedule to spot coverage gaps in each role, and use the location view to see staff shifts at the other site before assigning them. Resolve any Pending time off, Overtime or Insufficient rest conflict Schedule Builder shows before publishing.

Step 5. Payroll. In the story's setup the owner reviews both locations' timesheets in Timesheets, then enters hours in QuickBooks. If you use QuickBooks Online Plus, Homebase can sync regular hours: Settings → Payroll → Connect → QuickBooks, authorize, or export with Timesheets → Download → Payroll Summary for QuickBooks. Only regular hours sync; overtime, PTO and rates are handled in QuickBooks. If you add Homebase Payroll instead you skip the re-keying.

Homebase has no official connector that I could verify (a third-party MCP server exists, but it is not Homebase's own), so the steps below are done by hand in Homebase.

What success looks like

You can publish the coffee schedule without notifying the bike team, approved time off blocks scheduling, and the week takes about half an hour. Time yourself for a month and compare to your old method.

Common issues & fixes

• Staff see the wrong department: check each person's role assignments.
• A repeated week carries last week's time off: time off is date-based; re-check conflicts after copying.
• QuickBooks total is off: only regular hours sync, so add overtime and PTO in QuickBooks.

Optional: Maintenance

• Monthly: remove ex-employees from the roster.
• Quarterly: review hours near full-time thresholds for anyone approaching benefits rules.

Copy-paste prompt

Use this prompt with any AI chat to draft your staff note.

Write a short note to my cafe and repair-shop team: schedules go out [NUMBER] weeks ahead, time off must be requested in the Homebase app, and shift swaps go through the app so a manager can approve them. Warm, under 120 words.

Sources

• Case: Homebase customer story: combined cafe and bike repair shop with two locations. Credit: the program manager and owner of a two-location cafe and bike shop (vendor customer story)
• Homebase pricing
• Homebase help: How to Set Up Department & Roles
• Homebase help: How to Add & Edit Shifts in the Schedule
• Homebase help: Schedule Builder
• Homebase help: Paid Time Off (PTO) & Paid Sick Leave
• Homebase help: Homebase and QuickBooks Online Plus Integration Guide