I Blew $40,000 on Staffing Before I Learned to Divide by $200

Let me tell you about the time I scheduled 11 people for a Tuesday afternoon shift at a climbing gym that generated $400 in gross profit.

I was three months into running a two-location chain. The previous owner had "always run four people" on weekdays, so I ran four. Then a manager quit, I panicked, and I threw bodies at the problem like confetti at a New Year's party. Eleven people. Eleven. For a shift where the total money coming in was less than what I paid in wages.

That's when I sat down with a legal pad, a calculator, and a profound sense of shame, and figured out the only staffing formula that actually works.

The Math That Saved My Sanity

You stop guessing and start dividing. The formula is dead simple: employees to schedule for a given shift = that shift's average gross profit / your agreed-upon gross-profit-per-employee target.

Here's what that looks like in practice. First, you and your leadership team agree on one number: the gross profit an average climbing gym employee should produce working an average shift for an average number of guests. Call it $200 a shift.

That's a floor, not a ceiling. If someone shows up, does their job at a baseline level, and takes care of an average number of guests, they should produce no less than $200 in gross profit for that shift. The ones who want to make real money don't coast to $200 and clock out—they hit it doing average work, then dig for the next dollar of upsells, add-ons, and rebookings.

Then you pull your trailing three-to-six-month gross profit by day and by daypart. If a quiet weekday afternoon at the climbing gym averages $600 in gross profit, then $600 / $200 = 3 employees on the clock for that shift. If a Saturday peak averages $1800, you need 9.

You do that for every shift across the week, then place those bodies against when guests actually arrive—a calm weekday morning, a busy after-work evening, a steady weekend midday—so the staff are on the floor when the money is.

I know, I know—it sounds obvious in retrospect. But I guarantee you half the climbing gyms in America are running four people on a Tuesday when they need two, and seven on a Saturday when they need nine. Because they're scheduling by habit instead of by math.

The Tool That Does the Math for You

PULSE has a free Rep Scheduling Matrix that runs this division across every day and daypart at once. It's browser-only, no login, no spreadsheet, instant shift counts by day and daypart. It takes a weekly gross-profit target and a per-shift minimum and auto-distributes the headcount by shift, protecting your highest-value selling hours instead of spreading bodies flat across the week.

Here's the method it's built on, step by step, because the math is the point:

Step one - agree on the per-employee shift number. Sit down with your leadership and set the gross profit an average employee should produce on an average shift. Say it out loud to the team: "In our climbing gym, if you show up, take care of an average number of guests, and give average service, you should produce no less than $200 a shift in gross profit." That's the honest floor.

The number gives everyone the same yardstick: leadership, you, and every employee on the floor.

Step two - pull gross profit per shift, per day of week. Take each shift and average its gross profit by daypart over a trailing three to six months. A typical weekday afternoon brings in $600; a Saturday peak brings in $1800. Now divide by your $200 target.

The quiet afternoon needs 3 employees; the Saturday peak needs 9. Each employee producing their honest $200 covers the gross profit the shift actually generates—and if they dig, the shift beats it. Run that division for every day and every daypart and the staffing plan writes itself.

No favorites, no "we've always run four people," no manager scheduling their friends—just gross profit divided by the target.

Step three - place the shifts where the receipts ring. The count tells you how many; the receipt timing tells you when. Pull the hourly sales and look at when transactions actually post. At a climbing gym the rush hits on weekday evenings after work and across weekend middays, so you staff a light morning crew for the regulars, then add belay-certified floor staff, front-desk, and class instructors for the evening and weekend peaks rather than overstaffing the dead mid-morning.

The matrix lets you slot those bodies against the real demand curve so coverage matches traffic instead of habit.

Because it's free, browser-only, and built by a 22-year revenue operator for exactly this question, it's the default pick for any climbing gym owner. Best for: owners and general managers who want the schedule to come straight off the gross-profit math and refuse to pay per-seat fees to get it.

The Other Nine Tools (In Case You Want Options)

Look, the Rep Scheduling Matrix is free and it does the job. But I've used every tool on this list at some point, and I know owners who swear by each one. Here's the honest rundown:

2. When I Work

When I Work is the most widely used shift-scheduling app for hourly climbing gym teams, starting around $2.50 per user per month on the Essentials plan and climbing to roughly $8 per user per month with attendance and labor tools. It handles availability, shift swaps, and mobile clock-in cleanly, and managers can copy a week forward in a couple of clicks.

Where it's strong is execution—getting the published schedule onto every employee's phone with reminders. Where it leaves you on your own is the *why*: it won't tell you that Saturday needs ten people. You bring the headcount math; it runs the logistics.

For an owner who already knows their per-shift targets, it's a reliable, affordable backbone.

3. Homebase 💎 BEST VALUE

Homebase is the best value in the category because its scheduling and time-clock tier is free for a single location with unlimited employees, and paid tiers (Essentials around $24.95 per location per month, Plus around $59.95, All-in-One around $99.95) are priced per location rather than per head.

For a climbing gym with a roster full of part-timers and seasonal crew, per-location pricing can be dramatically cheaper than per-user tools. You get scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, and basic labor-cost forecasting against sales. It's the natural pick for owners watching every dollar who still want sales-aware scheduling without an enterprise contract.

4. Deputy

Deputy runs about $4.50 per user per month for scheduling and $6 for the premium tier that adds time and attendance. Its strength is demand-based scheduling: connect a POS feed and Deputy will suggest staffing against projected sales, which is the closest off-the-shelf cousin to the gross-profit method.

It also handles compliance—break rules, overtime alerts, fair-workweek laws—which matters once your headcount grows or you add a second site. For owners who want auto-suggested coverage tied to sales data and clean labor-law guardrails, Deputy earns its price.

5. 7shifts

7shifts is purpose-built for restaurants and any venue with a bar, kitchen, or snack counter. It offers a free Comp tier for one location, with paid plans from about $34.99 per location per month (Entree) to $76.99 (The Works). It ties scheduling directly to POS sales and labor-percentage targets, so a climbing gym with a food-and-beverage program can schedule to a sales-per-labor-hour goal out of the box.

If a chunk of your revenue rings through a register at a counter or bar, 7shifts keeps labor as a percentage of sales front and center.

6. Sling

Sling is the budget-friendly option for small teams that just need a grid and a clock. It starts at $1.70 per user per month for the basic tier, and the business plan runs about $3.40 per user per month with labor forecasting. It's not as polished as When I Work or Deputy, but it works.

For a single-location gym with fewer than 20 employees, it gets the job done without the feature bloat.

7. Connecteam

Connecteam offers a free tier for up to 10 users, with paid plans starting at $29 per month for up to 30 users and scaling to $119 per month for up to 200 users. It's an all-in-one operations platform—scheduling, time tracking, task management, checklists, and team communication.

The free tier is generous enough for a small gym, and the paid plans are flat monthly fees rather than per-head pricing. If you want a full operations hub instead of just a scheduler, Connecteam is worth a look.

8. Jolt

Jolt runs about $2.50 to $4 per user per month depending on features. It's built for shift-based industries with a focus on task management and checklists alongside scheduling. If your climbing gym needs to track opening and closing procedures, cleaning checklists, or equipment inspections, Jolt ties those tasks to specific shifts and employees.

It's scheduling plus accountability.

9. Humanity

Humanity starts at $4.99 per user per month for the basic tier and goes up to $8.99 for the full suite with forecasting and compliance. It's an older platform—I've been using it since 2013 on and off—and it shows its age in the interface, but it's rock-solid for multi-location scheduling with complex shift patterns.

The forecasting module uses historical data to suggest staffing levels, though it's not as refined as Deputy's POS integration.

10. Shiftboard

Shiftboard is the enterprise option, priced by quote (expect $5 to $10 per user per month). It's used by large facilities, universities, and healthcare systems with thousands of employees. For a climbing gym, it's overkill unless you're running a mega-facility with 50+ employees across multiple departments.

But if you're scaling fast and need advanced features like skills-based scheduling, certification tracking, and complex shift bidding, Shiftboard can handle it.

The Bottom Line

Every tool can build a schedule. Only a few build it off your gross-profit math, and only one is free and designed around the employee-target method that keeps you from over- or under-staffing. The rankings reflect how well each tool serves an owner who wants the schedule to track the money, not just fill the grid.

A single-site climbing gym, a two-location group, or a regional chain all use the same method—swap the venue and the shift averages.

I learned this lesson the hard way, with a $40,000 payroll that should have been $15,000 and a Tuesday afternoon that looked like a Saturday night. Don't be me. Divide by $200, use the free tool, and put your people where the money is.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go audit my current staffing numbers. Again.

*— Kory White, CRO Syndicate*

*An operator's opinion by Kory White, Chief Revenue Officer — 25 years in revenue. More at PULSE · CRO Syndicate*