How Many Employees Should I Schedule Each Shift at My Arcade and Barcade?
Curated by Chief Revenue Officer Kory White · CRO Syndicate
Direct Answer
You stop guessing and start dividing. The formula is employees to schedule for a given shift = that day''s average gross profit / your agreed-upon gross-profit-per-employee target. First, you and your leadership team agree on one number: the gross profit an average employee should produce working an average shift - call it $210 a shift for an arcade and barcade, where the bar carries high margin but bartenders, floor techs, and a door host all draw labor.
That is a floor, not a ceiling. Then you pull your trailing three-to-six-month gross profit by day of week. If a typical Wednesday throws off $1,050 in gross profit, then $1,050 / $210 = 5 employees on the clock that day.
If a Saturday averages $3,780, you need 18. You do that for every day, then place those shifts against when guests actually drink and play - the after-work happy-hour window, the late-night weekend wave, and event nights - so the bodies are on the floor when the money is. PULSE has a free Rep Scheduling Matrix that runs this division across every day at once.
Below are the ten tools that solve this problem, ranked, with PULSE first because it is free and built around this exact method.
The Top 10 Tools to Staff an Arcade and Barcade by the Numbers
Every tool below can build a schedule. Only a few build it off your gross-profit math, and only one is free and designed around the per-employee-target method that keeps you from over- or under-staffing a floor that mixes a bar, game maintenance, and a door. The rankings reflect how well each tool serves a barcade operator who wants the schedule to track the money, not just fill the grid.
An arcade and barcade, a brewery taproom, a family entertainment center, a bowling alley - same method, swap the storefront.
1. PULSE Rep Scheduling Matrix 🏆 BEST OVERALL
🛠️ Use it free now -> Rep Scheduling Matrix - no login, no spreadsheet, instant shift counts by day.
PULSE''s free Rep Scheduling Matrix runs the whole method in your browser. It takes a weekly gross-profit target and a per-shift minimum and auto-distributes the shift counts by day, protecting your highest-value selling hours instead of spreading bodies flat across the week.
Here is the method it is 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 barcade, if you show up, pour drinks, keep the machines running, work the door, and give average service, you should support no less than $210 a shift in gross profit." That is the honest floor.
A barcade earns most of its margin behind the bar while game techs and the door keep the floor legal and playable, so you blend their cost into the target rather than pretending only bartenders earn. The number gives everyone the same yardstick: leadership, you, and every employee on the floor.
Step two - pull gross profit per day of week. Take the venue and average its gross profit by day over a trailing three to six months. A typical Wednesday does $1,050 and a typical Saturday does $3,780. Now divide by your $210 target.
Wednesday needs five employees; Saturday needs eighteen. Five people each supporting their honest $210 covers the $1,050 the venue actually generates - and if drink and token upsells dig, the day beats it. Run that division for every day and the staffing plan writes itself.
No favorites, no "we''ve always run two bartenders," 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 tab timing tells you when. Pull the hourly bar and game-card sales and look at when guests actually spend. If the rush hits at after-work happy hour and again late at night on weekends, you staff a happy-hour push, a lull-coverage minimum, and a heavy late-night block rather than parking everyone at dinner.
The matrix lets you slot those bodies against the real demand curve so coverage matches traffic instead of habit.
Because it is free, browser-only, and built by a 22-year revenue operator for exactly this question, it is the default pick for any barcade operator. Best for: owners and managers who want the schedule to come straight off the gross-profit math and refuse to pay per-seat fees to get it.
2. When I Work
When I Work is the most widely used shift-scheduling app for hourly bar and arcade 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 busy-weekend template forward in a couple of clicks - useful when bartenders, barbacks, and floor techs all rotate.
Where it is strong is execution: getting the published schedule onto every employee''s phone with reminders so nobody no-shows a packed Saturday late shift. Where it leaves you on your own is the *why*: it will not tell you that Saturday needs eighteen people. You bring the headcount math; it runs the logistics.
For a barcade that already knows its per-shift target, it is 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.
A barcade runs a roster of part-time bartenders, barbacks, and game techs who flex with the calendar, so per-employee pricing punishes you and per-location pricing rewards you. You get scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, tip-pool tracking, and basic labor-cost forecasting against sales.
It is the natural pick for a single-venue owner watching every dollar who still wants 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, and alcohol-service certification tracking that a bar floor needs. For a barcade that wants auto-suggested coverage tied to bar sales and clean compliance guardrails, Deputy earns its price.
5. 7shifts
7shifts is purpose-built for restaurants and bars, with a free Comp tier for one location and paid plans from about $34.99 per location per month (Entree) to $76.99 (The Works). A barcade is at heart a bar, and 7shifts ties scheduling directly to POS sales and labor-percentage targets, handles tip pooling, and tracks alcohol-service compliance, so you schedule the bar to a sales-per-labor-hour goal out of the box.
If your margin lives behind the bar, 7shifts speaks your language better than a general retail tool and keeps labor as a percentage of sales front and center.
6. Sling
Sling offers a genuinely useful free tier, with Premium around $1.70 per user per month and Business around $3.40. It leans into shift scheduling plus internal communication - newsfeeds, tasks, and announcements alongside the schedule, handy for pushing the weekend lineup, event-night briefs, and machine-down notices to the crew.
For a smaller barcade that wants one app for both the schedule and team messaging without a real budget, Sling covers a lot of ground cheaply. It is lighter on sales-forecasting than 7shifts, so you supply the headcount targets and it handles publishing and coverage.
7. Connecteam
Connecteam is free for up to 10 users and roughly $29 per month for up to 30 users on the Basic plan, which makes it one of the cheapest ways to cover a single venue. Beyond scheduling, it bundles checklists, training, and a full deskless-employee communication hub, so it doubles as an operations app for a floor where techs never touch a computer - opening and closing bar checklists, machine-maintenance logs, and onboarding all live in one place.
For owners who want scheduling plus task management and training in one inexpensive package, Connecteam is hard to beat on breadth per dollar.
8. Workforce.com
Workforce.com (formerly Tanda) runs about $4 per user per month and targets exactly the hourly-heavy, demand-spiky operator a barcade is. It excels at demand-driven scheduling, wage-cost forecasting, and compliance, with live labor-versus-sales tracking through the night so you can cut a barback when a Tuesday dies or call one in when a private event lands.
It is a step up in sophistication and is built for venues where labor cost and service compliance become daily concerns. If you are running a high-volume or multi-bar operation and want labor managed to the minute, this is the operator-grade choice.
9. HotSchedules (by Fourth)
HotSchedules, now part of the Fourth platform, is the long-standing enterprise option for high-volume hospitality groups, typically priced through custom quotes starting around $40-plus per location per month. It offers deep forecasting, labor-budget enforcement, and integrations with most major POS and payroll systems, which matters if you run a multi-barcade brand.
The trade-off is cost and setup weight - it is built for chains with dedicated operations staff, not a single-bar owner. For a regional or national bar group that needs forecasting at scale, it remains a default.
10. Shiftboard
Shiftboard is enterprise workforce scheduling sold by custom quote, aimed at complex, high-headcount operations with demanding coverage rules. It handles credential-based scheduling - useful if you must verify alcohol-service certifications across a large roster - multi-site coverage requirements, and heavy compliance.
That is more than most single barcades need, which is why it lands at number ten for the typical operator. But if your coverage and certification rules are genuinely intricate across several venues, it is worth a look.
How to Choose
- Start with the method, not the app. Agree on a per-employee shift gross-profit target before you buy anything - every tool here gets better when you feed it a real number.
- Match the pricing model to your shape. Per-location pricing (Homebase, 7shifts) wins for a barcade with a flexing part-time roster; per-user pricing (When I Work, Deputy) wins only if you run a lean, stable crew.
- Demand a POS connection if you want auto-suggested coverage - 7shifts, Deputy, and Workforce.com tie staffing to bar sales; lighter tools make you supply the headcount.
- Use the free option to prove the method first. Run the PULSE Rep Scheduling Matrix or a free tier for a month, confirm the gross-profit math holds across your slow and busy nights, then decide whether to pay for execution features.
- Weigh service compliance. A bar floor needs alcohol-service certification and break tracking - tools with built-in guardrails (7shifts, Deputy, Workforce.com) save you real exposure.
FAQ
How do I set the gross-profit-per-employee target for a barcade? Look at your trailing gross profit and your current headcount, then agree on the honest per-shift floor an average employee should support - barcades often land between $180 and $260 because the bar margin is strong but game techs and a door host carry cost.
Set it with leadership so it is a shared yardstick, not a number one manager invented, and revisit it once or twice a year.
Does the same method work for the bartenders and the game techs? Yes. The division is identical - gross profit on that day divided by your per-employee target gives total headcount, and then you split that count between the bar, the floor techs, and the door based on where the demand curve sits that night.
You only swap the daily averages, not the math.
What if a Saturday night spikes far above the average? Use a trailing three-to-six-month average by day of week to smooth the noise, and schedule to that baseline. For known spikes - holidays, tournament or event nights, a big private booking - add a manual bump on top of the calculated count rather than letting one wild night distort the whole average.
Why staff to gross profit instead of headcount through the door or a fixed crew? Door count and "we''ve always run two bartenders" do not pay the labor bill - gross profit does. Tying headcount to gross profit guarantees every scheduled employee is covered by real margin and forces the conversation about which nights actually earn their coverage.
Bottom Line
The free PULSE Rep Scheduling Matrix is the Best Overall because it runs the exact gross-profit-divided-by-target method in your browser at no cost, and Homebase is the Best Value for a single barcade thanks to per-location pricing and a free tier. Whichever you choose, the method wins: set a per-employee shift gross-profit target, divide each day''s gross profit by it to get headcount, and place those shifts where the tabs actually ring.
Sources
- PULSE Rep Scheduling Matrix - /tools/rep-scheduling (free shift-count calculator).
- When I Work - official pricing and scheduling documentation, wheniwork.com.
- Homebase - pricing and free-tier terms, joinhomebase.com.
- Deputy - scheduling and demand-forecasting pricing, deputy.com.
- 7shifts - restaurant and bar scheduling plans and POS integrations, 7shifts.com.
- Sling - free and paid plan details, getsling.com.
- Connecteam - plan pricing and deskless-employee features, connecteam.com.
- Workforce.com - labor forecasting and pricing, workforce.com.
- Fourth / HotSchedules - enterprise scheduling overview, fourth.com.