Pulse Reviews and Analysis
How Many Employees Should I Schedule Each Shift at My Laundromat?
Curated by Chief Revenue Officer Kory White · CRO Syndicate
How Many Employees Should I Schedule Each Shift at My Laundromat?
Direct Answer
You stop guessing and start dividing. The formula is employees needed for a given shift = that day's average gross profit / your agreed-upon daily gross-profit-per-rep target. First, you and your manager agree on one number: the daily gross profit an average attendant should produce doing average work on an average day - call it $150 a day for a laundromat, where machines do most of the earning and an attendant adds wash-and-fold, change, vending, and oversight on top.
That is a floor, not a ceiling. Then you pull each location's trailing three-to-six-month gross profit by day of week. If Saturdays average $450 in attended gross profit, then $450 / $150 = 3 attendants on that shift.
If a slow Tuesday averages $150, you need 1. You do that for every day, then place those shifts against when customers actually run loads - the weekend mornings and the weekday after-work block, not the dead late-morning weekday. 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 a Laundromat 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-rep target method that keeps you from over- or under-staffing your attendants. The rankings reflect how well each tool serves an owner who wants the schedule to track the money, not just fill the grid.
An unattended drop-store, a fully attended store with wash-and-fold, a card-system store with a small crew, a multi-store group - 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-rep daily number. Sit down with your manager and set the gross profit an average attendant should produce on an average day. Say it out loud to the team: "In our store, if you show up, take care of an average number of customers, and give average service, you should produce no less than $150 a day in gross profit." A laundromat earns from machines whether an attendant is there or not, so the attendant's number reflects the wash-and-fold, oversight, and add-on sales they drive, not the whole store - keep it honest and lower than a full-service shop.
That is the floor. The attendants who want more hours do not coast to $150 and clock out - they hit $150 on average work, then push wash-and-fold and vending for the next dollar. The number gives everyone the same yardstick: you, the manager, and every attendant on the floor.
Step two - pull gross profit per location, per day of week. Take each store and average its attended gross profit by day over a trailing three to six months. Your busiest store does $450 on a typical Saturday and $150 on a typical Tuesday. Now divide by your $150 target.
Saturday needs three attendants; Tuesday needs one. Three attendants each producing their honest $150 in wash-and-fold and add-ons covers the $450 the store actually generates on top of the self-serve base - and if they push folding service, the day beats it. Run that division for every location and every day and the staffing plan writes itself.
No favorites, no "we've always run two," 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 turns and look at when machines actually run and wash-and-fold drops post. Laundromat traffic peaks on weekend mornings and the weekday after-work block, with a soft midday.
If the rush hits Saturday morning and weekday evenings, you stack attendants into those windows and run light or unattended through the quiet hours rather than parking everyone at 11 a.m. The matrix lets you slot 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 laundromat owner. 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 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, which fits a store with a small, rotating attendant pool.
Where it is strong is execution - getting the published schedule onto every attendant's phone with reminders and a clean clock-in. Where it leaves you on your own is the *why*: it will not tell you that Saturday needs three attendants. You bring the headcount math; it runs the logistics.
For an owner who already knows their per-store targets, 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.
For a laundromat run on thin attended margins with a handful of part-time attendants, the free tier covers scheduling, time tracking, and team messaging at no cost, and per-location pricing keeps a multi-store group cheap. You also get basic labor-cost forecasting against sales. It is the natural pick for an owner watching every dollar who still wants sales-aware scheduling without a 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 or laundry-card 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 - which matters when one attendant opens and another closes a long day. For owners who want auto-suggested coverage tied to turn data and clean labor guardrails, Deputy earns its price.
5. 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, which keeps a small attendant crew aligned on machine issues and supply runs.
For a single store or small group that wants one cheap app for both the schedule and team messaging, Sling covers a lot of ground. It is lighter on sales-forecasting than Deputy, so you supply the headcount targets and it handles publishing and coverage.
6. 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 store and any sister locations. Beyond scheduling, it bundles checklists, training, and a full deskless-employee communication hub, so it doubles as an operations app for opening and closing checklists, machine-fault reports, and onboarding attendants who never touch a computer.
For owners who want scheduling plus daily task management in one inexpensive package, Connecteam is hard to beat on breadth per dollar.
7. Findmyshift
Findmyshift is a browser-based scheduler priced flat at roughly $35 per month per team of up to 20 staff, with no per-user creep. It is straightforward drag-and-drop scheduling with timesheets, shift reminders, and reporting, and the flat team price suits a laundromat with a stable attendant roster where you do not want head counts on the bill.
It is light on sales forecasting, so you bring the gross-profit math, but for simple, predictable scheduling at a fixed monthly cost it is a clean choice.
8. Workforce.com
Workforce.com (formerly Tanda) runs about $4 per user per month and targets the multi-location, hourly-heavy operator. It excels at demand-driven scheduling, wage-cost forecasting, and compliance across jurisdictions, with live labor-versus-sales tracking through the day. It is a step up in sophistication and is built for groups with enough stores that labor compliance and real-time cost control become daily concerns.
If you run a chain of attended laundromats and want labor managed to the minute, this is the operator-grade choice.
9. Snap Schedule
Snap Schedule is desktop and cloud employee-scheduling software aimed at small operators, sold as a one-time desktop license around $450 or a cloud plan from roughly $3 per employee per month. It handles rotation patterns, overtime tracking, and coverage reports, which suits a store running fixed open and close rotations.
It is light on POS-driven forecasting, so you bring the gross-profit math, but for an owner who likes structured shift rotations and a one-time-purchase option it is worth a look.
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, multi-site coverage, and heavy compliance, which is more than a laundromat needs. It lands at number ten for the typical store precisely because it is built for scale and complexity beyond a standard small group - but if you operate a large attended-laundry network with intricate coverage rules, it is worth a look.
How to Choose
- Start with the method, not the app. Agree on a per-attendant daily 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) wins for several small attended stores; per-user pricing (When I Work, Deputy) wins when each store runs a lean, stable attendant pool.
- Demand a POS or card-system connection if you want auto-suggested coverage - Deputy and Workforce.com tie staffing to turns and 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 at your stores, then decide whether to pay for execution features.
- Decide attended versus unattended by the number. If a day's attended gross profit does not clear one attendant's target, run that block unattended and put the labor where the wash-and-fold actually rings.
FAQ
How do I set the daily gross-profit-per-attendant target for a laundromat? Base it on the gross profit an attendant actually drives - wash-and-fold, vending, oversight, add-ons - not the self-serve machine income that rings with or without staff. Many stores land between $120 and $200 a day for an attendant; set it with your manager so it is a shared yardstick and revisit it once or twice a year.
Should I run any shifts unattended? Yes, when the math says so. If a midday weekday block does not generate enough attended gross profit to clear one attendant's target, run it unattended or on cameras and concentrate labor on the weekend mornings and weekday evenings where wash-and-fold and traffic actually pay for a body.
What if a location's gross profit swings a lot week to week? Use a trailing three-to-six-month average by day of week to smooth the noise, and schedule to that baseline. For known spikes - the first of the month, big game weekends, the post-holiday comforter rush - add a manual bump on top of the calculated count rather than letting one wild week distort the whole average.
Why staff to gross profit instead of foot traffic or a fixed headcount? Foot traffic and "we've always run two" do not pay the labor bill, and much of a laundromat's traffic is self-serve that needs no attendant - attended gross profit does. Tying headcount to gross profit guarantees every scheduled attendant is covered by real margin and forces the conversation about which days 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-rep-target method in your browser at no cost, and Homebase is the Best Value for laundromats thanks to per-location pricing and a free tier. Whichever you choose, the method wins: set a per-attendant daily gross-profit target, divide each store's daily attended gross profit by it to get headcount, and place those shifts where the turns and the wash-and-fold 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.
- Sling - free and paid plan details, getsling.com.
- Connecteam - plan pricing and deskless-employee features, connecteam.com.
- Findmyshift - flat-rate team scheduling pricing, findmyshift.com.
- Workforce.com - labor forecasting and pricing, workforce.com.
- Snap Schedule - desktop and cloud scheduling pricing, snapschedule.com.