Every location keeps its own spreadsheet.
Five managers, five ways of doing it, and nobody can see who's working where across the whole company.
For growing organizations
Every location runs its own way. Plan them all in one place.
Give each location its own rules, and write the ones that apply everywhere once. People can work across sites when you allow it, hours can count across every location with one rule for all of them, and everyone sees their shifts in their own calendar.
How your business runs
One schedule became five.
Growth changes the job. One owner with one schedule becomes an operations lead with five, each location run by its own manager with its own hours and habits. Some people work at two sites, crews move between yards, and a new location opens with half its staff borrowed from the others.
The rules multiply too. Each site has its own: the downtown store closes at 9, the pool needs four guards, the north yard starts at 6. Some apply everywhere, like keeping everyone under 40 hours across all locations. And as headcount grows, some cities' scheduling laws start to apply, counted across the whole company rather than one location.
Staff, shift leads and area managers Every location, yard and center Trucks, vans and shared equipment
MMain StreetA shift lead at every close EElm StreetOnly staff trained here DDowntownTwo on the floor, 5 to 9 RRiversideOpening Nov 2 Every location: under 40 hours, all counted
Where scheduling breaks
Five ways more locations mean more mess.
Most growing companies run each location from its own spreadsheet. That works until people start moving between them.
People float, and nobody adds it up.
Someone opens at one site and closes at another. Each manager sees half the week, and the total turns up later on the timesheet.
Rules drift from site to site.
The closing rule at one store isn't the rule at the next, and a policy from the main office never quite reaches the newest location.
A new location borrows from the old ones.
Opening week pulls your best people away from their home sites, and the sites they left run short.
The laws change as you grow.
Some cities' scheduling laws count every employee or location company-wide, and notice periods and rest between shifts differ from city to city.
Say how it works
Your rules, in plain words.
Tell OnlineScheduling how your locations work, the way you'd tell a new operations manager. It reads each rule back, and nothing changes until you confirm.
A rule can cover every location or just one, and every schedule is checked against both. The owner sees every location, and each manager sees the ones they've been given.
Say “always” or “try to,” and it knows which rules can bend.
A rule in plain words
“Across every location, nobody works more than 40 hours a week.”
Every location this week Week of Oct 12
MonTueWedThuFri
Main St
Elm St
Downtown
Riverside
Priya
Under 40 hours, all locations counted
Your five building blocks
Five building blocks, across every location.
Every schedule is made of the same five pieces. Here's what they look like across several sites.
What you schedule
StaffShift leadsArea managersEvery locationYards and centersTrucks and vansShared equipment
When it's needed
Shifts at each locationCross-site coverageA new location's first weeksA seasonal push
Who's on it
Priya, a shift lead at Main Street, closes Elm Street on Thursday because she's trained there.
When it's not free
Time offA location closed for a remodelA truck at another yard
Classes and appointments show as busy time, from each person's own calendar.
How it works here
Rules for each location, plus the rules that apply to all of them. “Across every location, nobody works more than 40 hours a week.”
When plans change
A new location, staffed from the ones you have.
Riverside, your fourth location, opens Monday, Nov 2. You say “Riverside opens Nov 2. For the first two weeks, borrow two experienced people each from Main Street and Elm Street.” Theo and Ava come from Main Street, Sam and Lena from Elm Street, each trained for the job they'll do, and their home shifts go to people who asked for more hours.
One move would leave Main Street without a shift lead at Friday's close. You hear which rule it breaks and why, and Ava stays home that night. Every change shows up in each person's own calendar.
Riverside opens Nov 2. For the first two weeks, borrow two experienced people each from Main Street and Elm Street.
Done. Theo and Ava come from Main Street, and Sam and Lena from Elm Street, each trained for the job they'll do. Their home shifts go to Kai and Noah, who asked for more hours.
One conflict: moving Ava on Friday would leave Main Street without a shift lead at close. Keep her at Main Street that night?
One location closes. The others pick up.
A storm closes Elm Street on Saturday. You say “Elm is closed Saturday.” Elm's staff who are trained at other locations move there, inside everyone's hours across all locations, and the rest of Elm's Saturday shifts come off the schedule. Each change is on the record.
Built for your industry
See it in your line of work.
Each industry page tells a fuller story. Here is how each one looks across several sites.
Restaurants Three stores in one account, with staff who can pick up shifts at another location when a rule allows it. Read the restaurants story Recreation centers Several centers and pools in one account, each with its own rules. Read the recreation centers story Hotels A management company running several hotels, each with its own rules. Read the hotels story Delivery fleets More than one yard or depot in one account, and peak season across all of them. Read the delivery fleets story Landscaping Crews, trucks and gear across every job, and a rain day that moves them all. Read the landscaping story Sports fields A town's fields, crews and referees across every park. Read the sports fields story
Ask your assistant
Ask from any location. Everyone sees it in their calendar.
Connect OnlineScheduling to the AI assistant you already use, like ChatGPT, Claude and Muse, and schedule by asking. Staff at every location connect their own calendar from a phone or computer browser, so their shifts show up where they already look. No app to download.
Your AI assistant Connected to OnlineScheduling
Who can close Elm Street Thursday? Only people trained there. Priya and Sam are trained at Elm Street and free Thursday evening. Priya stays under 40 hours across all locations. Book her? Yes. How many hours is Theo working this week across all locations? 34 hours: 26 at Main Street and 8 at Elm Street. Add a rule for every location: nobody works more than 40 hours a week. Here's how I read it: across every location, nobody works more than 40 hours a week. Add it?
OnlineScheduling · nowPriya's calendar updated: Thursday, Close, Elm Street, 4:00 p.m.
OnlineScheduling · nowPriya's calendar updated: Thursday, Close, Elm Street, 4:00 p.m.Google Calendar Apple Calendar Outlook
Questions
Multi-location questions, answered.
Something else on your mind? Ask when you request access. We read every request ourselves.
Can each location have its own rules?
Yes. Each location has its own rules, and global rules apply to every location.
Can each manager see only their own locations?
Yes. Access is passed down: the owner sees everything, and each manager sees what their supervisor gives them access to.
Can people work at more than one location?
Yes, when a rule allows it. They can then be scheduled at, and pick up shifts at, those locations.
Do hours count across locations?
Yes, when it's a global rule for the whole organization, like “Nobody works more than 40 hours a week across every location.” You can also ask your assistant how many hours someone is working across all locations.
Our locations are in different cities with different scheduling laws. Can it handle that?
Write each city's requirements as rules for the locations they cover, like “At our Chicago locations, schedules go out 14 days ahead.” Every schedule is checked against them.
Can we see every location in one place?
Yes. All your locations are in one account, with one view across them.
Can we start from the spreadsheets each location uses now?
Yes. Upload what each location already has.
Do staff need an app?
No. Each person needs an account, then connects their own calendar from a phone or computer browser.
Request access
Bring us your hardest multi-site rule.
We're opening access in stages. Tell us how your locations run, and we'll reply within one business day.
1Tell us how you schedule.
2We read every request ourselves.
3We reply within one business day.
Your hardest rule, for example “Nobody works more than 40 hours a week across all locations.”
Tell us who you are, what you schedule and the rule your current tool can't handle. It's one short form.
Request access