Are you tired of manually creating employee schedules using Google Sheets or Excel? Well, we have good news for you! There is now a better solution that will make the process faster and more efficient. With a free employee scheduling software like Homebase, you can easily create detailed and professional schedules that can be instantly shared with your team.
Let’s explore the advantages of using Homebase for scheduling compared to using employee schedule templates in Google Sheets or Excel.
1. How to Use a Team Schedule Template in Google Sheets or Excel
While using modern scheduling software is the easiest and fastest way to create employee schedules, we understand that some of you still prefer to use traditional spreadsheets. Here are the best methods for creating schedules using templates in Google Sheets and Excel.
Creating a Team Schedule with Google Sheets
To create a team schedule in Google Sheets, follow these steps:
- Go to “Google Drive.”
- Click on “New,” hover over the arrow next to “Google Sheets,” and choose “From a Template.”
- On the next page, the template gallery will appear. Choose “Employee Schedule.”
- Customize the template to your liking. Google’s template includes a monthly overview and weekly schedules.
- Personalize your color palette and, if desired, add your logo. This will give your schedule a more professional look and only takes a few minutes.
- Build your schedule.
Creating a Team Schedule with Excel
Here’s how you can create a team schedule in Excel:
- Go to “File” and then “New from Template.”
- In the search bar at the top right of the “Template Gallery,” search for “schedule.”
- Scroll down, and you will see a template called “Weekly Employee Schedule.”
- Double-click on the template, and a new spreadsheet with that template will open.
- Customize your template by highlighting cells and changing background colors to match your company’s image.
- Add your logo. Go to “Insert” and “Image.” This quick step will add a personal touch.
- Add your employees’ names and build your schedule.
Please note that you will have to repeat these steps every time you want to create a new schedule. It can be quite a manual process, right? So let’s take a look at a simpler method that will save you a lot of time in the long run: using Homebase to schedule your employees.
How to Use Homebase to Automatically Create Your Employee Schedule
Using Homebase is the easiest way to create a work schedule. In just a few simple steps, you can have your schedule ready to be shared. And the best part? It’s free!
Here’s how you can automatically create your schedule using Homebase:
- First, create employee roles. Click on “Schedule” in the main menu and then “Departments/Roles.” Next, click on the green “Add New Department” button.
- Type in the box to create new roles or scroll down to select existing ones. Then, give the department a name as you see fit.
- Now, set up your employees’ auto-scheduling rules. Click on the “Team” tab in the main menu to view your list of employees. Click on any employee to open their profile.
- Find the “Auto-scheduling Rules” at the bottom of the “Job Details” page. Assign the employee their maximum weekly hours, seniority, and roles.
- If you have your team members’ availability information, you can set it up. Go back to the “Schedule” tab and this time, click on “Team Availability.”
- You will see a table where rows represent employees and columns represent days of the week. Each cell is a potential time slot. Click on a cell and select “Not available” to indicate that an employee can’t work during that time.
- Now, it’s time to create weekly schedule templates. Inside the “Schedule” tab, select a week.
- On top of the table, there is a row called “Open Shifts.” Click on a cell in that row to add the roles you need for that time slot.
- Go to “Tools” at the top of the “Schedule” page and select “Templates” from the dropdown menu. Give your weekly schedule template a name and click “Create.”
- Now, let’s get to the exciting part! Go to the week you want to automate and go to “Templates” in the “Tools” dropdown menu again. Choose the template you want to work with and click “Apply.”
- Do you see the magic wand icon in the “Open Shifts” cell? Click on it, and presto! Your schedule is ready.
- Make any necessary adjustments and click the “Publish” button.
And there you have it! All the schedules you need are ready and operational for the upcoming weeks.
Why Switch from Google Sheets and Excel to Homebase
If you’re used to using Google Sheets or Excel, transitioning to an application like Homebase may seem intimidating. Learning something new takes time, after all.
But scheduling apps like Homebase have been designed with small business owners like you in mind. They are easy to use and intuitive enough to be learned with minimal assistance, so you won’t have any trouble getting used to it.
Once you make the switch, scheduling with Homebase offers numerous advantages compared to using traditional spreadsheets. One of our customers even said they could never go back to paper scheduling once they started using Homebase because it saved them hours of work every week.
“I could never go back to paper management. It would take hours a day.”
- Troy, General Manager at Carefree Boats
Here are some concrete ways Homebase can help you with employee scheduling:
1. Save Time on Repetitive Tasks
No business owner wants to spend hours filling out spreadsheets. Homebase allows you to automate repetitive tasks while also providing the flexibility to quickly make changes to your schedule to meet your business needs. This gives you more time for important activities like sales strategies and advertising campaigns.
2. Avoid Unnecessary Costs
Homebase helps you reduce costs in ways ordinary spreadsheets can’t:
- You’ll receive notifications when an employee is about to exceed their overtime hours.
- You won’t have to pay someone else to create a weekly schedule for you (or scramble to find replacements for your shifts so you can find time to create one yourself).
- The Homebase app goes beyond scheduling and helps you monitor sales and labor costs to uncover additional money-saving opportunities.
3. Fine-tune Your Staffing Schedule Effortlessly
Analyzing a Google Sheets spreadsheet in detail requires a lot of focus. With Homebase, all the information you need about your business is presented clearly and intuitively. You can easily take into account employee availability, seniority, and roles — accurately tracking your employees’ working hours.
4. Improve Communication
Unlike Google Sheets and Excel, dedicated scheduling apps also serve as excellent team communication tools. Homebase allows you to publish your schedule in the app, so employees can access it on the go, even on their mobile devices.
You can quickly notify employees of any schedule changes, especially last-minute changes. The Homebase app always shows real-time updates, so nobody has to wait for a message.
5. Access Additional Features and Integrations
Schedule templates don’t have to stop there. Homebase offers a variety of other free features that integrate with scheduling, such as timesheets and clocks. The platform can also integrate with other software you use to manage your business, such as point-of-sale systems, payroll software, job boards, and general business tools.
Get Started with Homebase for Free
Gone are the days of meticulously filling out Excel schedule templates cell by cell. Now you can download powerful and user-friendly apps like Homebase to manage your entire scheduling process.
This isn’t to say that Google Docs and Microsoft Excel don’t have their uses. However, their functionality is rather limited when it comes to managing a growing and fast-paced business. Homebase offers a range of features to assist you in scheduling, including workflow automation, detailed configurations, and specialized templates. Once you try it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.
So what are you waiting for? Try Homebase today and simplify your employee scheduling process.
