From Excel and WhatsApp to a scheduling app in about 10 minutes

Most small teams do not need to replace a tool. They need to stop retyping the same week every Sunday night. If your schedule lives in Excel and the changes live in a WhatsApp group, this is the shortest honest path to an app. Plan for about ten minutes the first time; most of it is checking that the names were read correctly. We will publish a measured median once we have enough real setups.

Before you start

You need the roster you use today, in any form: a photo of the paper sheet, a screenshot of the spreadsheet, or a PDF. You also need the phone numbers of your team, which you probably already have in the group chat.

The steps

1. Create the business. Pick your business type (restaurant, shop, care home and so on). It pre-fills typical positions and shift templates, which you can change.
2. Photograph your current roster. Take a photo, a screenshot or upload a PDF. The app reads names, days and shift times and shows them in a review screen.
3. Fix what it misread. Handwriting and merged cells are where mistakes happen. Correct a cell and confirm; nothing is imported until you do.
4. Say how many people each shift needs. For example two in the kitchen and three in the dining room for dinner, one fewer on Tuesday. You do this once.
5. Add your rules. Start from the presets, such as a minimum of 11 or 12 hours between shifts, or type a rule in your own words and confirm the card the app shows you.
6. Invite the team. Send the invite link by WhatsApp or SMS, or show a QR code. Employees join with their phone number and see their shifts immediately. Employees never pay.
7. Build the week, check it, publish. One tap builds next week. Each assignment says why it was made, and gaps are highlighted. Change what you want, then publish.

What maps to what

Honest differences

• Excel is free and infinitely flexible. The app is free up to 5 employees; up to 10 employees it is a flat 8.49 EUR a month, and above that 1.99 EUR per employee, billed in bands. If your schedule never changes, a spreadsheet may be enough.
• Your team needs a phone to get the full experience. People who will not install anything can still open a share link or receive the schedule as an image.
• Not everything in a complicated sheet survives the import. Formulas, notes in margins and merged cells need a human look. That is why the review screen exists.
• WhatsApp can stay. Keep chatting there if you like. The schedule and the change requests simply live in one place.
• Local rules are defaults, not legal advice. Check your collective agreement.

After the first week

Look at the hours summary against what you expected, then turn on the weekly submissions if you have part-timers, so people offer the slots they can work before you build. When you are ready, try the work hours calculator to sanity-check a tricky week.