Helm Shift is now operating in Ontario. See what’s included →

Run your restaurant.
Not your spreadsheets.

Try Helm Shift free for 30 days, no card. Scheduling, inventory, and an AI-powered operations assistant, unified in one platform built for the pace of a working kitchen.

Book your free setup call Book a 30-min walkthrough
A small restaurant team working the evening pass
Helm ShiftRun the whole restaurant from one login.
Auto-fill builds the week from availability. Tap to tweak, then Save & publish.
Same day Guided setup
From $49 CAD/mo Independent restaurant pricing
Free · 30 days No card required

Set up in minutes, not weeks.

Here's what it looks like.

The Helm Shift schedule builder with a full week auto-filled
The week, built in minutesAuto-fill drafts the schedule from availability. You tweak, then publish.
 A sick call in Helm Shift showing ranked cover suggestions
Sick calls, coveredRanked cover suggestions the moment someone calls in. One tap resolves it.
 Helm Shift inventory with low-stock items flagged
Low stock flags itselfCounts on a phone, alerts before service, reorder from the same screen.

Watch the full tour, about a minute, on How it works →

Book your free setup call

Free for the first 30 days. No credit card. We set it up with you.

Why we built it this way.

Still running on paper, texts, and gut feel?

You are not behind, most independents run this way. Helm Shift replaces the binder and the group chat without changing how you cook or serve.

  • The schedule builds itself from availability. You approve it.
  • Inventory counts happen on a phone in the walk-in.
  • Alerts reach you before service, not after the damage.

Already juggling a pile of apps?

A scheduler here, a spreadsheet there, a group chat for sick calls. Helm Shift is one login where the pieces actually talk to each other.

  • Scheduling, sick-call cover and the staff phone app from $49 CAD a month.
  • Add inventory, recipes and labour reporting from $99. One bill either way.
  • Works alongside any POS. Nothing to swap, nothing to integrate.
Works alongside any POS Same-day guided setup Free for 30 days, no card Built in Halifax
Book your free setup call

Free for the first 30 days. No credit card. We set it up with you.

Built for independent operators.

One platform underneath, in the language your room actually uses. Each setup arrives with its own shifts, categories and units, so the first week you build already looks like your week.

Restaurants

Schedules, sick-call cover, inventory and food cost in one login.

Available now
Bars & pubs

Late closes past midnight, keg and bottle counts, and cover when a bartender drops.

Available now
Cafes

Early opens, standing milk and bean orders, and deliveries that arrive short.

Available now
Pizza shops

Prep blocks before service, dough and cheese counts, and the dinner rush.

Available now

Run one of these? Pick your trade during setup and it arrives configured. Run something else? Tell us how your week works.

Contact us
Pricing

Simple pricing. No surprises.

Month-to-month billing. No long-term contracts. Cancel anytime.

Schedule & team
Lite

For the smallest kitchens, up to 15 staff and one location, who just need the schedule and team handled.

$ 49
CAD · per month · month-to-month
Includes
AI weekly schedule + drag-and-drop editor
Staff phone view: schedule, own availability, shift swaps & trades, time off, pool, team messaging
Live labour cost as you build the schedule
Sick-call cover suggestions, ranked by availability and reliability
Shift notes + Ask Helm assistant (scheduling & staff)
Up to 15 staff · 1 location

Everything a small team needs to run the week. Outgrowing it? Starter adds inventory in one click. Compare plans

Book your free setup call
Adds cost control
Starter

For one location adding inventory and cost control on top of the schedule, up to 50 staff.

$ 99 $149
CAD · per month · month-to-month
Everything in Lite, plus
Inventory management, low-stock alerts, supplier ordering
Menus & recipes
Labour cost reports
Up to 50 staff · 1 location
Email support + guided onboarding

Most features, for a growing team. Running more than one room? Professional adds locations and forecasting. Compare plans

Book your free setup call
Most popular
Professional

For owner-operators growing past one location, with consolidated costs, analytics, and unlimited staff.

$ 199 $249
CAD · per month · month-to-month
Everything in Starter, plus
Multi-location (up to 3)
Consolidated labour & food cost
Forecast & analytics
Payroll CSV export
Unlimited staff

Unlimited staff, three locations, and the analytics to run them by the numbers. Compare plans

Book your free setup call →
For groups
Enterprise

For restaurant groups past three locations, with setup handled in person.

$ 349 $399
CAD · per month · month-to-month
Everything in Professional, plus
Unlimited locations
Custom onboarding + white-glove setup

Unlimited rooms, set up with you in person. Single location? Professional covers you for less. Compare plans

Contact us
Compare all four plans in detail →
Priced for the independent restaurant.
$49 CAD/month gets your schedule and team handled. $99 adds inventory and cost control, all in one login. Month-to-month. Cancel anytime. No card required to start.
Helm, the AI assistant inside Helm Shift
Meet Helm

This is Helm. He's the AI inside.

He's not just a mascot. Helm is the AI assistant working behind every screen of Helm Shift: he drafts your week's schedule, suggests cover when someone calls in sick, watches your stock levels and builds your supplier cart, and answers questions about your operation in plain language.

Helm does the heavy lifting. You always make the final call.

Meet him properly, explore the AI Assistant →
Explore the platform

Go deeper on each piece.

Full walkthroughs of every module, and straight answers to the questions independent owners ask most.

Scheduling
AI-drafted weekly schedules with live labour cost, built around staff availability.
Explore →
Inventory
Staff flag what's low; flagged items become a supplier cart, ready to review and send. Plus menus & recipes.
Explore →
AI Assistant
An assistant for the whole operation, ask it anything, from staffing to suppliers.
Explore →
FAQ
Pricing, setup, POS compatibility, data privacy, the questions owners ask before booking.
Explore →
The problem

Independent restaurants run on gut instinct.

Scheduling happens in texts and notebooks
Hours wasted every week building the schedule, handling last-minute changes, and chasing confirmations from staff.
Inventory is managed by memory
No simple way to know what's actually on the shelf before the next order goes in. Counts live in someone's head, or on a clipboard.
Labour costs are invisible until payroll runs
No way to see what you're spending on staff until it's already happened. No comparison to revenue. Just a number at the end of the week.
The platforms that solve this aren't priced for independents
Most operations software costs $500–$2,000/month and assumes you have a dedicated IT team. Out of reach for most owner-operators.
Before Helm Shift
×Schedule built in a notebook every week
×Inventory counted by walking the kitchen
×Labour cost only visible after the fact
×No alerts when stock drops dangerously low
×Operations questions go to Google, or nowhere
With Helm Shift
✓AI-drafted weekly schedule in minutes
✓Inventory your staff flag from their phones
✓Labour cost estimated before you publish
✓Low-stock flags routed to the manager + an AI cart
✓AI assistant built for restaurant operations
Tyler MacDougall, founder of Helm Shift

I spent just over a year working as a dishwasher, a host, and a line cook, and what stuck with me was how much friction there was in the day to day, for the owners and the staff both. And that was a chain, with a system in place. The independent spots run on spreadsheets and gut feeling. So I built Helm Shift for them.

Tyler MacDougall Founder, Helm Shift · Halifax, NS
Read our story: it started behind the line →
FAQ

Honest answers, before you book a call.

How long does setup actually take?
Setup takes about 30 minutes, and you can be scheduling the same day. We import your staff list, your top-50 inventory items, and your supplier contacts during a 30-minute guided onboarding. You're scheduling shifts and tracking inventory before service that night.
Do I have to switch off my POS?
No. Helm Shift sits alongside whatever you use to ring sales, Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, whatever. We don't compete with your POS; we replace the spreadsheets, group chats, and sticky notes around it.
What happens after the 30-day free trial?
You pick a plan or you walk. No card required to start, so there's nothing to cancel. If you stay, billing is month-to-month, cancel anytime, keep your data export.
Will my staff actually use it?
Staff check their schedule and request time off from their phone browser. No app to install today, a dedicated app is coming. Managers run the rest from a tablet or laptop. We design for the pace of a working kitchen, not for desk workers.
How is this different from other restaurant software?
Most operations software is priced and built for chains, at $500 to $2,000 a month with implementation teams and required integrations. Helm Shift is built for an owner-operator running one to three locations: plans from $49 CAD/month, set up in a day, scheduling and your team in one login, with inventory and an AI assistant as you grow. We're not trying to replace your POS, we replace the spreadsheets and group chats around it.
Is my data safe? Who can see it?
Your data is encrypted both in storage and when it moves across the internet. Each restaurant's data is walled off, one restaurant can never see another's. You own it. Export anytime as CSV. We never sell or share it, and we never use your operational data to train AI models. The companies that host our database and serve our app meet industry-standard security certifications. Read our full privacy policy.
What if I have multiple locations?
Professional supports up to 3 locations. Enterprise is unlimited. Each location has its own staff, inventory, and supplier list, but you see consolidated labour % and food cost across all of them in one view.

See it running on your restaurant.

Book a free 30-minute demo. We'll walk through scheduling, inventory, and the AI assistant, live, using your operation as the example.

Book your free setup call Book a 30-min walkthrough
Starting at $49 CAD/month
30-day free trial
Independent restaurants