The only trade whose day ends at 2:30 in the morning.

A bar closes when most software thinks the week is over. Helm Shift ships with a close that runs past midnight, shift names your team already uses, and drinks costed from what each bottle costs you, the way your bar actually runs.

Book your free setup call See how it works

The late-close problem

Your week does not end at eleven.

Most scheduling tools think in Lunch and Dinner. A bar does not work that way: the opener comes in late morning to set up, the push starts at eight, and close runs past midnight. The shift dropdown offers you Lunch and Dinner and stops at eleven, an hour or three before your actual close.

So the schedule gets done on paper, and the paper gets lost.

From the first shift

Set up as a bar.

A close that runs past midnight

Opening starts at eleven in the morning and Close runs to 2:30am. The week boundary is handled properly, so a Saturday that ends on Sunday still belongs to Saturday.

Shift names your team already uses

Opening, Afternoon, Evening and Close, not Lunch and Dinner, so the schedule reads the way your staff talk about the week.

Roles a bar actually has

Bartender, Barback, Door and Bar Manager are suggested when you add your team, alongside the server and the line cook.

Friday to Sunday

Cover, the drinks menu, and the cost of a late week.

Fills a shift when a bartender drops. Sick call at six on a Friday: Helm Shift ranks who is available, who is under their hours, and who has covered before, so you are calling one person instead of eight.

Costed by the pour. Tell Helm Shift what a bottle costs you, and every cocktail built from it carries its own cost against its price.

Shows labour cost as you build the week. The number moves while you schedule, so a heavy Saturday is a decision rather than a surprise.

The week on every phone. Staff see their shifts, request time off and pick up open shifts from a phone-friendly link, with no app to install.

How to judge it

Run it against one real weekend.

Helm Shift was built in Halifax and is open to independent bars and pubs across Nova Scotia and Ontario. The 30 days are free and there is no card, so schedule a genuine Friday and Saturday in it and cost your cocktail list on Sunday. One weekend is the honest test.

Try it on next weekend.

Plans start at $29.99 CAD a month. Works alongside whatever POS you already use.

Book your free setup call How the four setups differ