v13
2026-07-21
Receipts · schedule by email
Snap the receipt, email the week.
Added
- Receipt capture, take a photo of a delivery receipt and the AI reads the lines into suggested stock updates. You review every line before anything changes, same rule as always.
- Schedule by email, anyone on your team who prefers email can now get their week sent to them automatically every time you publish. One checkbox on their profile, that's it.
Improved
- A speed and accessibility pass across the app and this site, faster page loads, clearer error messages, better keyboard and screen-reader support, and a lighter first visit.
v12
2026-07-17
Locations · voice · smarter reorders
More locations, your voice, and reorders that do math.
Added
- Add locations yourself, Professional runs up to 3 locations and Enterprise has no cap. Add one from Settings, switch between them anywhere, and see labour and food cost across all of them in one view.
- Voice inventory, say "we're down to two bottles of olive oil" and it becomes a suggested stock update. You review and apply it, nothing changes on its own.
- Push notifications, turn them on and urgent items like a last-minute sick call reach your phone even when the app is closed.
Improved
- Reorder suggestions now do real math, they watch how fast you actually go through each item over the last four weeks, how much gets logged as waste, and your par levels, then size the suggestion to roughly two weeks of cover.
- Smarter spreadsheet import, when your columns are ambiguous the AI proposes a mapping and shows you exactly what it guessed. You confirm before a single row imports.
v11
2026-07
Scheduling that knows your team
The schedule learns who's strong where.
Added
- Skill ratings, optionally rate staff 1 to 5 and the AI leans your stronger people onto the days your forecast says will be busy. Soft nudges only, never lock-outs.
- AI preferences, two plain-language notepads in Settings, one for scheduling, one for suppliers. Write "Marcus never closes Sundays" once and every AI draft respects it.
- Recurring supplier orders, save your standing weekly order once, then send it by email in one click. Sending is always your decision.
- Video tutorials, hosted by Helm, short walkthroughs of every screen at helmai.ca/how-it-works, presented by our robot host.
Improved
- Sick-call cover on your terms, ranked replacement suggestions now appear when you press "Find cover with AI", not before. Ask when you want the answer.
v10
2026-06-23
Lite plan
A plan for the smallest teams.
Added
- Helm Shift Lite, $49 CAD a month, the scheduling essentials for one location and up to 10 staff: the AI schedule builder, sick-call cover suggestions, the staff phone view, and Ask Helm. Exactly what a small place needs, nothing it doesn't.
- A clearer ladder, Starter adds inventory, menus, and labour reports, Professional adds multi-location and forecasting, Enterprise removes the caps. Compare them all at helmai.ca/compare-plans.
v9
2026-06-06
Transparency
Everything out in the open.
Added
- The complete guide, every screen of Helm Shift explained in plain language at helmai.ca/how-it-works. Understand the whole tool before it asks for your time or your card.
- A page for home, a dedicated page for Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canadian restaurants, where Helm Shift is built.
v8
2026-06-01
Smarter assistant · CAD
A smarter assistant and honest pricing.
Added
- Pricing in Canadian dollars, everywhere, every plan is now shown and billed in CAD. What you see is what your statement says, and HST stays simple.
Improved
- The in-app assistant got a sharper brain, the assistant that already knows your staff, stock, and schedule now runs on a faster, more capable AI. Same rule as always: it suggests, you decide.
v7
2026-05
Ready for real restaurants
Hardened, guided, and on your phone.
Added
- Guided first run, a short built-in tour on each screen the first time you open it, dismiss it once and it stays gone.
- In-app notification centre, time-off requests and team activity land in one bell, on every screen.
- Add to Home Screen, staff put Helm Shift on their phone like an app, no app store needed.
- Email-confirmed accounts and stronger sign-in, every new account is verified, and passwords meet a real standard.
Improved
- A full speed-and-reliability pass across the app, the schedule builder, and billing, the kind of work you don't see, you just stop noticing.
v6
2026-05-21
Easier scheduling
Build the week in a few taps.
Added
- A schedule anyone can run, every team member gets a row across the week. Tap a shift to change it, double-tap for exact hours, drag it onto anyone, any day. Nothing goes live until you save.
- Auto-fill from availability, one tap drafts the whole week around who can work and their target hours. You always review before publishing.
- A clean published view, your team sees a simple read-only schedule; you make changes in the builder.
Improved
- Plain-language screens, bigger buttons, clearer labels, and one-tap pop-ups for adding staff and inventory.
v5
2026-05-12
The Helm Shift release
A new name and the full platform.
Added
- Helm Shift, the product formerly known as Helm AI, relaunched with the two-tone wordmark you see today.
- The AI scheduler, drafts a full week of shifts in seconds around availability, time-off, and target hours. If the AI is ever unavailable, a simpler scheduler steps in so you're never blocked.
- Real billing, monthly, self-serve plan changes, and a 30-day free trial with no card on file. If a card ever declines, you get a friendly email with a one-tap fix, not a locked account.
- The staff app, Today, Schedule, Pool, Team, and Me on every phone. One-tap call-in-sick, availability your staff manage themselves, a shift pool where two people can't claim the same shift, and voice or photo inventory reports.
- Sick-call coverage, when someone calls in, Helm Shift suggests who can cover, ranked, with the reason for each suggestion. You approve with one tap.
v4
2026-05
AI vision & voice
Count by photo. Log by voice.
Added
- Photo counts, snap your walk-in and the AI reads what's on the shelf.
- Voice notes, say "we're out of limes" and it's logged.
- A full activity log for every AI action, so nothing happens behind your back.
v3
2026-05
Communications
The app learns to speak up.
Added
- Notifications, alerts that reach the right person reliably, by app and email.
- In-restaurant messages, managers and staff send short notes inside the app, not in a group chat at midnight.
v2
2026-05
Smarter scheduling
Swaps, conflicts, and coverage.
Added
- Shift swaps, staff request and accept swaps with no chance of a double-claim.
- Conflict detection, every added or moved shift is checked against double-booking.
- Daily coverage forecast, how many people each day actually needs, based on your history.
v1
2026-04
Mark one
The foundation.
Added
- From idea to working product in one season, Helm Shift was first sketched in January 2026 and became a working platform by spring. Everything below shipped since.
- The core platform, scheduling, inventory with par levels and suppliers, time-off, and team management in one login.
- Strict per-restaurant privacy, one restaurant's data can never be read by another. Built in from day one, not bolted on.
- Web and mobile foundations, built to live on the devices a restaurant actually uses.
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