Helm Shift, screen by screen.
This is the whole tool, explained plainly — from sign-up to your first published schedule, plus inventory, labour cost, sick-call coverage, the AI assistant, and what your team sees on their phones. Everything lives in one login and works alongside any POS. No app to install, no system to rip out.
Getting started — set up the same day.
Book a free 30-minute walkthrough or email Tyler. While we're small, every restaurant is set up personally, so you'll have your setup code and your account the same day. No card and no contract, and your first 30 days are free. Once you're in, Helm Shift asks four quick questions about your restaurant, then drops you on a dashboard with a four-step checklist that walks you the rest of the way. Each step takes under a minute.
Your dashboard — the whole week at a glance.
Every time you log in, the dashboard tells you what needs you today and nothing you don't. Up top, anything urgent — a critically low item, an open sick call, a time-off request to approve — sits in a Needs attention strip you can act on with one tap. Below it, four numbers: active staff, shifts this week, this week's labour cost, and inventory items with how many are below par.
Building the schedule — AI drafts it, you decide.
This is the heart of it. Tap Build this week and Helm Shift drafts a full schedule from everyone's availability, time-off, and target hours. The builder lays your team out as rows across the days of the week — tap a shift to change the hours, drag it to a different person or day, and the labour estimate updates live. Nothing is published until you say so. The AI suggests, you decide — it never commits a schedule on its own.
Sick calls & swaps — coverage without the 6 AM scramble.
When someone calls in sick, Helm Shift flags the open shift and suggests the best replacement — someone who's available, qualified, and under their target hours. You approve with one tap and they're notified. Staff can also post and pick up shifts themselves in a shared pool, and no two people can ever claim the same slot.
Inventory — counted by your team, flagged when it's low.
Helm Shift isn't a perpetual inventory system — it doesn't watch stock deplete as you sell, and it doesn't connect to your POS. It reflects the counts your team enters, three ways: tapping the steppers, running a quick weekly count, or snapping a photo of the shelf for the AI to read. Whenever your latest count lands below par, that item flags Low — and Critical at the critical line — on your dashboard, where one tap starts the supplier order. Nothing changes your numbers but your team, and every change is logged.
Labour cost — see the week's number before you publish.
As you build the schedule, Helm Shift adds up the cost in real time — total for the week, and a breakdown by day — so an expensive week shows up before payroll, not after. Unassigned open shifts are kept separate so your totals stay honest. It's the kind of number the big platforms charge hundreds a month to show you; here it's just part of the page.
The AI assistant — it already knows your restaurant.
Tucked in the corner is an assistant you can ask in plain English — "who could cover Friday dinner?", "how should I think about this week's labour?" Tell it what's going on in your restaurant and it works through the problem with you and drafts the next step. As everywhere else in Helm Shift, it suggests; you're the one who hits send.
Your team's phone — no app, no password.
Once you publish, your staff open a phone-friendly link and see exactly their week — colour-coded by shift type, with the hours and any notes. They request time off and set their future availability right there, so you stop fielding texts at midnight. No app store, no password to reset. (A dedicated mobile app is coming soon; anyone who prefers email can get the schedule that way instead.)
All of it shares one login — and your POS stays put.
Scheduling, sick-call coverage, inventory, labour cost, and the assistant aren't five apps bolted together — they're one system with one set of data, which is why the schedule you build and the labour it costs are the same screen, and why the assistant can answer about staff and stock in the same breath. It runs alongside any POS — Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, or none — with nothing to rip out and nothing to integrate. One login, at a price an independent owner can actually justify.
The questions owners ask first.
Does Helm Shift work with my POS?
Is it really one tool for scheduling, inventory, and labour cost?
Will my staff need to install an app?
How does the AI actually decide things?
Is my data safe, and who can see it?
Is it really free for 30 days?
What if it doesn't work for my restaurant?
Set it up this week.
Say hi, get set up the same day, and have a published schedule before the next shift. No card required, and the founder walks every new restaurant through it personally.
Start free for 30 days—no card requiredThe founder
Built by someone who worked the floor.
Helm Shift is built in Halifax by Tyler MacDougall, who worked restaurants as a line cook, dishwasher, and host before building the tool he wished those owners had. When you email support, you're emailing him, and he answers the same day.