Restaurant software for Ontario’s independents.
Helm Shift is scheduling, team and labour cost in one login, for owner-operators running one to three rooms. Built in Halifax, now open to independent restaurants across Ontario. Billed in Canadian dollars, and it runs alongside whatever POS you already have.
Run it against your own week.
Helm Shift was built in Halifax and opened to Ontario this month. It is priced for an independent, and the founder answers support himself.
The 30 days are free and there is no card, so the sensible way to evaluate it is on your own numbers: build next week’s schedule in it, cost your own menu, and see whether the labour figure tells you something you did not already know.
The schedule, the menu, and the labour number.
Scheduling that builds itself
Set who is available and Helm Shift drafts the week. Drag a shift, tap to change hours, publish once. Staff see their week on a phone-friendly link, request time off and pick up open shifts, with no app to install.
Menus costed per plate
Enter what each ingredient costs you once, and every dish you build a recipe for carries its food cost against its price, with a suggested price when the cost runs high.
Labour cost as you schedule
The labour number moves while you build the week, not three days after payroll. You see what a shift costs before you commit to it.
All your rooms, one view.
If you run more than one location, Helm Shift consolidates them on a single screen: labour cost and food cost across every room you pick, combined or one at a time, with each figure stating exactly which locations it covers so a combined number is never mistaken for a single-venue one.
Pick any set of your locations and the numbers recompute for that selection.
This shipped and is live today, not a roadmap item. Multi-location is on the Professional plan and up.
What working with us actually looks like.
CAD billing
Lite $29.99, Starter $49.99, Professional $119.99, Enterprise $249.99, all Canadian dollars per month, plus tax. No exchange-rate surprise on your statement, and HST stays simple.
Works alongside any POS
Keep whatever you use to ring sales. Helm Shift does not replace your POS and does not need access to it. It replaces the spreadsheets, group chats and sticky notes around it.
Setup is a video call
A guided 30-minute call: we import your staff list and your menu together, and you finish the call with a working schedule. Support is the founder’s own inbox, answered the same day from Halifax.
Try it on your own week.
Free for 30 days, no card required. If it does not save you the Sunday afternoon you currently spend on the schedule, walk away and keep your data.