Restaurant software for Ontario’s independents.
Helm Shift is scheduling, inventory 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 finished software at an independent’s price, 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, count your own stock, and see whether the labour figure tells you something you did not already know.
The schedule, the stock, 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 and no password to lose.
Inventory without the spreadsheet
Count on your phone by pasting straight from whatever list you already keep. Par levels flag what is running low, and the order to your supplier builds itself from the gap.
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.
It also compares what each location pays for the same product, so two rooms buying identical stock at different prices stops being invisible. 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 $49, Starter $99, Professional $199, Enterprise $349, all Canadian dollars per month. 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
Ontario setup is a guided 30-minute call: we import your staff list, your top inventory items and your suppliers together. The founder is in Halifax, so we are not going to pretend we will drive to your door, but your email gets a same-day answer from him.
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.