ExpoShift FAQ

It's one app for the people side of running a restaurant — scheduling, staff availability and time-off, team messaging, shift handoffs and open-shift pickups (with manager approval where you want it), polls, recognition and rewards, your staff records, and even your equipment maintenance plan — instead of three apps, a group text, and a spreadsheet that never agree with each other.

Independent operators running roughly 20–100 staff who are still personally in the building. If you're the one fixing the schedule on your day off, this was built for you.

The patchwork: a paid scheduling app, a separate messaging tool, the availability spreadsheet, the "who's covering Saturday?" group text, the maintenance binder nobody opens, and the sticky notes on the office wall. One place your whole team actually opens.

Yes — it's an app on the App Store, and it also runs in a web browser for managers doing admin work at a desk. Staff get the same thing in their pocket.

One plan, everything included: $49/month per location, billed monthly. No feature tiers, no per-seat fees, no add-ons. It's month-to-month: cancel anytime, no contract. Questions? Email support@exposhift.com.

Yes. You can set up your restaurant, add your team, and run real schedules during the trial before you decide. No card games — if it's not saving you time, don't pay for it.

ExpoShift handles scheduling, availability, comms, recognition, and staff records today. POS and payroll connections are on the roadmap — tell us what you run (Toast, Square, Lightspeed, etc.) so we build the ones operators actually use first.

Yes. Your restaurant's data belongs to your restaurant — it is never sold or used for marketing, full stop. ExpoShift stores what running a team actually requires: names, positions, schedules and availability, an email address (that's how staff get invited to the app), and whatever you choose to keep on file — phone numbers, emergency contacts, certifications. ExpoShift doesn't collect wages today; if we add optional tools that use pay rates down the road (labor targets, payroll exports), that data will live under the same rules: yours, not ours. See our Privacy Policy; data requests go to privacy@exposhift.com.

Create your account on any web browser — no download needed to start. Add your positions, import your roster (a CSV or Excel file — there's a one-tap template), and publish your first week. Most operators are running a real schedule the same day.

Open the Work tab, tap Availability, and tap any open date to mark yourself unavailable. Submit before the weekly deadline — once a week locks, it's set.

Each week locks at 11:59pm on its submission deadline (the Sunday before, by default) so managers can build the schedule on settled availability. Past the deadline you'll see lock icons. Got a real conflict after lock? Message your manager directly.

Work tab → Schedule → My Shifts. Notifications about a published schedule drop you straight there.

Yes — this is the part your group text has been failing at. Tap your shift and choose Hand Off Shift to send it to one qualified teammate, or Put Up for Grabs to open it to everyone qualified for that position. You can offer just part of a shift — say, the second half when your kid's game runs long. Qualified teammates get a notification when something's up for grabs; first to claim it takes it. Depending on how your managers set it up, swaps either complete instantly or wait for a manager's approval — either way, everyone involved gets notified, and nothing changes hands silently.

Chat tab. Search a name, open the conversation, type. There are group channels for the whole team, front of house, back of house, and each position — plus direct messages. Tapping a message notification opens that exact conversation.

Recognition & Rewards. Points add up automatically from the stuff that makes you a good teammate — hours worked, picking up shifts, submitting availability on time, shoutouts from coworkers, quizzes, completed tasks. Top performers get recognized and rewarded monthly, and there's a year-end recognition built from every month along the way. Send a teammate a shoutout from your Home screen — it counts.

The News tab — announcements, the team newsletter, and any active polls or quizzes your managers post. Respond right from the card.

Yes. On your Home/Dashboard, find the Text size card and pick Small, Medium, or Large. It's saved on your device.

Tap your initials/avatar in the top corner to open your info, edit, and save.

Make sure notifications are enabled for ExpoShift in your phone's Settings, that you're signed in, and that you haven't force-quit the app. Still nothing? Tell your manager and email support@exposhift.com.

Team tab → Import. Download the template, fill in one row per person (comma-separate multiple positions, e.g. "Server, Host"), and upload the CSV or Excel file. Review the list, then import. Hiring after that? Managers and owners can add anyone individually, anytime — Team tab → Add Team Member.

Invitation emails. Every person on your roster has an Invite action — it emails them a link, they sign up with that exact email, and they land in your restaurant connected to their own record automatically. No codes to read over the phone, no walking someone through an app store search. When you add a new hire, the app offers to send their invite on the spot.

Build the week in Work → Schedule, then publish. Your team gets a notification that taps straight to their shifts. And the part most tools skip: if a published shift later gets removed, reassigned, or opened up, the person who had it gets told — the schedule never just changes under someone.

Your call, per position group. Set a group to Instant and swaps complete as soon as a teammate accepts or claims — managers are still notified. Set it to Approval required and after the teammate accepts, a scheduling manager signs off before the shift changes hands. Run your servers loose and your kitchen tight, or the other way around.

Your equipment, off the sticky notes. An equipment registry (make, model, serial, warranty, condition), a preventive maintenance schedule built from a pre-loaded template library — hood cleanings, walk-in coils, grease traps, with the code citations where they're compliance-driven — and a service log. New: a preferred service tech contact on every piece of equipment, and owners can give individual managers view or edit access to the equipment list. So when the walk-in dies on a Saturday and the owner's on a plane, the closing manager can pull up the serial number and tap-to-call the repair company instead of guessing.

Anytime. Billing lives on the web: sign in at exposhift.app in any browser → Account → Manage billing & invoices, then click Cancel subscription in the billing portal. (The mobile apps don't include billing controls.) Or email support@exposhift.com from the owner account. See the Billing Terms.