Available doesn't mean preferred.
Knowing someone can work Tuesday does not tell you whether Tuesday is the day they want. Puppy keeps the two apart, because they are different instructions.
Unavailable
I can't work this.
Available
I can work this.
Preferred
Of the things I can work, I'd rather work this.
Coverage
What the business needs, hour by hour.
Tell Puppy what has to be true.
Start with the hard requirements: operating hours, roles, locations, staffing. If your business runs fixed shifts, create fixed shifts. If what you actually know is “I need four people here between 11 and 2”, use a cover window and say it directly. You describe the operation; Puppy gets something more useful than a pile of empty boxes.
Let employees say more than yes or no.
Availability sets the boundary. Preference helps Puppy choose inside it. Your team can give both, plus the hours they are looking for, where they are flexible, when they need time off, and a limited number of Super Picks for the times that genuinely matter. “I cannot work Friday” and “I can work Friday, but Wednesday is much better” are not the same instruction, and Puppy keeps them separate.
Then Puppy builds the week between them.
Not one empty shift at a time — the whole week together: coverage, availability, preferences, target hours, roles, time off and the limits you have set. Out comes a complete draft. Move someone, change an assignment, override a decision, rebuild, or publish it exactly as Puppy built it. Nothing goes out until you say so.
Next week isn't a blank slate.
Your business did not forget how it operates because Monday arrived. Opening hours are still opening hours. Roles still exist. Most people still want roughly what they wanted last week.
For employees
Same as last week? Your usual preferences are already there. Keep them, or make changes. If nothing changed, they are done.
For managers
Your regular staffing needs, team, roles, and scheduling setup stay in place too. Adjust the exceptions, approve time off, review what has changed, and build the next schedule.
So Puppy keeps what repeats. Change what changed, and build again — a weekly scheduler should not suffer weekly amnesia.
What your team sees
A link and a PIN — no app to install, no account to create, no password to forget. They tap their name, type six digits, and say when they can work and when they would like to. Anyone whose PIN was issued by a manager has to choose their own before they can reach anything else.
What you see
Coverage, gaps, hours rostered, and how well the week matched what people asked for. Wages stay hidden until someone deliberately unlocks them, so the schedule can be open on a screen behind the counter without putting everybody's pay on display.
Questions people ask first
What does Puppy Shifts do?
Puppy helps hourly managers build schedules using both the staffing requirements of the business and the preferences of the people working there. Managers tell Puppy when coverage is needed, how many employees are required, and which scheduling rules apply. Employees tell Puppy when they can work, when they would prefer to work, and how many hours they would like. Puppy works through both sides and builds a schedule for the manager to review.
Isn't that what scheduling software already does?
Parts of it, yes — Puppy did not invent calendars, availability or automated scheduling. The difference is what Puppy treats as first-class scheduling information. Preference stays distinct from availability. A business can describe staffing as coverage rather than only as predefined shifts. Recurring information persists from week to week. Puppy is designed around the decision that produces the schedule, not only the calendar that displays it.
What's the difference between availability and preference?
Unavailable: I cannot work this. Available: I can work this. Preferred: of the things I can work, I would rather work this. Those are three different pieces of information, and Puppy treats them that way — availability is a hard rule, preference is what it weighs when a real choice exists.
Does Puppy use AI?
Puppy uses software to solve the scheduling problem you give it. We would rather explain what the system considers than put “AI” in front of every feature. The useful part is straightforward: give Puppy the business requirements and the employee information, and it produces a schedule for you to review.
What are target hours?
Roughly how much somebody would like to work. A person looking for 35 hours and a person looking for 12 do not want the same scheduling outcome, even when both are technically available for the same shifts. Puppy treats a stated number as a ceiling rather than a hope, unless they tick the box saying they can go over it.
Do I have to say how many people each shift needs?
You choose. Puppy can work from cover windows — how many people you want on at once between two times, with Puppy deciding which mix of shifts delivers it — or from a headcount per shift per day, the way most schedulers do it. Windows are fairer when long and short shifts overlap, because per-shift ranking makes somebody who wants one eight-hour day spend two picks and compete twice. Per shift is simpler to explain. One is in use at a time and switching keeps both sets of settings.
What if a shift nobody wants still has to be covered?
Put extra pay on it, for that day only — either a one-off amount for taking the shift, or a percentage on top of each person’s own rate. Puppy shows the offer on the shift when your team picks, so it changes what people ask for rather than what the schedule forces on them, and it follows the shift through to payroll, so the cost you were shown is the cost you pay.
Can employees invent their own hours?
No, in either model. You define the shifts your business runs; employees say which of them they would like and when they can work. Cover windows change how you state what you need, not who decides what a shift is.
Do employees have to submit everything again every week?
No. Their existing preferences carry forward. If nothing changed, they keep them. If something did, they update what changed.
Do managers have to rebuild normal coverage every week?
No. Your normal operating setup carries forward too. The weekly workflow is designed around exceptions and changes rather than repeatedly recreating information Puppy already knows.
What is a Super Pick?
A limited way for an employee to tell Puppy "this preference matters more than usual". Because Super Picks are limited, they are a stronger signal than a normal preference.
Does everyone get exactly what they want?
No. Sometimes several employees want the same hours, and sometimes business coverage requires a different outcome. Puppy does not eliminate scheduling tradeoffs. It gives the scheduling process better information with which to resolve them.
Does Puppy guarantee a fair schedule?
No. Fairness can mean different things in different workplaces. Puppy gives managers visibility into preferences, desired hours, assignment patterns and scheduling history so they can make better-informed decisions.
Does Puppy replace the manager?
No. Puppy builds, the manager approves. Managers can review the result, make changes, override assignments, rebuild, or make exceptions before publishing.
Can employees request time off?
Yes. Approved time off is treated as a scheduling constraint.
Can employees swap shifts?
Yes, where enabled. Puppy supports employee swaps while continuing to enforce the scheduling rules that applied when the shift was created.
Can I control staffing levels at different times of day?
Yes. Managers can say when coverage is needed and set minimum and maximum staffing levels for those periods.
Can employees choose how much they want to work?
Employees can state desired hours as part of their preferences. Managers separately set the rules and limits the business needs.
Can different periods require specific roles?
Yes. Where role requirements are configured, Puppy considers the qualifications needed for coverage rather than treating every employee as interchangeable.
What happens if nothing changed this week?
That's the easy week. Employees keep their existing preferences, managers reuse their normal staffing requirements, and Puppy starts with what it already knows.
Can employees add their shifts to their phone calendar?
Yes. Employees can subscribe their personal calendar to their published shifts, so a swapped shift updates itself instead of being re-entered.
What if I have multiple locations?
Multi-Location and Full Puppy support several locations and employees who work between them. A shared employee is still one person: if they are working at one site, the other needs to know, and Puppy treats their commitments as part of the same scheduling problem.
Is this payroll?
It is the input to payroll: hours, rates and gross pay, with overtime worked out per week. It does not calculate tax or produce payslips, and it does not file anything with anybody.
Can we get our data out?
Yes, whenever you like: the schedule, timesheets, payroll and sales against labour, all as spreadsheet files, plus your whole account in one file.
Can people see each other’s pay?
Nobody sees pay unless they ask for it, and only a manager can. Wages are hidden by default so the schedule can be open on a screen behind the counter.
What happens when somebody leaves?
You take them off the roster and they stop being scheduled and cannot sign in. If they ask to be erased you can do that too — their name goes from everywhere, including the shifts they worked, while the hours and cost stay so last year's payroll still reconciles.
Does everyone need an app?
No. Your team gets a link and a six-digit PIN, and it works in whatever browser is already on their phone. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.
Do you charge per employee?
No. Your whole team is included on every plan, because the product works better when everybody takes part — hiring somebody should not turn into another purchasing decision.
Why is it called Puppy Shifts?
Because scheduling software does not have to sound like it was named by an enterprise procurement committee.
You already have most of the information needed to build next week.
It is in texts, conversations, notes and memory, and every week somebody has to turn all of it into one schedule. Puppy gives it somewhere useful to go.
From $12 a month billed yearly, or $19 monthly. Your whole team included.