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Employee Scheduling

7shifts

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: 2 of 4 dimensions proven

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by 7shifts Inc. · www.7shifts.com

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Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Has read a great many pages saying the product "supports" the Arbeitszeitgesetz and wants to know whether it blocks a violation, warns about it, or merely exports it. Reads for which tier the time clock and the DATEV export sit in, how seasonal staff are counted per employee, and what the forecasting "AI" actually uses as input.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Roster building & demand planning

How this is scored

How a plan gets built across locations, roles and qualifications — templates, staffing requirements, forecasting from sales or occupancy, and whether the product proposes a roster or only draws one.

0 — A shared calendar of shifts; no templates, no roles or qualifications, and no notion of how many people a shift needs.

3 — Shift templates and a weekly grid per location, with roles attached, but staffing needs and qualifications are the planner's memory rather than the system's.

5 — Templates, roles and qualifications, staffing requirements per shift, open shifts, multiple locations and departments, and coverage gaps shown before publication.

8 — Demand-based planning from a named data source (POS revenue, footfall, occupancy or bookings), automatic roster proposals the planner can accept or adjust, labour cost shown against budget while planning, and cross-location staff sharing.

10 — Planning closes the loop: forecast, proposed roster and actual hours compared in one place, the proposal explains which rule or demand figure drove each assignment, and the vendor documents the forecasting method rather than calling it AI.

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The Skeptic

Sales-driven forecasting from POS data is real and the input is named, roles and departments survive into a reusable template built from an uploaded schedule, and open shifts exist through the Shift Pool. But the advanced hourly forecast and labor recommendations are Premium bullets with no description of an automatic roster proposal the planner accepts or adjusts, and I found no public information on qualifications, staffing requirements per shift, coverage gaps before publication, or cross-location staff sharing. 1 2 5 6

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Working-time law & collective agreements

How this is scored

Whether the roster knows the rules it is subject to — ArbZG rest periods and maximum hours, youth and maternity protection, Minijob earnings limits, Tarifvertrag and works-agreement rules, surcharges — and whether it enforces them, warns, or leaves them to the export.

0 — No working-time rules described anywhere; the pages mention no check on daily hours, breaks or rest periods.

3 — Compliance is claimed as "supported" but the pages name no specific rule, or only a generic overtime warning exists.

5 — Named checks for the ArbZG daily maximum, the 11-hour rest period and breaks, plus a Minijob earnings warning, shown to the planner before publication; whether the check blocks or only warns is stated.

8 — Configurable rule sets per contract or employee group covering Tarifvertrag surcharges (night, Sunday, holiday), time accounts, youth-protection limits and works-agreement rules, with the planner's override of a violation recorded and reasoned.

10 — The rules are modelled as law, not as warnings: maintained rule sets for named collective agreements, sector-specific exceptions (care, hospitality) documented with the statute they rely on, every override attributable, and published guidance mapping each feature to the provision it serves.

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The Skeptic

What the pages call built-in labor compliance is a real-time alert when staff approach overtime or need a mandatory break — a generic warning, not a rule set. I found no public information naming the German daily maximum, the eleven-hour rest period, youth or maternity protection, Minijob earnings limits, or any collective-agreement surcharge, and nothing says whether anything blocks a violation rather than alerting after the fact. 1 5 6

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Mobile self-service for deskless staff

How this is scored

What the employee on the shop floor actually gets: a mobile app to read the roster, enter availability, request and accept swaps, claim open shifts and clock in — in their language, on their own device or a shared one.

0 — No employee access; the roster is printed or sent as a PDF.

3 — A read-only app or web view of one's own shifts, with changes still requested by phone or chat.

5 — Mobile app with availability entry, absence requests, shift-swap requests with manager approval, open-shift claiming and push notification of changes.

8 — Swaps and open shifts resolved under the rule set (qualifications and rest periods checked before approval), clock-in by app or shared terminal with offline handling, multilingual interface, and team communication that keeps shift talk out of private messengers.

10 — Self-service is designed for people who never open a laptop: swap and cover flows that resolve without a manager where the rules allow, accessibility and language coverage stated, use on a shared or personal device both supported, and employees able to see and export the data held about them.

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The Skeptic

The employee app covers availability, time-off requests, swap offers with manager approval, open-shift bidding, push of changes, in-app chat with read receipts and estimated earnings, and time clocking is in the free plan so the deskless worker is clearly the design centre. Nothing shows swaps or open shifts being checked against qualifications or rest periods before approval, and I found no public information on offline clock-in handling, shared terminals, or language coverage. 1 4 5 6

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Works council & employee data

How this is scored

Whether the product can be introduced under co-determination (BetrVG § 87) — role-based visibility, what is logged, which monitoring can be switched off, retention of availability, absence and location data — and whether the vendor supplies what a works agreement needs.

0 — No roles or visibility settings described, no statement of what is stored, logged or retained, and GPS or activity tracking presented without any mention of switching it off.

3 — Basic admin and employee roles exist, but visibility of absence reasons or location data is not configurable and retention is unstated.

5 — Configurable roles limiting who sees whose data, GPS and similar tracking optional and off by default or stated as switchable, a published DPA, and a retention or deletion statement for employee records.

8 — Fine-grained visibility (absence reasons hidden from colleagues and line managers where not needed), an audit log of who viewed and changed an individual's data, configurable deletion periods, and documentation the vendor offers for works-council approval.

10 — Data minimisation is designed in and evidenced: a model works agreement or feature-by-feature data inventory published, no performance or behaviour scoring of individuals, monitoring functions individually deactivatable, and deletion executed automatically per configured period.

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The Skeptic

A DPA is published, deletion or anonymisation after the retention purpose ends is stated, and access is restricted on a need-to-know basis — but that is a policy sentence, not configurable role visibility in the product. No audit log, no configurable deletion periods and no works-council documentation appear; instead the paid plans advertise employee performance management and attendance insights, and the terms put notifying 7shifts about EEA/UK personal data on the customer. 1 3 4 5

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Payroll handoff & integrations

How this is scored

How planned and worked hours, surcharges and absences reach payroll — DATEV, Lohn und Gehalt, the tax adviser — and how the roster connects to the POS, HR and time systems a shift business already runs.

0 — No payroll path and no integrations; the month leaves as a spreadsheet someone retypes.

3 — Generic CSV export said to suit payroll, with no named payroll system and no surcharge handling.

5 — A named payroll integration or documented export (e.g. DATEV Lohn und Gehalt or LODAS) covering hours, absences and surcharges, plus at least one named POS or HR integration.

8 — Vendor-maintained payroll integrations with a lock step before transmission, wage types mapped per surcharge, POS integrations feeding forecasting, an HR master-data sync, and a documented API.

10 — Payroll is designed for, not exported to: several named payroll systems maintained, retro corrections after the close handled, the tax adviser given scoped access, and a versioned public API with webhooks and a deprecation policy.

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The Skeptic

The roster ties into the POS, forecasting feeds from POS data, and API terms are published, but the only named payroll thing is 7shifts' own US-only payroll processing at $6 per month/employee paid plus $39.99 per month/location — Clover and ADP appear only as billing marketplaces. I found no public information on a German payroll handoff: no DATEV or Lohn und Gehalt export, no wage types mapped to surcharges, no lock step and no tax-adviser access. 1 2 4 5

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Where the employee data lives, who the contracting entity is, who the subprocessors are, and whether that is documented rather than assumed. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; weighted seriously here, because a scheduling tool holds availability, absence and often location data about employees who had no say in the vendor.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting region unstated or non-EU, subprocessors not named.

3 — EU hosting offered as an option or claimed without a provider, while the contracting entity is non-EU or the subprocessor list is absent.

5 — EU hosting as standard and an EU contracting entity, but the subprocessor chain (messaging, push notification, analytics, support) includes non-EU providers without an explained safeguard.

8 — EU or DACH hosting with a named data-centre provider, EU contracting entity, full subprocessor list published, and any non-EU processing — push notification services included — named with its legal basis.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: vendor, entity, hosting and every subprocessor in the EU, certification published, and a DPA that covers the employee data the app collects on personal devices.

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The Skeptic

Primary storage is in the United States with encrypted backups in Canada, the contracting entities are a Canadian and a US corporation, and subprocessors are published by type and jurisdiction rather than name, with SMS, push, email and payment providers in the USA. No EU hosting option appears anywhere, and the DPA leaves notifying 7shifts about EEA/UK personal data to the customer. 3 4

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual invoice for their headcount and locations — including the time clock, payroll export, forecasting and other modules sold as add-ons — from public pages alone.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A per-employee headline exists, but which features sit in which tier, the add-on modules, or a minimum seat or location count are unpriced or unmentioned.

5 — Per-employee or per-location prices public for the main tiers with the billing period stated, but at least one commonly needed piece (time clock, payroll export, forecasting, terminal hardware) is an unpriced add-on.

8 — Every tier and add-on priced publicly with the per-employee maths, how inactive or seasonal staff are counted, minimum term and VAT treatment stated; only genuinely custom work lacks a number.

10 — Complete price computability: a calculator or table producing the annual invoice for a given headcount, location count and module selection, including hardware, onboarding and renewal terms.

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The Skeptic

Every tier carries an exact per-month-per-location price with its employee cap, the add-ons are individually priced, and billing periods, the ten-percent annual discount, automatic renewal and the exclusion of taxes are all public, with the time clock even in the free plan. What a buyer still cannot compute: how inactive or seasonal staff count toward the employee caps, what the time-clock terminal hardware costs, and the end terms of the limited-time three months of payroll free. 2 4 5

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European sovereignty — proven facts

2 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency US by default ⚠ unverified 0/3 pts 3 Report an error
Subprocessors US CLOUD Act reach ⚠ unverified 0/2 pts 3 Report an error

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (6)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage www.7shifts.com Checked 22 Sep 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Pricing page www.7shifts.com Checked 22 Sep 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Privacy policy www.7shifts.com Checked 22 Sep 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Terms of service www.7shifts.com Checked 30 Sep 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Roster building & demand planning — found from sitemap www.7shifts.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Mobile self-service for deskless staff — found from sitemap www.7shifts.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →