# e2n — Employee Scheduling

e2n by E2N GmbH holds a panel rating of 2.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2.5/5), as of 2026-10-15. Provenance: EU-Made; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: E2N GmbH (https://e2n.de)
- Category: [Employee Scheduling](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): EU-Made
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/e2n
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/e2n/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/e2n/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-21 · evaluated 2026-10-15 · oldest source captured 2026-10-13

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: E2N GmbH
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026

## The panel's verdict

e2n is employee scheduling, time recording and payroll preparation from E2N GmbH of Würzburg, built for German hospitality. Its strongest area is payroll and integrations, which scored a uniform 7: the handoffs to DATEV Lohn&Gehalt and zeit-lohn.net are documented in depth, with a month-end lock that checks conflicts and blocks later corrections, wage types mapped per surcharge including tax-free portions, and advances, short-time work and cost centres handled. Staff self-service follows at 5-6, roster planning at 4-5, and working time rules at 4-6 — the payroll officer credits the tariff-grade surcharge engine more than colleagues do — while we found no public information on rest periods, daily-hour caps or Minijob limits. The weakest scores are codetermination and privacy at 2-3 and sovereignty at 1-2, where the sovereignty attributes on record mark legal jurisdiction, ownership, data residency and subprocessor exposure as unknown. The flagged splits came back empty, and no prices appear on the captured pages.

**Speaks for it:**
- Payroll handoff to two named destinations — DATEV Lohn&Gehalt and zeit-lohn.net — with wage types mapped per surcharge including tax-free and taxable portions.
- The month-end lock checks for conflicts, blocks later corrections, and keeps every export file in a history.
- Collective-agreement surcharges for night, Sunday and holiday work are modelled with configurable surcharge groups, a per-account Tarifvertrag and a test view showing time in surcharge and amount.
- One app — e2n me — carries the roster, the working-time account, absence requests, swap requests and open-shift claiming, with swaps configurable to resolve first-come-first-serve without a manager.

**Held against it:**
- Swap matching surfaces only colleagues with no shift and no absence — we found no public information on qualification or rest checks before a takeover.
- We found no public information on working-time-law checks such as the eleven-hour rest period, daily-hour caps, breaks or Minijob earnings limits.
- Assigning staff stays with the planner, the target revenue is typed in by hand, and we found no public information on automatic roster proposals or a POS feed.
- The sovereignty attributes on record mark legal jurisdiction, ownership, data residency and subprocessor exposure as unknown, and we found no public information on a data-processing agreement.
- We found no public information on retention, audit logs, visibility of absence reasons or documentation a works council could build on.

**Best for:**
- You run German hospitality shifts and hand payroll to DATEV Lohn&Gehalt or zeit-lohn.net.
- Your staff need to swap shifts and claim open shifts from their phones, with swaps allowed to run first-come-first-serve without a manager.
- You pay collective-agreement night, Sunday and holiday surcharges that must map to wage types split into tax-free and taxable portions.
- You want template-based planning in which your planner sets the target revenue and assigns the staff.

**Avoid if:**
- You must correct working times after the month has been closed — the month-end lock blocks later corrections.
- You need qualification or rest checks before a shift swap — matching only shows colleagues with no shift and no absence.
- You expect the system to propose rosters or forecast demand from POS or booking data — the documented workflow leaves assigning to the planner.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price.

| Criterion | The Shift Manager | The Operations Director | The Payroll Officer | The Works Council Advocate | The Frontline Employee | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Roster building & demand planning | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Working-time law & collective agreements | 2/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Mobile self-service for deskless staff | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 |
| Works council & employee data | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Payroll handoff & integrations | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 1/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 |
| Pricing transparency | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| **Weighted verdict** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2/5** | **2/5** | **2/5** |

### The judges

- **The Shift Manager** (v1.0): Builds next week's roster for a restaurant or store on Thursday night and fields the sick calls on Saturday morning. Wants templates, qualifications that stop the wrong person landing on the till, open shifts staff can claim, and a rest period warning before publication rather than after the inspection.
- **The Operations Director** (v1.0): Answers for labour cost across thirty locations in retail, hospitality or care. Wants demand-based planning from real POS or occupancy data, labour cost against budget while the plan is still editable, and staff shared across sites. Reads "AI-powered scheduling" as a request to see the method.
- **The Payroll Officer** (v1.0): Turns the worked month into DATEV and answers for every surcharge. Cares about night, Sunday and holiday supplements from the Tarifvertrag, Minijob limits caught before the month closes, and corrections after the close. Treats "CSV export" as an admission that the handoff was never designed.
- **The Works Council Advocate** (v1.0): Co-determines how hours and overtime are distributed and how staff are monitored (BetrVG §87), and will not sign a works agreement for a system that watches more than it plans. Asks who sees absence reasons, what the app stores about location, what is logged and when it is deleted. Reads "performance insights" as a warning.
- **The Frontline Employee** (v1.0): Works part-time shifts next to a second job or a degree and never opens a laptop at work. Judges the product by its phone app: can she mark availability, swap a shift without three calls, see her hours, and read it in her own language. A roster she learns about from a photo in a group chat has failed.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): 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.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Ownership | Not determined | — | — |
| Data residency | Not determined | — | — |
| Subprocessors | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Integrations**
- Absence codes: k · s · u · e · i · l · m · o · z [S8]
- Datev export file: zip · txt [S7]
- Datev export history: yes [S7]
- Datev export runs: alle · 1. Lohnlauf · 2. Lohnlauf [S7]
- Datev interface: Verwaltung > Schnittstellen > Lohnabrechnung · DATEV Lohn&Gehalt · yes [S7]
- Datev master data import: Personalfragebogen-Export als Textdatei (z.B. ANF_LUG...0001.txt), Import in DATEV über Extras > Stammdatenimport · yes [S7]
- Datev monthly lock: Monatsabschluss per Schloss-Schaltfläche, prüft auf Konflikte und verhindert nachträgliche Korrekturen [S7]
- Export location: Export nach zeit-lohn.net · >Abrechnung [S8]
- Zeit lohn export: payroll export · zeit-lohn.net (Lohn AG) · yes [S8]

**Legal**
- Entity: E2N GmbH [S1]
- Entity: E2N GmbH [S2]
- Entity: E2N GmbH [S3]
- Entity: E2N GmbH [S6]
- Entity: 2026 · E2N GmbH [S5]
- Entity: E2N GmbH [S8]
- Entity: E2N GmbH [S7]

**Product**
- Absence export keys: Urlaubstag U · Krankheitstag K · Schultag SZ · Kurzarbeit KU · Quarantäne mit LFZ QA · Quarantäne ohne LFZ QU · Unbezahlter Urlaubstag UU · Krankes Kind PE · Krank im Frei K · Krankengeld K6 · Kur RH · Feiertagsausgleich F · Sonderurlaub S… [S7]
- Absence requests: Employees can submit absence requests directly in the app and view list of past requests [S5]
- Advances export: yes [S7]
- Automatic break assumption: Mitte der Arbeitszeit [S8]
- Break splitting: unterschiedliche Pausensysteme · Arbeitszeiten mit Pausen werden gesplittet [S8]
- Bulk invitations: Bulk sending of all invitation emails possible via clicking the table header; individual per-row invitations also possible [S5]
- Cost center export: Export nach Kostenstelle je Arbeitsbereich; Abwesenheiten auf Stammkostenstelle; Sollstunden-Abrechnung für Gehaltsempfänger möglich [S7]
- Employee assignment: Surcharge groups assignable in employee billing settings [S3]
- Export contents: Arbeitszeiten · Urlaub · Krankheit · Schultag [S8]
- Export filtered: Export/download schedules filtered by employees or work areas, as Excel file [S1]
- Export format: Exported schedule is an Excel file, printable [S1]
- Export scope month: alle Arbeitszeiten des ausgewählten Monats [S8]
- Hourly surcharge: yes [S7]
- Invitation expiry: Invitation emails expire for security reasons if not registered promptly; resend possible [S5]
- Me app single app: Employees need only the e2n me App; perso features reachable via lower menu bar [S5]
- Me home features: Mein Tag · Mein Kalender · Arbeitszeiten · Abwesenheiten [S5]
- Night surcharge lead time: Night surcharges can require a lead time [S3]
- Open shifts feed: Open shifts are shown to available employees as newsfeed and in the schedule [S6]
- Payroll export wage types required: Correct payroll export requires assigning tax-free and taxable portions to wage types per surcharge [S3]
- Personnel number requirement: korrekte Personalnummer je Mitarbeitenden erforderlich [S8]
- Release to esso: Release schedule to e2n perso via toolbar icon [S1]
- Shift creation options: weekday · work area · shift name · duration and breaks · number of assigned employees · note [S1]
- Shift scheduling workflow: create shifts · assign staff · release schedule · export schedule [S1]
- Shift swap approval mode: yes [S6]
- Shift swap colleague matching: App shows which colleagues without shifts or absences could take over the shift [S6]
- Shift swap requests: Employees can request shift swaps or take over open shifts in the perso app [S6]
- Shift takeover notifications: Users receive a notification when their shift is taken over [S6]
- Shift templates revenue based: yes · revenue-based shift/duty plan templates [S2]
- Short time work export: Kurzarbeit (Std.) · Krank in Kurzarbeit (Std.) · Kurzarbeit (Tage) · Krank in Kurzarbeit (Tage) · yes [S7]
- Surcharge definition fields: Surcharge definition requires name, tax-free/taxable percentage, wage types, period, weekdays [S3]
- Surcharge groups categories: Surcharge group surcharges grouped into night, weekday and public-holiday surcharges [S3]
- Surcharge modes: Three surcharge calculation modes: none, Standard, surcharge groups [S3]
- Surcharge settings path: Surcharge rules managed under Benutzer > Einstellungen > Abrechnung > Zuschläge [S3]
- Surcharge test view: In-app test view shows surcharge, wage type (tax-free/taxable), percentage, time in surcharge, amount [S3]
- Surcharge types: yes · Nacht1 · Nacht2 · Sonntag · Feiertag1 · Feiertag2 [S7]
- Tarifvertrag admin permission: Storing a Tarifvertrag for an account requires the Administrator permission [S4]
- Tarifvertrag settings path: Tarifvertrag is selected under Benutzer > Verwaltung > Mandant > Abrechnung via dropdown [S4]
- Tarifvertrag support: Collective agreements (Tarifverträge) can be stored per account for calculating surcharges on recorded working times [S4]
- Template creation fields: name · target_revenue · allowed_weekdays [S2]
- Template edit after insert: yes [S2]
- Template insert daily: insert template per day via day plan options [S2]
- Template shift creation: create shifts within a template, sorted by work area incl. day change [S2]
- Templates permission: Vorlagen bearbeiten · yes [S2]
- Time account cap export: Gedeckelte Auszahlungsbeträge aus Arbeitszeitkonten exportierbar; Cent-Abweichungen durch Rundung in DATEV möglich [S7]
- Visibility indicator: Calendar icon green when all shifts visible in e2n perso, red when employees cannot yet see newly created or changed shifts [S1]
- Wage types suggested: e2n schlägt Lohnartennummern vor, änderbar, Lohnbüro maßgeblich [S7]
- Worktime account features: Working time account shows Kontostand, Erwartetes +/- forecast, Vorausschau, Übersicht and Verlauf with stamp history and breaks [S5]

## Questions

### Is e2n European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies e2n as EU-Made.

### Where does e2n store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### Does e2n have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to e2n?

As of 21 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Bizimply (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/bizimply), [gastromatic (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/gastromatic) and [Shiftbase (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/shiftbase) highest among the other 25 Employee Scheduling products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [gastromatic](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/gastromatic) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [e2n alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/e2n/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- We found no public information on pricing on the pages we read (hilfe.e2n.de/dienstplan-schreiben, hilfe.e2n.de/schichtvorlagen-umsatzgest%C3%BCtzt, hilfe.e2n.de/zuschlagseinstellungen, hilfe.e2n.de/tarifvertrag-einstellen, hilfe.e2n.de/e2n-me-app, hilfe.e2n.de/e2n-perso-schichten-tauschen and 2 more). If the vendor publishes it somewhere else, send us the page.
- We found no public information on compliance on the pages we read (hilfe.e2n.de/dienstplan-schreiben, hilfe.e2n.de/schichtvorlagen-umsatzgest%C3%BCtzt, hilfe.e2n.de/zuschlagseinstellungen, hilfe.e2n.de/tarifvertrag-einstellen, hilfe.e2n.de/e2n-me-app, hilfe.e2n.de/e2n-perso-schichten-tauschen and 2 more). If the vendor publishes it somewhere else, send us the page.
- 8 support facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 6 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Roster building & demand planning — found from sitemap: https://hilfe.e2n.de/dienstplan-schreiben (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Roster building & demand planning — found from sitemap: https://hilfe.e2n.de/schichtvorlagen-umsatzgest%C3%BCtzt (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S3] Working-time law & collective agreements — found from sitemap: https://hilfe.e2n.de/zuschlagseinstellungen (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Working-time law & collective agreements — found from sitemap: https://hilfe.e2n.de/tarifvertrag-einstellen (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S5] Mobile self-service for deskless staff — found from sitemap: https://hilfe.e2n.de/e2n-me-app (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S6] Mobile self-service for deskless staff — found from sitemap: https://hilfe.e2n.de/e2n-perso-schichten-tauschen (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S7] Payroll handoff & integrations — found from sitemap: https://hilfe.e2n.de/export-zu-datev-lohngehalt (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S8] Payroll handoff & integrations — found from sitemap: https://hilfe.e2n.de/lohn-ag-zeit-lohn.net (checked 2026-10-13)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "e2n — Employee Scheduling", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-21. https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-scheduling/e2n

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/418?target=page