Looking for a work schedule template to use at your supermarket? We get it. Managing labor at a retail grocery store isn’t easy. We’ve got you covered with our pre-built, FREE grocery store schedule template for Excel.
To help you get started, we include step-by-step instructions directly in the template. The only thing you need is Microsoft Excel or another popular spreadsheet program.
What is the grocery store schedule template?
The grocery store schedule template is an employee scheduling template created and edited using Microsoft Excel, a popular spreadsheet program for Windows.
The template can also be used with other popular spreadsheet programs, such as Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, both of which are free.
This means you don’t actually need Excel to use our templates, but you can if you want! It’s great for small businesses with limited staff.
What’s included in the template:
- fill-in-the-blank shift schedule worksheet
- instructions inside the template
- automatic calculator feature
How to use the grocery store schedule template
We made it easy for you by providing a monthly fixed-shift structure with example shifts and instructions inside the spreadsheet.
All you need to do is:
- update the names of your grocery staff, and
- enter the details of each shift.
At the bottom of the spreadsheet, the schedule will automatically track hours for you based on the durations you set. You’ll see this reflected in the “Total Hours Per Week” row.
Why schedule grocery employees using a spreadsheet?
Scheduling is time-consuming, and managers are expensive. Spreadsheet-based work schedule templates are much faster and more organized than trying to build a grocery schedule by hand.
This is why businesses have used spreadsheet templates for years. Many schedule templates, like ours, run in Microsoft Excel or a similar spreadsheet program.
In general, schedule templates require you to input the data and set up the shifts yourself. Then, when you’re done, you print and/or post the finished schedule at your workplace. You can also email it to your employees.
Limitations of spreadsheet templates
While they do make scheduling faster, spreadsheet templates still take time to set up and use.
We did most of the up-front work for you, but if you need to update your grocery store schedule, you’ll have to go back into the template to change the way you’ve assigned shifts. This is just part of using spreadsheets for scheduling. Excel can’t make the changes or assign shifts for you.
What this means is that you’ll probably still be spending hours each week building schedules, though probably not as much as if you wrote them down by hand.
Another limitation of spreadsheet-based grocery store schedules is that they don’t do break and meal period tracking, which are required in some cities and states. They also don’t track time off requests, automatically update with shift swaps, or send you alerts when you’re at risk of overstaffing or understaffing.
In fact, there’s a LOT they can’t do, but a free template is a fair place to start.
Other employee schedule template options for grocery stores
When you’re ready to spend less time making schedules, we recommend TimeForge.
Our AutoScheduler and RoboSchedules tools can automatically create or suggest work schedules for you in seconds. Because they’re stored online, TimeForge schedules can be accessed from anywhere using a mobile phone or one of our labor management mobile apps.
And unlike spreadsheet-based templates, our scheduling software will notify employees when a new schedule is posted. This means your employees will always know exactly when they work.
If that intrigues you, we invite you to learn more about TimeForge employee scheduling. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our free grocery store schedule template!
Monitor your grocery store from anywhere
Creating a good grocery store schedule is only the first step. You’ll also need to make sure employees show up for their shifts on time.
Keeping an eye on the time clock is not a very efficient way to monitor your employees. Although it can cut back on payroll expenses, it also increases frustration and costs among management staff and prevents managers from doing more important things, such as taking care of customers.
TimeForge supports many ways to supervise workers without spending all of your time in front of the time clock, including:
- Employee scheduling online
- Time and attendance that can be viewed and edited online
- Enforcing the schedule with a grace period for clocking in or out
- Reporting exceptions to your clock-in/clock-out rules, such as late punches
- Allowing other employees to act as witnesses during clock-in/clock-out or, better yet, using fingerprints to enforce the schedule and eliminate buddy punching
- Using the mobile app to conveniently check on your labor costs when you’re not at work (including an above-store dashboard for multi-unit grocery businesses)
If you want, TimeForge can automatically notify managers or supervisors when team members show up early or tardy – and when they clock in and out.
For example, TimeForge can notify you by email and text message when workers show up more than 10 minutes before their shift is scheduled to begin.
