What scheduling solution should a retail or restaurant chain choose in 2025?

A little clarity to guide you in your choices

The management of working hours, schedules, shifts and, more generally, the organization of work at the point of sale is one of the biggest challenges facing retail and foodservice chains. Between legal constraints, busy periods, teams' need for flexibility and the realities of the field, finding the right solution is no easy task.

In 2025, several tools will be competing in this fast-changing market. Some are very good for pure HR management, others for time & attendance or payroll. But for a retail or restaurant chain looking to really improve its operational performance, not all solutions are created equal.

What should you really expect from a retail or foodservice time management solution?

Before naming names, let's get down to basics. A good solution must :

• Create and adapt schedules quickly, taking into account contracts, availability, skills and social rules
• Communicate easily with teams, especially from their smartphones
• Reduce time spent on administrative tasks (absences, overtime, payroll exports)
• And above all: to support the operational activity of the store or restaurant, by helping teams to organize themselves more effectively.
• Guarantee legal compliance on hours worked, rest periods, public holidays, overtime, and hourly and annual adjustments

If, in addition, the tool can be used to structure the tasks to be carried out in store, to manage field objectives, or to train teams without taking them out of the flow, then we're no longer simply talking about a "planning tool". We're talking about a real performance lever.

An overview of the best-known solutions

• Skello: a very popular solution for managing schedules and tracking hours. The interface is clear, the user experience well thought-out, and implementation fast. It's well suited to growing brands or medium-sized structures. However, Skello remains focused on scheduling and payroll exports, with no integrated tools for training or managing field operations. As the network grows, its limitations may become apparent.
• Combo (ex-Snapshift): particularly popular in the foodservice sector, Combo is quick and easy to use. It's a good choice for small businesses or freelancers. It manages schedules, vacations and absences, and features an intuitive mobile application. But here too, it lacks strategic building blocks: no assignment management, no training component, and functional coverage too limited to structure a genuine multi-site network.
• Factorial, Lucca, Personio: these HR solutions are very comprehensive for administrative management (employee files, onboarding, leave, etc.), and integrate well with payroll tools. They are often chosen by head offices or central HR departments. On the other hand, they are not very field-oriented: difficult for a store manager to find his way around, little flexibility in managing time schedules, and ergonomics that are often more "office" than "store".
• Kelio (ex-Bodet): historically focused on industry and time & attendance, Kelio is very robust for companies with high time & attendance control requirements. However, its highly technical approach, based on physical hardware (badge readers, terminals), and its complexity of configuration, make it ill-suited to the dynamism of modern retail. Little flexibility, few tools to energize field management.

And then there's Beam.

Beam: much more than a scheduling tool

Beam is a French solution designed specifically for point-of-sale networks. Its ambition? To enable retail and foodservice chains to achieve operational excellence.

Here's everything Beam has to offer, all in one interface:

• Intuitive schedule creation with legal alerts and real-time view of availability
• Smart badging via cell phone, computer or tablet, for seamless, frictionless tracking
• Automated hour counters, to track overtime, public holidays, night shifts and associated time-off.
• Annual time modulation and time bank management, in compliance with labor law
• Management of tasks and missions, to operationalize instructions from head office to the store
• Embedded microlearning, for continuous training of teams directly from the application
• Fluid, collaborative mobile app, usable by all levels of the company

Unlike other solutions, which require a multiplicity of tools (Yoobic or Simplifield for tasks, Skello for planning, another platform for training), Beam brings everything together in a single, coherent environment.

So which solution should you choose?

The answer is simple: it depends on your ambition.

• If you're just looking to make schedules quickly, tools like Skello or Combo will do the job.
• If you're aiming for an overall improvement in point-of-sale organization, and want to increase consistency, productivity and team commitment, then Beam is the solution for you.

Beam doesn't just replace an Excel file. It brings you a complete platform with complementary modules, and changes the way your teams work on a daily basis.
And it simplifies your daily life, by eliminating the need for a Whasapp-type messaging app, which saturates us, isn't secure, and isn't designed to solve work organization issues.

The best way to find out? Try it out.

Try Beam for free and see how your network can go from strength to strength.

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