Workforce.com’s Predictive Scheduling tools can help businesses:
Keep labor costs and compliance risk low
Meet staffing requirements without overstaffing
Assign employees to the shifts they prefer
Spend less time building schedules and more time with employees and customers
Predictive Scheduling does three main things: it forecasts your ideal headcount, automatically builds and assigns schedules to match that forecast, and shows managers exactly where they're over- or under-staffed.
This guide walks through five steps to get set up:
Step 1: Set Up Recommended Headcount Projections
Workforce.com calculates your ideal headcount using Schedule Ratios - a productivity ratio that ties demand directly to staffing (for example, "$150 in sales per hour requires 2 employees").
This method works best when:
There's a clear, direct relationship between a demand signal (like sales) and staffing needs
No other major factors affect that relationship
There's no lag between demand and staffing (e.g., prep time needed before a rush)
To turn this on, you'll need:
Your input data (e.g., sales, transactions) imported into your account
Schedule Ratios entered for each team
The related account settings configured
Step 2: Set Your Business Hours
Every location in Workforce.com has a Business Hours field. This should cover the full span of time your store operates and any hours employees might be scheduled to work, including opening prep or closing cleanup.
Correct business hours are essential for Predictive Scheduling to work properly. If you're unsure what to set, use the default: 4:00 AM – 4:00 AM.
To update this: Go to Workforce > Team > Edit Location.
Step 3: Navigate the Scheduling Views
Once Steps 1 and 2 are complete, you'll see recommended headcounts directly on the Schedule screen.
Weekly View
Shows recommended vs. scheduled hours underneath each date. For example, a difference of "+0.25" means you're likely overscheduled by a quarter of an hour that day.
Day View
Offers two display options:
Table view — for each team, shows projected demand (like sales), the recommended staffing plan, and actual staffing numbers.
🔵 Blue cells = overscheduled
🔴 Red cells = understaffed
Graph view — shows the same data as the table view, in chart form.
Step 4: Review and Edit Your Forecast
If you have data streams connected (like sales, orders, or transactions), you can view and adjust these forecasts in the Predicted Demand window. Any edits you make here directly update the recommended headcount for that team.
Example: If you think next Friday's sales forecast and therefore the recommended staffing level is 18% too high, you can correct it by editing the demand projection directly. The headcount recommendation will update automatically.
Step 5: Automatically Build and Assign Shifts
Once your forecast and headcount look right, you're ready to build the actual schedule.
If you're viewing an empty schedule: you'll see a one-click option to build and fill the entire schedule at once. This builds up to two weeks of shifts in one go.
After building, you can fully or partially revert the schedule if you need to start over.
If you're viewing a partially completed schedule, or a non-weekly view: use the build/fill buttons on the left-hand tab of the Schedule screen instead.
Quick Recap
Predictive Scheduling builds optimal schedules automatically, factoring in demand, weather, and holidays.
Getting business hours right (or using the 4:00 AM–4:00 AM default) is essential for the feature to work.
You can manually edit demand forecasts, which updates headcount recommendations.
After a schedule is built, you can revert it or fine-tune it manually.